WELL… Grrr… A morning thunderstormknocked my high speed Internet service this
morning. And the service is being sketchy about when the Internet will be
restored.
AND SO, I’m stock using my snail-slow Android Phone hotspot
which annoyingly sometimes boots me off.
Essentially the theme is that the Left (as in
Dem-Marxists and fellow traveler atheists) screams ‘Christian
Nationalist White Supremacist Neo-Nazi’ whenever Christians point to a
lack of Biblical morality in culture and government. The screaming of course is
to silence Christian dissent to the agenda of a cultural fundamental transformation
of the American founding principles and way of life.
See what you think…
JRH
4/29/25 [Typically I make Substack primary designation but it is having
Network Issues at posting time.]
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Are there any real and credible statistics supporting a
menacing movement by Christians seeking to theocratize America with
neo-Naziism?
The public
square has never been theologically or morally neutral. Therefore, the church
must and will continue to heed its divine obligation to publicly speak the holy
Word of God.
Only a godless culture would dare to claim that the public
sphere is somehow neutral. Yet those who boldly lift their voices on behalf of
the church and her Lord in the public sphere, are facing intensifying
persecution for doing so.
Over the last few years, a frenetic buzz around “Christian
nationalism” has spread across America. Is Christian nationalism, according to
its most offensive definition, even a real threat in America? Are there any
real and credible statistics supporting a menacing movement by extremist
Christians seeking to theocratize America with white-supremacist neo-Naziism?
Prior to lockdowns, most of us had never heard of “Christian
nationalism.” Rather, it appears that the powerful gaslighting term created by
neo-Marxists is another attempt to terrify Christians out of sharing God’s
perspective on moral issues in the public sphere. It attempts to dissuade
Christians from fulfilling their vocational duties in the civil sphere.
By distorting the language of public discourse, the godless
manipulate the parameters of discussion within it. Christians who are unaware
of these political tactics cannot effectively contend for the faith.
We witness this in the abortion debate by allowing the
dialogue to be framed by rights versus responsibility language. Notwithstanding
the existence of any civil or even human rights, mankind has a moral
responsibility to care for the innocent. Also, by adopting the language of
LGBTQ+, Christians add legitimacy to the absurd concept of more than two sexes,
or multiple identities present in one human being.
Quietistic Christians have allowed themselves to be
manipulated by leftist media placing a wedge between “church” and “state.” They
claim the church’s role in society is limited to prayer and works of mercy, and
that the civic role of a Christian is, at most, voting. Many who strongly
advocate against Christian activity in the public sphere today are the same
ones who failed to respond properly and reasonably to the recent “pandemania.”
They use screeds against “Christian nationalism” to avoid participating
in the public sphere and to justify what amounts to antinomianism: the belief
that, because Christians are saved by grace alone through Jesus Christ’s death
on the cross, living a godly life in accord with divine and moral law, and
shaped by biblical principles, is at best optional. To think otherwise is
smeared as “legalism.”
Orthodox believers of goodwill, however, will find that
“Christian nationalism’s” theological and political implications by no means
fall afoul of the doctrine and practice of historic Christianity. According to
the best definition, “Christian nationalism” is basically synonymous with the
term “Christendom,” something just about all Christians, until recently,
considered a good thing.
The fearmongers even go so far as to malign “Christian
culture” through its association with “Christian nationalism.” Their views are
frighteningly aligned with those who advance communistic ideas that judge
Western culture’s hallmarks, such as Christian values, as harmful and
destructive to society.
As every attentive Christian is well aware, these ideologies
have been revealed as anti-Christian, unveiled in critical theory, which seeks
to demonize Western civilization and Christendom, and to replace it with absurd
alternatives that assault the very pillars upon which the West is founded. Even
the new atheists appreciate the invaluable benefits of
Christian civilization as the best option to all other alternatives.
Historically, the relationship between church and state in
the West was symbiotic: The church prayed, rebuked, and advised civil rulers,
who then preserved the ministry of the church from external interference. Jesus
Christ was acknowledged to be Lord of both realms, although in distinctive
ways.
Even the founding fathers of the United States did not boast
a rigid separation of “church and state.” The iconic language was intended to
protect the life of the church from overreach from the state, not the other way
around.
