There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Our passion for evangelism shouldn’t be influenced by the way people respond to the gospel. People never reject God’s free offer of salvation because the messenger wasn’t skillful enough or the message wasn’t enticing enough. It all hinges on the receptivity of the human heart—the quality of the soil into which the gospel seed is sown.
The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity. (Deuteronomy 30:3)
God’s own people may sell themselves into captivity by sin. A very bitter fruit is this, of an exceeding bitter root. What a bondage it is when the child of God is sold under sin, held in chains by Satan, deprived of his liberty, robbed of his power in prayer and his delight in the Lord! Let us watch that we come not into such bondage; but if this has already happened to us, let us by no means despair.
But we cannot be held in slavery forever. The Lord Jesus has paid too high a price for our redemption to leave us in the enemy’s hand. The way to freedom is, “Return unto the Lord thy God.” Where we first found salvation we shall find it again. At the foot of Christ’s cross, confessing sin, we shall find pardon and deliverance. Moreover, the Lord will have us obey His voice according to all that He has commanded us, and we must do this with all our heart and all our soul, and then our captivity shall end.
Often depression of spirit and great misery of soul are removed as soon as we quit our idols and bow ourselves in obedience before the living God. We need not be captives. We may return to Zion’s citizenship, and that speedily. Lord, turn our captivity!
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Psalm 139:7-10
We were on a walk along the edge of the ocean. The trail was rough but my grandson enjoyed the challenge of climbing over rocks, up steep banks, and over trees. The trail went up along the edge of a cliff. At one point, I looked back, just for a moment, and saw my grandson hanging by a root over the ocean and the rocks below. I’m sure my heart skipped a beat! He didn’t say a word. I grabbed his wrists and lifted him back on the trail. He simply said, “Thanks Papa.” And off he went along the trail.
That moment played over and over in my thoughts for days. I had been with him every step along the way, many times saying, “Let me help you.” To which he replied, “Me do it, Papa.” When it came to a need, he seemed confident I was there. He did not understand the danger but his “Thanks Papa” communicated his appreciation of unrequested help.
God promises to be with us always. In fact, we cannot escape his presence. God’s commitment is to journey with us each step along the path we are on. He seeks to provide for us and protect us. We can resist. Apart from his grace, the consequences could be grave and life altering.
Each day we have a choice. We can walk under the guidance of his direction or independent of it. How will you respond to his presence with you today?
Dear Father, thank you for your presence in my life today. Show me any areas that I’m walking independent of your guidance. I confess my predisposition toward self-reliance. I desire your leadership and am so thankful that your right hand will hold me fast. Amen.
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and He delighteth in his way” Psalm 37:23
I had planned to run errands in the morning but there were so many urgent things to do, I didn’t leave until mid-afternoon. There were several entrances to this parking lot and I chose to come in the back way. I didn’t realize that God was directing me until later.
Picking up my dry-cleaning from the back of the car, I quickly walked toward the cleaners. As I looked up, I saw a young woman standing on the sidewalk in front of the store. I could see she was crying so I walked up to her and gently touched her arm and asked her, “What is wrong? Can I help you?”
Then she really began sobbing and told me her mother was in the hospital and just had a stroke. She had no money for a bus ticket to go see her. My heart went out to her and I told her I would help her. I gave her enough money for the bus ticket and some extra for food.
I asked her if she had faith in God. He would sustain her and help her. She said, “Yes, she did.” Then she surprised me by asking me if I had faith in God. I, too, said, “Yes.” We talked a little longer and then we parted. After my errands I walked back to the car. I looked for her, but she was not there.
One of God’s children was in need. God knew all about her needs that day and directed my steps so I would drive into the rear parking lot…in the afternoon…at exactly the time when she would be there…so I could help her.
Coincidence? No. God cares for His children so much. He is such an organizer that it is nothing for Him to arrange our lives in such a way so we are available to help people in need.
Let me encourage you to start taking notice of the unexpected ways God directs you.
Father, thank You that You love and care for your children. I am amazed at how You direct our steps yet so often we are unaware of it. You are awesome! Amen.
