Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

It's been a rough year here in my mile high retreat, and now that my wife and I are both disabled we know it's not going to get easier. Our best hope is our faith in Christ that He will guide us as our days grow grayer, and our wonderful church family. But Colorado... I always knew that Colorado was weird, in fact back in the 70's we used to joke that if the US were a bowl of granola the flakes would get blocked by the mountains and settle in Boulder. It's very pretty here when it's not on fire, but it's also evil. 

Colorado just elected an openly gay Governor who is for gay rights, against gun rights, precedes the term 'religious freedom' with the words "so called", believes in the fairy tale of 100% renewable energy, and changed his name from Schultz to Polis not long after attacking a woman to protect his political career. I'm not blaming the problems of Colorado on Governor Elect Polis, nor am I saying (yet) that he is going to compound them. What I am saying is that he is an example of how strange Colorado has become. The political climate of Colorado is almost like God is giving us proof that using marijuana causes brain damage. Colorado is proof of the needs for an electoral college. When the people of Denver and Boulder get a crazy idea in their heads the rest of the state is burdened with their crazy idea because we can't vote them down. Our latest burden of crazy; Colorado just added the option of "Undecided" as a gender on drivers licenses

Texas prosecutors raid Catholic Archdiocese for 'secret archives'

Police raided the office of Cardinal DiNardo, presidents United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, for evidence of sexual abuse cover-up

A Roman Catholic Vatican official said that the death Penalty is "never justified". They must have missed that whole Genesis 9:6,  Exodus 21:12, Numbers 35:16-17, Numbers 35:30, Acts 25:9-11, 1 Peter 2:13 thing

Ten Commandment Tuesday - Stealing is More Than Taking

I've heard many examples of street preaching and in them the street preacher shows the need for salvation by going down the list of the commandments and showing examples of sins that many people commit, often without thinking. The prime example of stealing is always the office pen which "follows" the office worker home.

But stealing is more than walking home with a company pen in your pocket and seriously - no one accidentally walks home with the local 7-11 cash register in their pocket either.  Then again, the Kansas City Royals' Whit Merrifield will not be held accountable before the Great White Throne for 45 stolen bases (unless God is a Tigers fan). Stealing can be highly personal and can shatter a person, even though their possessions remain untouched

A good case can be made that the Eighth Commandment, "Do Not Steal," is the one commandment that encompasses all the others.

How does "Do not Steal" encompass the other commandments? Murder is the stealing of another person's life.  Adultery is the stealing of another person's spouse.  Coveting is the desire to steal what belongs to another person.  Giving false testimony is stealing justice.  And so on. 

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

I looked at my calendar today and noticed, in horror, that today, the day after Thanksgiving, is now shown as a holiday: Black Friday. It seems not that long ago when I thought the whole thing was a joke, but sadly the whole thing has gained steam. I'm not going on a screed against capitalism, quite the opposite - capitalism is what saved the Plymouth colony. 

The original Pilgrims arrived with a starry-eyed ideal that they could make a socialist utopia here in North America, everyone had an equal share in all possessions of the colony, and an equal share in the fruits of their labors, regardless of their own labor. Soon the Plymouth colony was near starvation a second time, their idealistic society was falling apart. They learned to their horror that slackers abound when socialism rules. William Bradford made a brilliant move that saved the colony: he gave each colonist an equal section of land to do with as they will, and encouraged trade. Soon the colonists were producing lumber, building individual homes rather than a communal hall, and they quickly had food surpluses and were able to trade with each other and with the natives. They took to heart what Paul spoke of in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 - you don't work, you don't eat. So on this blackest of Fridays, say another prayer of thanks, pray that our starry eyed new socialists may be struck with enlightenment  that the Lord gave William Bradford. And maybe pray that we can celebrate our next Thanksgiving the way our ancestors did: in solemn thankful prayer followed with venison, lobster and oysters.

That pope fella never learned the lesson of the Plymouth Colony

Catholic Bishops celebrate trans-gender day of remembrance

A new study suggests the Catholic priest abuse scandal isn't about pedophilia, but about rampant homosexuality within that church.

You Can't Make This Stuff Up Dept. - Brian Murphy, the founder of oxymoronic “Queer Theology”, claims that Jesus is in a “pansexual, polyamorous” relationship with the Church which means that Christians can be polyamorous too. And blames this all or Ephesians 5:32. The Catholic priest that's helping Mr. Murphy - Father Shannon Kerns, she's a transsexual.

WWUTT Wednesday - Born Again

John 3:3

Back in the 60's the "Jesus Freaks" strode the countryside advertising their born again-ness. A few years later main stream Christians began calling themselves as Born Again Christians (as opposed to Born Again Heathens?). What would happen if "again" was something else?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but hear me out. In John 3:3 Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” to which Nicodemus famously asked "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?" The word again in the original Greek was ἄνωθεν (anōthen) which means "again" but it also means "from above" In John 3:5-6 Jesus clarifies that He meant being born of the spirit which to me indicates he was explaining that when He said ἄνωθεν (anōthen) he didn't mean "again" he meant "from above", so John 3:7 could rightfully be translated to “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’

While I try to find a Born From Above Christian t-shirt, feel free to tell me what you think about my take on ἄνωθεν (anōthen). 