Even if one would dare to argue that communism and globalism
meet the material needs of their constituents, they have consistently proven to
stifle and maim God’s beloved creation, the church, and the gospel. Klaus
Schwab, former leader of the World Economic Forum and considered one of the
five most influential people on the globe, had a clear agenda to penetrate world governments with policies that subverted the interests of
Christians. Christians are wise to refrain from understating the influence of
such deliberate agendas to silence Christ in the public
sphere.
In the recent American election, Christians were free not to
vote for Donald Trump, but it was hardly justifiable for any of them to vote
for his adversary based on her anti-Christian policy recommendations alone,
symbolized by the strategic decision to position a portable abortion clinic in
front of the Democrat convention in Chicago.
To reject “Christian culture” as a positive contribution to
“secular” public space is to welcome any number of other religious cultures to
take its place. When former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first
arrived in office, he boasted that Canada has no shared values: “Canada is
becoming a new kind of country, not defined by our history or European national
origins, but by a pan-cultural heritage,” he said. [Blog Editor: Apparently
Trudeau succeeded because Canadians just placed their version neo-Marxists in
power by giving the Liberal Party an election victory in the Canadian
Parliamentary system.]
“There is no core identity,” as Canada is “the first
post-national state,” Trudeau said. He also said, “There is a level of admiration I
actually have for China because of their basic dictatorship.” There is no
indication that his replacement, Mark Carney, thinks any differently.
What fills the dark vacuum remaining when Christian culture
is chased away? Look around you and see the bombardment of Western civilization
once founded upon God’s Word and Christ’s church. God is the sovereign Lord of
all human institutions and history, and faith in God’s providence has never
justified a retreat from vocational obligations in the public sphere and the
gifts of God of which we are called to be godly stewards.
Furthermore, Christians who criticize and discourage active
Christian political participation indirectly embrace a national anti-Christian
religion that unabashedly pursues the demise of the Kingdom of God and the
gospel on earth. Which is a greater threat to church and society: the
rhetorical phantom of Christian nationalism, or the real phenomenon of
Christian apathy?
The Rev. Dr. Maj.
(ret.) Harold Ristau is president of Luther Classical College in Casper,
Wyoming. Ristau was born in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and has
served as a parish pastor, military chaplain, African missionary, and seminary
professor. The author of several theological books and numerous shorter works,
he is married with five children and one grandchild.
“… it perfectly exhibits the
first inclination of bureaucrats in any crisis situation leans towards tyranny
rather than more liberty.” (Justin O. Smith – this post)
The thoughts in this post disturbed me. BUT not because I
disagree, rather I believe Justin is mostly correct. A new America is arising. Actually
a new America has been arising for quite some time. In my humble opinion
challenges to the Constitution largely began with Abraham Lincoln. Don’t get me
wrong, Lincoln’s challenges to the U.S. Constitution kept America united and
more than anything propelled the USA to future powerhouse greatness.
AND YET Lincoln chipped away at Constitution by transferring
ultimate authority from the hands of the individual States into the hands of an
all-powerful national government.
After the national government became supreme, the concept of
Constitutional Checks and Balances became diluted to depending on ONLY the
Federal Three Branches (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) checking and
balancing each other. This is when elements of a Federal democracy began to
emerge over the power of WE THE PEOPLE in each State envisioned in a Republic.
So Lincoln preserved the Union – good. Ended the disgrace of
slavery – good. BUT set the stage for future factionalism to battle for
national supremacy – bad.
Today’s Left-Right national division of America’s future is
unlikely to be settled in a peaceful manner. On a personal level I cannot see
America’s Left or Right ultimately looking to our Founding Documents to achieve
a national winner of vision.
The Coronavirus pandemic will tighten the screws of national
government authority over the lives of individuals. I for one don’t want to
live in a Marxist oriented nation forced to conform to a culture dictated by
the State. Even at age 63 I am willing to exchange bullets to stop that. BUT
that willingness also means putting American culture into the hands of the
American Right who by necessity will also suspend the Founders’ Constitution to
fight a Marxist future.
It’s time for a new Constitution. I pray the formers of that
new Constitution are NOT Marxists desiring to keep fundamentally transforming
America away from the Christian fundamentals original American colonialists sought
to preserve.