Belief In Traditional American Values Plummeting: WSJ Poll According to a depressing new poll from The Wall Street Journal, belief in the importance of traditional American values has plummeted in the United States in recent decades. If that is the case, Democrats will never be out of power again. They never tire of dissing the country, its founders…and the concept of objective truth, morality…and God.
Huge Block Of Gulf Of Mexico Auctioned For Oil Drilling, Infuriating Biden’s Climate Activists As required by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auctioned oil and gas drilling rights across 73.4 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico despite the Biden administration’s pledge to end new leasing as part of climate change initiatives.
Saudi Aramco Bets On Continuous Growth Of Chinese Oil Demand Saudi Aramco announced this week two major refinery and petrochemical deals in China, which not only give the world’s largest oil firm a share of the Chinese downstream market but also an additional export outlet for 690,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi crude in China.
Finland Clears Last Hurdle, Will Become The 31st Member Of NATO Late Thursday night (local time), Turkey’s parliament approved Finland’s NATO application, which puts the Nordic country on the verge of formal membership in the Western military alliance as the 31st nation. This comes after on Monday Hungarian parliament ratified Finland’s for NATO membership.
The Spirit Of Adolf Hitler Is Alive In The World Today… For That Spirit Is Satan Many pastors and churches sold out to the Nazis or else turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the suffering of Europe’s incarcerated. Satan worked himself into the very heart of the church in Germany and caused many church people—pastors and laymen alike—to rationalize and compromise with the Nazis. A hear-no-evil, see-no-evil mentality swept the country with regard to her treatment of the Jews and other “undesirables.”
Israel among targets of Russian spy who infiltrates D.C. circles The story of Russian spy Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov came to light after he was charged last week, with acting as an agent of a foreign power, visa fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and other charges stemming from his illegal activities in the United States, on a years-long mission for Russian Intelligence Service (“RIS”). and all the way to sharing cocktails at parties with senior members of the Biden administration in D.C.
US illegally froze Iranian assets, World Court rules In a partial victory for Iran, judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ruled Washington had illegally allowed courts to freeze assets of some Iranian companies and ordered the United States to pay compensation but left the amount to be determined later.
‘Real enemy is humanity itself’: Exposing the occult roots of The Club of Rome’s climate agenda The evidence for the influence of occultism over the global environmental movement begins with the man who is credited with founding it: Maurice Strong. Maurice Strong was a Canadian oilman, a rich entrepreneur whose involvement with the Club of Rome saw him rise to promote a worldwide green agenda based on fantasy, misanthropy, and the deliberate manipulation of public sentiment. The Club of Rome was founded at David Rockefeller’s estate in Bellagio in 1968.
Netanyahu dismisses contempt of court petition as an “attempted coup” The High Court petition accuses Netanyahu of violating the conflict-of-interest agreement he signed in 2020, which prevents him from being personally involved in legislative issues that could affect his ongoing corruption trial. Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three separate legal cases. “This is a grave attempt to drag the judicial system into the political turmoil and cause it to decide illegally and in opposition to the decision of the representative democratic institutions, without explicit authority in law,” said Rabilo.
Why is Biden killing Muslims during Ramadan? Biden administration officials have repeatedly warned Israel to “de-escalate” its actions against Palestinian Arab terrorists because Ramadan has begun. But how did the Biden administration mark the start of Ramadan this past week? By killing Muslims. After the US warned Israel to de-escalate during Ramadan, Biden retaliated for Iran’attack on US contractor in Syria with F-15E jets.
Attorney explains ‘insidious’ nature of ‘trans refuge’ bill Minnesota-based attorney Robert Roby appeared on Fox News this week to warn that HF 146, the so-called “trans refuge” bill passed by the state House last week, may result in parents losing custody of their children if they do not consent to mutilating their bodies. “The insidious thing about this bill is it puts children who are being denied these treatments that are permanent and will sterilize the child for life … they’re now in the same category as kids who are being abused or neglected,”
Senate Votes 68-23 to End Covid Emergency The Senate on Wednesday passed a GOP-led resolution that would end the COVID-19 national emergency that’s been in place since 2020. The measure passed the upper chamber 68-23.