Ten Commandment Tuesday: Keeping the Family Together

This is Pieter Brueghel's painting "Le Christ et la femme adultère" dated around 1600. It is the scene from John 8:1-11 where the pharisees bring a woman to Jesus and accuse her of having committed adultery. They did not bring her partner in adultery before Jesus, which makes the charge a bit absurd because as any theologian knows, it takes two to tango.

In John 8:6 and John 8:8 Jesus bent down to write in the ground with his finger. The bible never says exactly what he wrote (wouldn't it be cool to see what God in the flesh had to write?) but here in the painting Brughel had Jesus write "Die Sonder Sonde is..." which losely translated is "He that is without sin [among you]..." There are three messages in this Bible vignette; one is of course that all of us are sinners. The second is "From now on sin no more" and the third is (and I've never heard this taught, but really should be) - take your sins to Jesus and He will forgive you.

 There is an old joke about The Seventh Commandment, "Do Not Commit Adultery."  Moses comes down from Mount Sinai, and announces:  "I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I got Him down to ten. The bad news is that adultery stays."

The joke is telling. The prohibition on a married person having sexual relations with anyone except his or her spouse may be, for many people, the most consistently difficult of the Ten Commandments to observe.  The reasons shouldn't be hard to guess.

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

The Pope has ordered US bishops to NOT act on bishops and priests that rape and sodomize children

The Pope's power-play pulls the rug out from under US bishops preventing them from finally doing something, anything about their sexual nightmare

US Bishops shocked that the Pope is preventing them from cleaning up the mess they made

While the bishops did nothing, thousands protest the American Bishops Conference in Maryland over sex abuse scandal

Why black church leaders often get away with sexual misconduct, and the woman breaking the silence

Harvest Bible Chapel's Chief Information Officer allegedly stole $270K

Instagram has declared the following verses of the bible to be hate speech:
1 Timothy 2:11–12
1 Timothy 3:1–13
Titus 1:6–9

Atheist woman Gretta Vosper will be allowed to stand in front of a group of atheists and call herself a pastor, thereby denigrating the word pastor until Christ returns and sets things back to right

Veterans Day 2018

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

For those of you who don't appreciate how utterly foul the sex scandals in the Catholic church truly are, or how deep into the bones of the organization the infection has spread, read this article. Child pornography, sodomy, pederasty, adultery, and the lies and cover ups... and this is far from the worst diocese. The author of the article has the feeling that the clergy is at war with the lay members of the church. It's bigger than that. 

Last month that Pope fella blamed the devil for the Church scandals, and shockingly the pope was right. True, even a blind squirrel will occasionally find an acorn, and that Pope fella found himself a big one no matter how hard he worked to ignore it. Of course Satan is behind the sex scandal, with the help of power hungry sex starved Godless men who worship the institution they built rather than the true Gospel.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has identified 57 priests and deacons have faced credible claims of sexual abuse of minors. Here's the list

Catholic bishops are not being held accountable for abuse

Landmark study proves homosexuality is strongly linked to Catholic clergy sex abuse

The Catholic church of Guam is filing for bankruptcy to avoid trial in dozens of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by priests

Color Me Unsurprised Dept: Michael Moore and that Pope are in agreement

Roman Catholics worldwide are praying in cemeteries to free souls from ‘Purgatory’ November 1-8

Religion of Peace Update #1 - Muslim gunmen attacked a bus loaded with Egyptian Christian pilgrims killing seven. The Muslim attackers were later killed in a gunfight with Egyptian security officials.

Religion of Peace Update #2 - Christian Asia Bibi is free from prison and free from Pakistan

Religion of Peace Update #3 - Trump sends State Department officials to Nigeria because Islamic jihadists have martyred 2,300 Christians there in 10 months

79 Christian schoolchildren were abducted in Cameroon

Who are the most anti-semitic people in America? Liberal women

Lutheran pastor? pastorette? pastrix? (Nadia Bolz-Weber, I wrote about her here): "It’s okay to look at porn, especially if it’s ‘ethically sourced’"

Illinois Attorney General sues bed & breakfast owner for not paying damages to homosexual men denied same-sex ceremony on private property

Alaska women’s shelter placed under investigation following complaint from man who pretends to be a woman

A Canadian man pretending to be a woman has files human rights complaints against 16 female Canadian women for refusing to wax his male genitalia

Shawnee State University sued for threatening professor who refused to call male student ‘Miss’

Alabama approves amendment saying that unborn babies have a “Right to Life”

Alabama voters okay amendment allowing the display of the Ten Commandments

West Virginia voters approve an amendment saying that there is no Right to Abortion

Six unworldly ways to make the world wonder why you’re weird

Satanists are suing Netflix over ‘The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’

Netflix plans to roll out a series based on a 12-year-old boy who discovers he has reincarnated as Jesus Christ

Was the New Testament influenced by Platonism and Stoicism?