What is America’s future? Will it be Left? Right? In
between? Autocratic either way? The blood of displeased Americans on all levels
of the political spectrum is the probable future? I suspect the Coronavirus
Pandemic is another nail in the coffin of America’s past. God help the future
of Americans
Below is submission of Justin Smith that inspired my musings.
Below Justin’s most recent submission is another that I missed from 3/27.
JRH 3/31/20
************************
We Will Pay the Price
Here a Trillion, There a Trillion
By Justin O. Smith
Sent 3/29/2020 7:41 PM
"If the dream is won though
everything is lost, we will pay the price, but we will not count the cost."
~ Rush
Madmen in America are in charge and they are driving the
nation in a direction that forces Americans to pay the cost of whatever the
federal government wishes to incur, as they seem to be attempting to further
render the people more dependent on the government for financial handouts,
medical services and general sustenance and protection, while Americans are
embracing their own chains of servitude. Not only are the state and federal
governments tearing asunder the fabric of the Constitution and the country,
they are wreaking havoc with shutdown mandates that have further exacerbated
the economy and attacked individual liberty, in one more vast overreach and
expansion of government power.
As Judge Andrew Napolitano noted on March 19th: "Throughout history,
free people have been willing to accept the devil's bargain of trading liberty
for safety when they are fearful. We supinely accept the shallow and hollow
offers of government that somehow less liberty equals more safety."
On February 29th, I observed that the death rate from
COVID-19 appeared to be tracking around two percent, but now, it is apparent it
is much less at approximately a little over five one-hundredths of one percent,
.05 percent, when the numbers of confirmed cases are placed against those
deaths occurring from the virus.
This should illuminate for everyone that there is more
behind this than meets the eyes, since our government has never before been too
concerned with the human cost, when in pursuit of their agendas and goals. The
Civil War killed nearly two percent of the population, and any consideration of
human lives to be lost didn't make our leaders shut down everything in any
other similar situation, e.g. the Spanish or Swine Flu, or prevent them from
waging the Spanish-American War, World Wars I & II, Korea, Vietnam and all
the adventures to follow in the Middle East, no matter if the war was necessary
or one that could be avoided. Historically, no one in government, any
government, has ever really cared about American lives and sacrifices, if it
came at a cost to their power.
Does anyone out there really believe that the Trump
administration, Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration in New York and 49 other
administrations are eliminating what's left of our liberty and destroying our
economy to protect us from a virus that represents a minimal risk of .05
percent of the American population possibly being killed?
Curiously and quite troubling, all America should be
concerned that our Department of Justice has been seeking Congressional
authority to suspend habeas corpus and court proceedings, in the wake of the
so-called "crisis", since the middle of March; this also includes
"any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest,
post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and
juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings". And while it
may be unlikely that Congress will grant their wish, it perfectly exhibits the
first inclination of bureaucrats in any crisis situation leans towards tyranny
rather than more liberty.
After this is over, will the political response to this
minor virus and manufactured COVID crisis be that shutting down the country and
the deaths resulting from government actions and mandates and the economic
destruction, worse than the virus itself, were all somehow worth it?
Taken in totality, approximately one in five Americans are
currently being treated for cancer, lung or heart disease, and diabetes. If a
mere one in one-thousand of these people dies due to being unable to acquire
their medications, or because hospitals haven't any more room, that equates to
seventy-five thousand deaths alone, not to mention those living paycheck to
paycheck who may be going hungry, as they wait for the paltry $1200 dollar government
"stimulus" checks that are supposed to come their way, maybe by May.
Americans everywhere are under stress and wondering how they
will feed their families, pay rent, water and electric bills and other
necessities. Some of us may be able to individually step in and assist other
family members, but when I hear leaders saying "We have to help
everyone", who is the collective "We" they are speaking of?
"We" are all in trouble now, due to this shutdown. How long can we
feed everybody when nothing is being produced at the moment? Nobody is
producing much of anything at the moment, with most of the nation socially
distance into unemployment, and shuttered resources aren't just turned back on
overnight.
Sadly, these events have unfolded before all America, as the
hypnotized Sheeple cower in their homes, peeking from the shadows and staring
at their neighbors with suspicion and disdain for not wearing their
"protective" masks and standing six feet apart. One would think they
were witnessing another episode of The Walking Dead.