Strong and shallow M6.4 earthquake hits off the coast of Chile – The Watchers A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the CSN Chile as M6.4 hit off the coast of Maule, Chile at 17:33 UTC (14:33 LT) on March 30, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 22 km (13.7 miles). The USGS is reporting M6.3 at a depth of 13.1 km (8.1 miles); EMSC M6.3 at a depth of 12 km (7.4 miles).
Deadly floods and storms sweep across Kenya and Ethiopia, leaving at least 19 people dead At least 19 people have died, and hundreds have been displaced in Kenya and Ethiopia due to storms, heavy rain, and flooding affecting various parts of the region over the last week. The situation has been exacerbated by the ongoing drought in the region, which has put millions of lives at risk.
Transgender athletes condemn ban on inclusion in female events Transgender athletes have condemned World Athletics’ exclusion of transgender women from elite female competitions, while the decision was welcomed by some sportswomen as a win for fairness.
Following China: JP Morgan Chase wants people to pay for goods with face scans JPMorgan Chase has announced plans to pilot a new payment technology that would allow customers to pay with their palm or face instead of a traditional credit or debit card. Following similar technological implementations in China, if the pilot program goes well, the bank intends to roll out the service to its broader base of US merchant clients and usher in a new wave of biometric payments that privacy enthusiasts have been concerned about.
SBF Charged With Funneling $40M In Crypto To Bribe CCP Officials Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have hit FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried (“SBF”) with a new 13-count indictment accusing him of funneling $40 million in cryptocurrency to ‘one or more’ Chinese government officials, in order to “influence and induce them” to unfreeze Alameda Research trading accounts holding over $1 billion in crypto.
Kroger Hit By A Flood Of Store Closures As A Nightmarish Scenario For Retail Bankruptcies Begins Now one of the most famous grocery chains in the U.S. is getting hit by a massive wave of store closings as a nightmarish scenario for retail bankruptcies starts to unfold. Earlier this month, a spokesperson confirmed that Kroger is shuttering multiple stores, and by early 2024 over 400 locations could go dark permanently. Thousands of jobs will be slashed and many communities may lose their main grocer. And the worst part is that Kroger will not be the only one.
The Devil is Real In today’s watered-down Christianity we have lost sight of the Spiritual War that is raging around us. Most Christians have very little understanding that the Spiritual War is not a “personal” war…although it does affect us individually. The battle is between the “seed” of the Serpent and the “Seed” of the woman. Humans are pawns in the game. Control of the world is the prize.
Scotland’s Incoming Anti-White Terror-Tied Muslim Prime Minister Humza Yousaf is a Major Threat The New leader of Scotland is of Pakistani origin and a racist known to hunt down whites in Scottish Institutions. Scotland’s governing party elected radical Humza Yousaf as its new leader on Monday, making him the first “person of color and the first Muslim” to lead the country of 5.5 million people, celebrated the left-wing media.
That being said, the indictment against Trump is an important development in what I detailed in “The Relentless Prosecutorial Persecution of Donald Trump.” That column is a “no churn” account about Manhattan’s corrupt George Soros-backed DA, Alvin Bragg, and his planned prosecution of Trump for allegedly paying “hush money” to a “porn star.”
Recall those high-profile FBI raids on Biden’s offices and residences to seize classified documents — oh, wait, there were no raids to retrieve more than a thousand pages of classified documents illegally in Biden’s possession.
Second, Bragg’s case against Trump, which federal prosecutors and even Bragg’s predecessor declined to pursue because it is an absurd reach, alleges “falsifying business records in the first degree.” It involves a $130,000 payment Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen paid to an “adult film star,” who alleged a 2006 “relationship” with Trump. Cohen admitted he did make that payment, pleaded guilty, and actually did prison time.
Notably, Bragg successfully campaigned for his own election as DA by promising the Trump indictments.
So, what are the Democrats really up to with the Bragg indictment? How are they using this flimsy indictment as a setup for the 2024 presidential election?
In short, Demo strategists anticipated that Trump would set the social media churn machine on fire with the flimsy “indictment” threat, and they banked on that, hoping it would ensure he would be the Republicans’ 2024 nominee. They are certain that even Biden (if he was actually going to run, which he is not) could defeat Trump again, using their 2020 bulk-mail ballot fraud strategy. They are working overtime on this strategy.