"A new prophetic bird is being birthed in the earth"

Christian movie "The Reliant" has no nudity, no profanity, no gore, no sex, no torture, and no glamorized violence and still gets an R rating because: censorship

Man, those seeker sensitive types are tough! One little moment of  righteousness and they suddenly go "Friendlier Than Thou" all over you - read about it in the Babylon Bee!

WWUTT Wednesday - Modern Day Prophets?

A prophet is an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God. Simply put if you say "Jesus died and rose from the dead" you are a prophet because you proclaimed God's words. If you say "Jesus died and went to Cleveland" or if you say that God told you "the Carolina Panthers are going to win Super Bowl 50" you are a False Prophet.

That's the thing - today God's will is there for everyone to view, read, discern, and share, we don't need special prophets. Ages ago God's will was hard to reach, one had to journey to the temple in Jerusalem or have a chance to listen to a local prophet (before he was killed). Later God's will was hidden by the Roman church, shared only in a language that the congregation didn't speak: Latin. Now God's will is everywhere and free - not only book form, but audio, video, and web page.

Ten Commandments Tuesday - Getting It Wrong with #6

Besides unicorns and ghosts, the King James Version is full of translation issues. Most of them are of little consequence, mostly. There is the issue of Elisha asking God to have a couple of bears maul 42 little children (2 Kings 2:23-24), and you may notice that in John 1:7 Moses gets promoted from prophet to supreme being. Yet one error is especially glaring, and that is the 6th commandment. (or #5 if you're a Catholic), that of Killing. If you read the King James Version you may notice that God gives us a commandment, then spends the rest of the book ordering people to disobey it. The land of Israel was not paid for in cash, murderers were not punished with community service, and those bears in 2 Kings 2 did not beat those young men at a pickup game of softball. I learned many years ago that the military does not violate the 6th commandment when fulfilling their duty, neither does the butcher, nor the homeowner that puts up a bug zapper.

 You would think that of all the Ten Commandments the one that needs the least explaining is the Sixth, because it seems so clear. It is the one that the King James Bible, the most widely used English translation of the Bible, translates as "Thou shall not kill."  Yet, the truth is the quite the opposite. This is probably the least well understood of the Ten Commandments.

The reason is that the Hebrew original does not say, "Do not kill." It says, "Do not murder." Both Hebrew and English have two words for taking a life - one is "kill" (harag, in Hebrew) and the other is "murder" (ratzach in Hebrew).
The difference between the two is enormous. Kill means:
1) Taking any life -- whether of a human being or an animal.
2) Taking a human life deliberately or by accident.
3) Taking a human life legally or illegally, morally or immorally.
On the other hand, murder can only mean one thing:
The illegal or immoral taking of a human life.
That's why we say, "I killed a mosquito," not "I murdered a mosquito."
And that's why, we would say, "the worker was accidentally killed," not "the worker was accidentally murdered."

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Halloween 2018 is thankfully over, the Roman Catholic created celebration and adoration of all things evil has passed taking Christians with them on their slow spiral into hell. Did I say that the Roman church created Halloween? 

Halloween exists because of Pope #90 Gregory III. Pope Greg III is known for a few things: aggravating a feud between Italy and the Byzantine empire; the iconoclast controversy (a shining time in Catholic history where paintings and statues became more important than theology), building St. Peters Cathedral (and adorning it with religious icons just to anger the Patriarch of Constantinople the real head of the Catholic church at the time), and outlawing the consumption of horse meat. Pope Greg III moved All Saints Day from May 13 to Nov. 1. Over 100 years later in 844, Pope #101 Gregory IV ordered that it be celebrated everywhere. Because the Catholics demand that a good saint is a dead saint, All Saints Day is a solemn affair as can be seen in it's modern version. In 988 the church added All Souls Day, a day to remind God that His whole judgement idea goes against 2 Maccabees 12:41-46. Now the RCC had a holiday for dead saints and dead sinners in purgatory, how about one for the dead in hell? According to Father Augustine Thompson  it became customary to bang pots and pans on All Hallows Even to let the damned know they were not forgotten. Thus, in Ireland at least, all the dead came to be remembered–even if the clergy were not terribly sympathetic to Halloween and never allowed All Damned Day into the church calendar. As with all things that celebrate satan, it spiraled out of control until we have today's celebration of Satan's dominion over the unschooled

Speaking of "Christians" falling under Satan's spell...

Snake on Western Wall makes imaginary biblical prophesy come true!

Also: red sky in the morning, ridiculous warning

The above items are merely examples of the Gigantic Problem Beneath The Really Big Problem