And now after $5 trillion simply vanished into thin air in
February, along with trillions more on March 16th, President Trump and Congress
are utilizing a $2.2 trillion stimulus to supposedly keep the economy afloat,
most of which is going to corporations, the largest aid package in U.S.
history. The checks going to individuals only account for approximately $4
billion, so once again, companies that have engaged in bad business are being
rewarded, just as they were in 2008, and this sort of continued policy smacks
of fascism to the Nth degree, as we see a deepening of the convergence between
communism and capitalism in America, i.e. a plutocratic led crony-capitalist
policy, under a President who just months ago swore, "America will never
be a socialist nation". Coulda' fooled me.
One can almost hear them singing, "Here a trillion,
there a trillion, everywhere a trillion ... Old McDonald had a farm,
e-i-e-i-o." It's almost as though all they need do is bend over and pull
it from their arse.
Look America! Look at the multi-trillion dollars already
spent to "save the economy" and trillions more used to transfer
wealth from the lower and middle classes to those who already control the
nation's assets. Watch Wall Street, Big Banks, Big Businesses all reap the
benefits of this massive money transfer, and then watch all the politicians who
will benefit from the payoffs coming their way, since this couldn't happen
without them.
In the meantime, small businesses are being given
"secured" loans (with what?), that drives them deeper in debt, unless
they can turn them into grants by meeting certain criteria. What a deal ...
Not! This can only further facilitate consolidation of power through global
distribution networks and centralized supply lines, as the remains of Main
Street crumbles to dust.
America was sold out by the Globalists some time ago, and
now, either by design or purposeful intent, the psychopaths in power are using
COVID-19 here in America, world-wide too, in order to clamp down and expand
their powers and authority over their people, while deflecting attention from
the largest economic collapse in history, just in time to avoid too much extra
scrutiny that would reveal their criminal actions.
A great reset is underway and America and the world is under
a lockdown, whether they want to call it that or not, and under the radar,
mechanisms are in operation that are much more dangerous to us all than a
little "killer virus", that may or may not kill us. All the current
legislation, executive orders and mass control measures emanating from this
mess will never be rescinded and will persecute Americans for years into the
future. This massive theft, a transfer of wealth, that is being largely ignored
due to this government and media driven false pandemic, will only add to the
nation's economic devastation in the unfolding years ahead, creating more havoc
leading to one economic collapse after another with increasing frequency, until
there is no return; and, with each successive crisis, the government and
politicians will use it as a further excuse to take away our individual
liberty, our "permission slips", according to their whims, as they
assault our freedom.
Perhaps the resolution will come through the people's own
patience, or loss of the same, and their decision to continue their compliance
to an orderly self-confinement, even in the face of COVID-19. That moment may
be a bit longer away, especially with tightening controls all across the nation
and the turmoil in New York at the moment, as the numbers of panicked people
and frightening hospital scenes increase. However, whether it's a week or weeks
from now, or Easter Sunday, or any time after, one surely must be wondering
what scenes will play out once the average, everyday ordinary American people
decide en masse to refuse to be herded and confined any longer and return to
the streets in one huge roar, for freedom.
One can only hope that from the chaos, the nation finds
order and a return of real freedom and liberty.
By Justin O. Smith
+++++++++++++++++++
Lucifer's Proxy, The State
America Needs a Fearless Church
By Justin O. Smith
Sent 3/27/2020 12:22 AM
"In such a fearful world
we need a fearless church." ~ C.S. Lewis
One can only imagine how pleased Lucifer is today, as he
takes stock of his handiwork through his minions and subordinate demons and the
COVID-19 virus, as Mulciber [Blog Editor: Time to check your literary
knowledge – here are Mulciber references: Urban Dictionary; Wikipedia
entry - Pandæmonium (Paradise Lost); Reddit entry; Milton’s Pandemonium (PeterNewburysblog
– About Melbourne); and The Harry Potter Lexicon], his
fourth son, stokes chaos and pandemonium across the globe. See him scream gleefully
and happier than he has been since the Nazis murdered six million Jews, and so
pleased to see his tactics destroying the nations of the world, from Europe,
Asia, and Central America throughout the British Commonwealth and America too,
as his government and media lackeys' propaganda and overblown alarm has
terrified the world, even though this isn't the Black Death, smallpox or the
Spanish Flu. And in its wake, mankind has basically lost its mind to an
unreasonable, hyped fear and moved as a herd in panic to do whatever the
Government demands of it.