Even if Trump is not the nominee, Demos want to keep his base of supporters angry enough to ensure Trump has the momentum to create enough fratricidal division in the primary to fracture the Republican Party and pave a path for another Democrat victory.
All the coming weeks of media churn aside, this is their indictment strategy. And Demos know this case, combined with the likely indictments related to the Mar-a-Lago classified docs case, will drag on through the 2024 election in support of their strategy. Anyone who underestimates this strategy need only consider how the 2022 Republican “red wave” turned into an anemic “red ripple.”
In response to the indictment, Trump declared, “This is political persecution and election interference at the highest level in history.”
He reiterated how the deep state came after him: “From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower and even before I was sworn in as your president of the United States, the radical-left Democrats, the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this country, have been engaged in a witch hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia and the Mueller hoax. Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, impeachment hoax one, impeachment hoax two, the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid and now this. The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to get Trump, but now they’ve done the unthinkable, indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant election interference. Never before in our nation’s history has this been done.”
Showing up to surrender in Manhattan to be fingerprinted and mug-shotted will provide Trump’s next great platform to rally his supporters. On that note, Ron DeSantis, governor of Trump’s home state of Florida, declared: “The weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head. It is un-American. … Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.”
For a balanced assessment, Georgetown Law professor Jonathan Turley, a Democrat, previously joined many others deriding Bragg’s charade: “One would say Bragg is outside of his lane, but in this case, he’s on a completely different highway. This is an effort by a state official to effectively prosecute a federal crime, a crime that the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute. … This has the feeling of a thrill kill for many on the left, and they need to think seriously about what this [means] for the legal system.”
Now that the indictment has dropped, Turley says, “It’s a raw political prosecution,” but he cautions, “The indictment may come out with a crime that none of us have heard of.”
He adds: “It’s a chilling moment. … Trump may be the first President to be indicted, but if this is the standard, he won’t be the last. … I think it’s legally pathetic. Under Bragg’s theory, he could take any unproven federal crime and revive a long dead misdemeanor and turn it into a felony.”
As for how this plays into the Demo strategy, Turley concurs with my assessment: “The chaos that is erupting is pretty much the element for Donald Trump. It’s like trying to kill an orca by throwing him in the water. He’s obviously doing well in polls because Alvin Bragg just gave him a proof-positive that the criminal justice system is being politicized.”
But he cautions again: “The case that Trump needs to be most worried about is Mar-a Lago. It’s based on favorite criminal provisions in the Department of Justice — obstruction of justice and false statements. Those are very easy to prosecute.”
Finally, even the Washington Post editorial board condemned Bragg’s prosecutorial overreach, noting that the Department of Justice already lost a much stronger case: “When federal prosecutors charged former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) with a similar crime following his 2008 presidential run, he rebutted the accusation by arguing he was trying to disguise his faithlessness from his wife rather than from the voting public. The trial ended in acquittal on one count and a hung jury on others — at which point the Justice Department dropped the charges.”
But again, that is just a diversionary smoke screen. The strength of the case is not the point — the Demo strategy is to strengthen Trump’s base of outrage to fracture the Republican primary and defeat whoever their nominee is.
PS: On a lighter note, our favorite satire site ran this headline today: “Biden Relieved After Learning The President Being Indicted For Shady Financial Dealings Is Just Trump.”
A textbook example of how to make yourself a victim.
Emmy Griffin
Saturday, April 1, was intended to be April Fools’ Day the “Trans Day of Vengeance,” but the “it’ll be peaceful we swear” protests in DC were called off by the organizers due to what they claim were “credible threats” against the community.
The whole rally was intended to be a protest against their supposed “genocide.” The cancellation, therefore, makes them a double victim — or so they claim. Is this really the case? Let’s unpack “trans rights” and all that the activists stand for, the ideology they defend, and the name of the march in light of the Nashville hate crime perpetrated by a woman claiming to be a man.
