It's Not Over

It is with some joy but also with deep sadness that I now no longer feel compelled to wear orange on Sunday. Many of us wear orange to show solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in the middle east who were undergoing tribulation at the hands of ISIS. 

My joy is with the news that the head of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the most vicious terrorist on the planet, was killed in Syria by his own hand to avoid capture by US forces. Also his second in command, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, was killed in Aleppo province in a separate attack by U.S. forces. The next in line, Al-Haj Abdullah Qardash AKA "The Professor" and "The Destroyer" is rumored to have been "inhumed" (the opposite if exhumed) by US forces also.

Thus ends ISIS as a global force of terror. Their Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, was recaptured by Iraqi forces to end the ISIS caliphate back in 2007. (This victory was completely ignored by the US press in order not to shine any positive light on the Trump administration.) In the end ISIS was under attack by the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, another terrorist organization, this one based on Sanders style communism rather than Islamic inhumanity. 

I'm Praying for Kanye West

 Recently Kanye West was quoted as saying "Rap is the devils music" by his pastor in an interview with Apologia Studios. First of all, I tend to believe anything out of any group that uses the word Apologetics because of the ones I listen to/read, they tend to have a better grip on the word of God than a stadium full of Osteenites.

Secondly I would completely agree with Kanye on this depending on the mood you catch me in. If by chance you asked me "Doug, is rap the devil's music?" within a week of having to ride in  my millennial stepson's car the answer would be a loud and boisterous "YES!!!!" 

I'd probably be shouting to hear myself over the ringing in my ears.

However if you caught me on a more normal day the answer would be a more astute "any kind of music can be the devil's music" including classical music. Numerous pieces of classical music pay homage to Satan, pieces including Giuseppe Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre, and one known to any long time Disney watcher: Modést Petróvich Músorgskiy's Night at the Bare Mountain (Night on Bald Mountain). These are all inspired by Satan, and you can throw in anything with "Faust" in the title to expand your list of Satanic Classical.

One just needs to peruse Good Fight Ministries' music articles to see the horrors that Satan is inflicting on the world through popular music. Country music has so much gospel intertwined that you get a lot of the good, along with the bad. But as for Rap, I'll admit that I don't listen to much at all, but what I hear is horrible. However 30 years ago, MC Hammer begged his listeners to pray, which is more biblical truth than is contained in hours of Hillsong's noise.

I pray for Kanye, I really do. As breathlessly reported through thousands of outlets this summer, Kanye West has converted to Christianity, and I believe it's a true conversion. I was unconvinced until I read that he was feeling “the weight of sin” from “chasing all the things of this world" and converted to Christianity. To me that's a real conversion where one asks "I have sinned, please help me" and not "I'm OK, but what can JC do for me?"

Maybe Beto Has a Good Idea

For a long time I've been warning the Christian community that Satan via the Left is out to destroy us. I'm sure that many Christians agree, but they don't realize how quickly it's coming. Daniel 9:26 tells us "And its end will come with a flood" Daniel is not talking about the situation we find ourselves currently in, but the imagery is the same.

Floods are inexorable, sometimes they start with a roar, but quite often they start with a trickle. That trickle gradually gains in force growing larger and larger until the waters become unstoppable. The same way the that the waters increase in volume before the flood starts to rage, the attacks on the church increase as the Christians are lulled into complicity. Many components of the visible church have moved so far away from the purity of God's word, that they no longer resemble Christianity, they're weekly self-help seminars with a rock band playing God flavored anthems. This leaves us wide open to Satan's attacks.

To my point along comes Texas democrat and Roman Catholic Robert Francis O'Rourke whose nickname "Beto" was engineered to make him appeal to Hispanic voters, but some folks also call him "Skater Bob" because of his odd attraction to skate boards. Mr. O'Rourke is currently floundering in the polls, so to make himself more appealing to the socialist far left he is attacking conservative values. Barack Hussein Obama once accused the conservative Right of clinging to our guns and bibles, and we have to because Beto is demanding to rip both away. I'll cover his anti firearm hysteria in another blog, as for religion - his plan is to bludgeon the visible church into submission. His grand plan: he would revoke tax-exempt status from religious organizations that oppose same-sex marriage.

The Church of Sweden - need I say more?

Announcement! Jesus of Nazareth has now appointed
one of his successors, Greta Thunberg

The Church of Sweden has become a bit daffy as of lately. "Daffy" is a little used theological term (it's my theological term) which means "confused due to its own false teaching". Back in 2017 the Church of Sweden decided not to address God in His normal honorific "Lord" and that His pronoun can no longer be "He" because - gender 'n stuff. The now inclusive church is headed by Archbishop Antje Jackelén, a woman, who has referred to the Holy Spirit as a  "she" who apparently does not rate a capitalized pronoun. This is the church that consecrated an openly gay woman, Eva Brunne, as a bishop. Eva is the person that decided that the church of Sweden should take down their crosses so not to offend muslims. I can find no report that the muslims have turned down the volume of their minaret bull horns so not to offend slumbering Swedes with their sunrise call to prayer. And let's not forget TacoJesus. Needless to say, people are leaving this church in droves, 85,848 Swedes left the Church in 2016, followed by 93,093 members in 2017.

So what besides a capitol F Feminism and a little g god does the Church of Sweden worship? They've decided that the Holy Spirit is a female even though Jesus Christ called the Holy Spirit "He", and that God is an androgynous being even though Jesus called God "Father" many, many times. So maybe Jesus is the one who is wrong for not listening to Aunty Antje? As to what the Church of Sweden worships, the answer is clear, the Church of Sweden worships Mother Gaia. 

Gaia is a revival of Paganism that rejects Christianity, considers Christianity its biggest enemy, and views the Christian faith as its only obstacle to a global religion centered on Gaia worship and the uniting of all life forms around the goddess of "Mother Earth".  A cunning mixture of science, paganism, eastern mysticism, and feminism have made this pagan cult a growing threat to the Christian Church.  Gaia worship is at the very heart of today's environmental policy.  source

We've Been Doing Communion Wrong?

Communion - The Lord's Supper, this is something that sets Christians apart from all other religions. We gather and share the bread and wine for one joyful reason:

"This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19)

There's no magic or miracles involved, just a command - do this and remember Me. That's what Christianity is all about; Jesus. Even false religions celebrate Communion; Mormons do it, however they're not following the bible, their ceremony comes from the oddly inspired pen of Joseph Smith, so take that for what it's worth. Followers of prosperity pimp Kenneth Copeland take communion too, for their own gain, not to glorify Jesus. And the Catholics - I'll let Jesse cover that. 

As for the rest of us, I bet you we do it wrong, our little church of bereans sure was. Pastor Paratus pointed this out today in his message. How many times have you been to communion, your pastor steps away from the lectern to conduct the ceremony with those words we all know:

and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” (1 Corinthians 11:24)

This is WRONG.