The Godless have attacked America since Her beginnings and
none so hard as the foot soldiers of the Democratic Party, who have cooperated
with Lucifer and his command operations under Beelzebub,
who perverts reason, Belial [Got Questions and Mythology.net],
the embodiment of sloth and inactivity, and Mammon [Got Questions and Mythology.net],
who would force all to mine in the depths of hell for hidden wealth. Their combined
efforts have laid the groundwork for our nation's demise, advocating
"democracy", i.e. mob rule, Marxism and Communism, evolution and
nihilism, and the media and bastardized public "education" system has
been largely successful in facilitating their plans, as they reaped hefty
rewards and privilege over rights along the way.
So many Americans have fallen so far from the God that gave
them life and are Christians in name only, filling churches only halfway, most
usually on Christmas and Easter, that it isn't any wonder they are floundering
about in a sea of hysteria and panic, as the so-called "elites" and
"leaders" drive the panic by insisting that death stalks us all at
this moment in time. Our nation's long journey into godlessness has
resulted in a large segment of the population that sees this one earthly life
of theirs as the beginning and the end, with nothing to follow, no afterlife,
no Heaven, no Hell, and this has made them willing to sacrifice everything,
including their integrity, freedom and liberty and all their God Given Rights,
to prolong their lives. And so, they may not look to Lucifer no more than
to God for any salvation, but they will turn to Lucifer's proxy, the State, the
Leviathan.
In 1965, Paul Harvey, a wise and profound commentary
journalist, noted: "If I were the Devil ... I'd
set about however necessary to take over the United States. I'd subvert the
churches first -- I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a
serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: 'Do as you please. .....
To the young, I would whisper that 'The Bible is a myth.' I would convince them
that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what
is bad is good, and what is good is 'square'. And the old, I would teach to
pray, after me, 'Our Father, which art in Washington ..."
Even now, one can certainly imagine Lucifer reveling in
delight over his greatest triumph in centuries, the closing of the Church --
churches all across America and across the globe too -- at a time when humanity
needs God and His Word most, too. Millions of Americans, in their panic and
anguish, have forgotten the comfort and solace that can be found in the Church
and the pages of the Bible. Never in my lifetime, not even at the start of the
COVID alarm, did I ever believe I'd see the day that the land of my ancestors
and more Revivals of the Christian Faith than any decent devil could withstand
would lock the doors of its churches voluntarily, as Christians now obediently
avoid even the smallest of gatherings, Oh Ye of Little Faith.
Voluntarily closing the Church doors is a victory for
Lucifer, or Satan if You prefer, because God gifted us all with Free Will to
choose, in the hopes we would abide in His teachings and worship and love Him
as Our Creator. He built us for love, but now, on the whole, we have allowed
ourselves to cleverly be tricked into using this gift of Free Will against God
Himself, in fear rather than in the peace and certainty of our deliverance and
salvation through Faith and a belief in His Power over all things.
Pusillanimous pastors who push a New Agemoral relativism and a Marxist liberation
theocracy [The Changing Face of Liberation Theology,
Liberation Theology and Marxism and
Red Pope Francis and the KGB's Liberation Theology]
that has bastardized the teachings of Jesus are largely responsible and
complicit in this entire mess, because at the start of the "pandemic"
they fell over one another to be the first to show just how obedient they were
to "the government". During a time of great crisis in America, Church
elders, the "leaders", encouraged the sheep to "shelter in place"
... to obey their masters ... to shut down the Church ... because "the
government is here to help".
Americans are currently bearing witness to the most mammoth
abuse of liberty in all our history as a nation, and all in the name of the
government "keeping us safe." Most of us haven't asked the government
for any help of any kind. I sure didn't ask them to protect me from this virus,
COVID-19.
Now the D.C. Bastards want to return our own money to us
through this new "Stimulus" bill, that amounts to some $6 trillion
once one combines the bill itself with everything the Fed has pumped into the
stock market since October 2019. Better than this, they should cancel all
taxation for the time being, until the engines of our economy are churning hard
and efficient once more, because the nation is basically broke, for all
practical purposes, and our money isn't any better than monopoly money at this
moment in time.
This Sunday, many Christians will glorify government during
their morning services, in some blasphemous cases, more so than they give all
the glory and adoration to Jesus Christ. They will praise our warriors and ask
God to bless the Leviathan that now seeks to end liberty in America forever,
and they will justify their worship of the State through the vehemently
anti-State Declaration of Independence, written over 243 years ago, largely
over an erroneous translation of Romans 13.
Yes, even the most illiterate of Lucifer's demons will offer
up Romans 13 that tells us to obey our governments,
when they are acting righteously and aligned with God's Word and at those times
when our elected officials are acting as ministers of God for good for all. But
one sees only a band of miscreants in the Congress today, with very few
exceptions. Today's leaders have given us baby murder as a societal staple,
government theft as taxation, pornography as free speech and deviancy described
as "normal" as they forced homosexual marriage on the nation against
the will of seventy percent of Americans. [Blog Editor: The part of
Romans 13 conveniently forgotten by Marxist Dems – verses 8-14]
More often as not, God admonished his followers against
succumbing to the stronghold of the State, as one finds in The Parable of the Trees (Judges 9:7-15)
and in Israel Asks for a King (1 Samuel 8) where Samuel says, "When
that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but
the Lord will not answer you in that day." And, through the recorded
conversations between Jesus and Satan, we see Satan offer Jesus dominion over
all the governments and the world itself. This also just happened to be a huge
error on Satan's part, since one cannot give what one does not own in the first
place. [See Matthew 4: 8-10 and Luke 4: 5-8]
And anyway, Jesus readily denounced these governments as
cruel, brutal, greedy and corrupt. Ultimately, Satan's bribery attempt elicited
the following from Jesus: "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'You
shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.'"
No, I don't reckon we would find Jesus advising his
followers to "shelter in place" or "self-quarantine".
Neither would he be hiding from danger or obeying a corrupt out-of-control
government, regardless of any party or illegitimate authority.
Let us pay close attention to Hebrews 10:24-25: "And let us
consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not for forsaking
the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one
another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching."
But if one dares mention this to their pastor, be prepared
for Ol' Lucifer to work his devilment by pumping up the pastor's false sense of
pride. After all, he did graduate from the Seminary and who are we to argue the
Bible with him? Some pastors have simply said that it's their Church (really???)
and they would decide whether the Church would be open for services or
not.
What in the Hell is wrong with You, America? Aren't You sick
to death of the government in general and what it has become? Aren't You sick
of the compliant and cowardly clergy? Aren't You as sick to death as I am over
what has happened to our country? America has the most cowardly Christian
leadership in the history of Christendom.
We should all hope and pray that more churches across
America will follow Pastor Rose Banks' example, who has rightfully claimed that
Colorado Springs Fellowship Church has the Constitutional
right to remain open, despite the State Health Department's
ban of gatherings of ten people or more. Speaking to her congregation on March
22nd, Pastor Banks stated: "Now I want you to understand this ... if I'm a
Christian, if I'm living for God, if I'm doing the right thing, why would God
send a virus to kill me? For us to create this type of fear and paranoia in
this country ... is amazing to me."
And now Lucifer rejoices over the COVID shutdown with Easter
just about two weeks away, a day he loathes, because even as he rejoices over
every lash of the whip upon Jesus Christ's body, every thorn and spike piercing
His flesh and every drop of blood and sweat, he is always left with his own
terrible defeat, when Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. And so he
sows doubt asking, why everyone isn't climbing from the grave, if Jesus is so
powerful?
Entranced by the buzz and hum of Beezlebub's soothing
assurances in their ears, America's pastors and too many members of the Church
will be staying home on Easter, perhaps watching services online or on
television, if they aren't sidetracked by more interesting earthly pursuits and
focused on chocolate Easter Bunnies and springtime rather than Jesus's victory
over death. Fear of penalties has made them ready to abandon their faith.
Unfortunately, this entire COVID event and the miserable
moves against liberty have made it all too apparent to our leaders, just how
easily churches and the people can be made to comply with State demands. They
surely must have rejoiced as they measured the speed at which Christians caved
to recommendations, understanding how much swifter such compliance will come
when they decide to give orders from the barrel of a rifle. Without the likes
of a Richard Wurmbrand, martyred in communist
lands for his Christian beliefs, or a Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed for
resisting the Nazis, apparent within the folds of Christian America today,
our preachers fall far short of the Black Robes of the 1700s who stood up to
the British and were a driving force behind the revolution, and therefore, they
will not be there to help the staunch and devout Christians and American
Patriots save the country from Lucifer's godless minions and the communists of
the Democratic Party who seek to eventually impose a totalitarian system on us
all.
By Justin O. Smith
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Blog Editor PERSONAL APPEAL:
The Coronavirus Panic seems to have affected giving on
this blog. I am on a disability but my wife has done quite well on a sales job
and a Network Marketing healthy coffee (healthy as in I’ve lost 82 lbs. in a
year) business that also provides vitamin-mineral-anti-oxidant supplements
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corporate name, but if you know anything about Network Marketing companies,
they get a bit cranky about that practice in their policies and procedures.
Suffice it to say my wife’s Network Marketing business provides FREE websites
for online marketing. In my wife’s case she has bought several Domain Names
linked to her website. My darling wife has told me the company has waved the
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Addressing my revenue issue. Among the many medical I’m
overcoming I am only sharing one medical bill issue. I use a CPAP machine/mask
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when over, our family revenue issue will self-correct. Until then please
consider a onetime donation using the PayPal button on this Blog or this SlantRight 2.0 PayPal embedded link.
My childhood years were in the 1960s. I tend to remember the good times nostalgically more than times when this only child found himself in moments of parental discipline. For me the 60s might be viewed as a combination of “Leave it to Beaver” and “The Sandlot”.
Those videos reflect fun memories of a sixties childhood.
Now didn’t grow up in an overtly Christian household; however the lifestyle reflected prevalent values of most Americans whether or not they were Church-going. The memories that stand out often come down to holidays and vacations. Where I grew up Central Washington the month of November was typically the beginning of some cold days. Some of those cold days might even include some snow. As a kid I was not a big fan of horsing around in the cold. As Thanksgiving Day drew closer the days tended to be colder. Unless the kids in the neighborhood could coax me outside I was typically a couch potato during the cold.
Thanks largely to Grade School history lessons on Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims I became stoked for television specials with Thanksgiving themes. In those days those specials were numerous whether they were animation based or live action. Those stories of Thanksgiving were designed to imprint children with a favorable view of the holiday.
All that was a positive narrative of the Thanksgiving story were there: Pilgrim travels, the Mayflower voyage and learning to survive in the New World after landing on Plymouth Rock. The surviving part was typically portrayed as a rough winter, uncertain relation with Indians, Indian friendship, Indian mentoring and followed with the Pilgrims conquering their habitat ending with a feast of their farming success, wild turkey hunting and the Indians sharing of hunted deer.
The positive conclusion was giving thanks to God Almighty for prosperity, overcoming hardship and peace and harmony with the Pilgrims’ Indian neighbors. (I am fairly certain the Pilgrims would have no idea of what a Native American was. Indeed words that were not necessarily meant as a pejorative were probably closer to Savage, Red Man or Redskin. I wonder what appellations the Indians used for White America.) AND thus all’s well that ends well, right?
The reality is that bad things happened to the Pilgrims. They first fled to the Netherlands. Then cultural concerns pertaining to Pilgrim children assimilating into Dutch culture began to be a concern. Dutch culture was a bit looser than the Puritan-Separatist Christian culture promoted by the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were experiencing Religious Freedom but their identity as faithful Christians was becoming compromised.
The Pilgrims fled England to escape the Religious intolerance of the Crown’s Church of England and now they intended to move again to escape the worldly influence of the Dutch majority. America became that choice. The Pilgrims thus organized to sail from the Netherlands back to England and on to the New World of America. They had to get a “patent or license” from a royal English company for land to colonize. The business venture the Pilgrims worked with was the Virginia Company of London.
The Pilgrims sought Crown permission for the religious liberty to practice their Puritan faith. The King did not specifically come through with the request, BUT neither did he deny it. The Pilgrims took the absence of religious instructions as a sign of favor and thus planned for the voyage.
The original contingent for the voyage was actually a mixture of the Puritan-Pilgrims and not so religious “adventurers”. The two components of the trip ultimately had different agendas upon landing and working with the patent to establish a company plantation.
The Pilgrims desired Religious Liberty and to be missionaries to the Native Americans. The adventurers were looking for a stake find economic self-sufficiency that wasn’t available in jolly old England. There was contention between the two groups. It didn’t help when the second ship of the venture forced the Mayflower to return to England because the second ship (Speedwell) would not have made it across the Atlantic Ocean without sinking. Pilgrims and adventurers not deterred by frustrated loaded up on the crowded Mayflower to sail to the Hudson Bay area.
The Mayflower made it to Cape Cod (the Plymouth Rock-Massachusetts area) after just a little over two months. Their Patent was for a location further north along the coast. Stormy seas prevent the Mayflower to make its destination. The Pilgrims thus decided to return to the Cape Cod area seeing the stormy whether as a sign from God.
The contention between the two groups eventually led to a dispute about the rules and who should obey them, especially they decided to build in a place outside their original patent. After a bit of disharmony the passengers of the Mayflower put together a compact that would be the foundation for self-government at least until the Patent issue was straightened out. The heads male heads of the Mayflower families signed the agreement as binding which became known as the Mayflower Compact:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.
To view signature go to the webpage. The above rendition has been updated to 21st Century English from the 17th English of the Pilgrims (Mayflower Compact: 1620; Agreement Between the Settlers at New Plymouth: 1620; The Avalon Project – Yale Law School)
Yeah take that Left Wing history revisionists. The Mayflower Compact is an example of other Charters, Patents and License dedicating government to God and King.
In the first years of the Plymouth Colony the form of government under God ironically resembled Socialism more than Free Market Capitalism. The Pilgrim placed all their food in a common store available to all equally. The fruits of the labor were also a part of this common store. The effect of this socialism was the lazy majority began to depend on the working few for sustenance. The first two years of the Plymouth Colony was the experience of the lack of food, which resulted in starvation, disease and death. Many of the colony became thieves and stole from the common store rather than work productively to perpetuate the utopian dream of equal sufficiency for all. The few working colonialists that suffered lack began to be frustrated when all their work was divided among the slacker majority.
Socialism wasn’t working! Hello President Barack Hussein Obama.
In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, "all had their hungry bellies filled," but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first "Thanksgiving" was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men.
But in subsequent years something changes. The harvest of 1623 was different. Suddenly, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty," Bradford wrote, "and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God." Thereafter, he wrote, "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the colonists were able to begin exporting corn.
What happened?
After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, "they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop." They began to question their form of economic organization.
This had required that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means" were to be placed in the common stock of the colony, and that, "all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock." A person was to put into the common stock all he could, and take out only what he needed.
This "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were starving. Bradford writes that "young men that are most able and fit for labor and service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children." Also, "the strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes, than he that was weak." So the young and strong refused to work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.
To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of famines. (The Great Thanksgiving Hoax; By Richard J. Maybury; Mises Institute; 11/20/1999)
God enabling perseverance and Free Market thinking brought prosperity to the Pilgrims thus it probably wasn’t until the fruits of 1624 was there any real Thanksgiving.
The lessons of Thanksgiving are extremely important to our heritage as Americans.
Americans came to the New World to worship the Christian freely and to rely on strength to survive endowed by the Creator. God was and should always be thanked for overcoming struggles individually and corporately as a people.
Early Socialist-like experiments failed to succeed across the board in Colonial America.
Free Market Capitalism engendered individual self-sufficiency which in turn led trade in the community and outside the colony. The lazy self-entitled died while the thrifty individuals tied to their property succeeded.
Community standards were dedicated to Christian Morality instilling concepts of good and evil government in the rule of law.
Once America became a Republic, individual Presidents annually world declare a day of Thanksgiving before God for the peace and posterity of the USA. Apparently Abraham Lincoln had a religious epiphany while gazing to the Battle of Gettysburg graves leading to him to declare the last Thursday in November to a day of Thanksgiving in 1863. Each President after Lincoln followed suit with Lincoln’s last Thursday in November declaration. The 1941 Congress permanently made Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November a Federal Holiday. To this day in 2014 Thanksgiving is celebrated. Unless Separation of Church-State Leftists get their unconstitutional way by keeping the Christian faith out of government by an Obamination social transformation, our Republic will continue to have Thanksgiving.
Save the Republic of the United States of America from transformist thinking by keeping America free by holding these truths as self-evident: “… that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”. (Declaration of Independence, 1776)