The trans community claims to be marginalized, bullied by conservative politicians and the religious, and threatened out of their very existence. They said they just wanted tolerance and acceptance by society, but we all knew it would never stop there. They want to use the bathroom and locker rooms of their choice. Wi Spa and Lia Thomas weren’t enough. They want people to use their chosen pronouns. They have even convinced some school districts to severely punish kids who “misgender” a classmate or teacher. They want to be more than affirmed. They want everyone to celebrate and cheer them on even as they dress in drag and dance provocatively in front of small children at “family friendly” drag shows. They want children to have access to “gender-affirming” care, which entails puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and cosmetic and gender mutilation surgeries.
Many have gone along with the trans agenda to keep the peace. It seemed that more “trans women” (men) won accolades and recognition during Women’s History Month than women. President Joe Biden has invited activist and transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney to speak at the White House. Biden, in fact, declared this week “Trans Week of Visibility” (or, as it should be called, “Women’s Week of Invisibility”). Sadly for the whole country, the trans community has been incredibly visible. They are hardly being marginalized by those in power. They have all the power in all the biggest institutions.
While plenty of people are not willing to go along with their insanity, the trans activists want any dissenting voices silenced.
States all across the country are using their federalist rights and taking steps to block the goals of the transgender activists. Tennessee in particular has passed legislation that prohibits sexualized shows of any sort from being presented to children and a bill that protects minors from gender mutilation surgery. Other states have ensured that women’s sports remain biological women’s sports.
These states’ resistance is a threat to transgender activists and other people who believe that any disagreement with them and their ideology is literal genocide. Words are violence.
This week, trans activists proactively started protests. Part of this was a necessity due to the horrible tragedy perpetrated by a gender dysphoric woman in Nashville on Monday. She killed six people, including three young children. But instead of allowing the country to mourn and conceding that perhaps people were rightly focusing on the murdered children and adults, in Tennessee and Kentucky, they stormed the state legislatures and attacked the police. The activists demanded no laws against the sexual mutilation of children and gun confiscation to deflect from the fact that the Nashville school attack was committed by a trans activist.
What is this ideological worldview that is so authoritarian in nature that they believe they have the right to “break the binary,” “convert the children,” and actively persecute anyone who publicly disagrees with them?
It is a cult. One that has massive social capital and resources. It is a cult based on a social contagion targeting the emotionally vulnerable with techniques and psychological tools that actively foster depressive mental patterns. It is a cult that makes a public suicide pact. They destroy their bodies in the pursuit of becoming the opposite gender. They change their names and pronouns and claim that if you use their given name — the one their parents gave them at birth — you are “deadnaming” them. These are all people who are mentally ill and have found affirmation with one another in their misery. They believe that if all their demands on society are met, they will finally be happy and free.
This is not the case because what gender dysphoric people believe is a lie that is so patently fragile, it can be brought down by the simplest of questions. For example, “What is a woman?” It is no coincidence that according to the NIH National Library of Medicine, “Data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.”
It is not an accident that trans activists were calling their protests the “Day of Vengeance.” They want revenge, vindication, and “freedom.” The public statement about the event put about by the Trans Radical Activist Network (TRAN) claimed: “This protest is about unity, not inciting violence. TRAN does not encourage violence and it is not welcome at this event. … Vengeance means fighting back with vehemence. We are fighting against false narratives, criminalization, and eradication of our existence.”
This is the same group that days earlier excused the actions of the trans activist who murdered Christian school children. TRAN wrote that the shooting was “not one tragedy but two.” Why? “All these factors contribute to a population that is under-served and who often face anti-trans bias. … Hate has consequences.” This group has also posted statements like “do literally anything to oppose trans genocide.” Is it any wonder that some very unstable people in this community have taken them up on this call to arms?
Then there is the inevitable censorship when conservatives put up any opposition to the narratives these trans activists are promoting. Conservative political pundit Michael Knowles was suspended from Twitter when he posted a Daily Wire article and quoted Romans 12:19, which says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” Other conservatives likewise have been suspended from Twitter for posts referring to the “Day of Vengeance.”
The transgender movement and ideology is destructive and violent to everyone in society. Their acolytes are spoiling for a fight. Because even the murder of children is apparently all about them.
Biden panders to “transgenders,” trans insurrections in Kentucky and Tennessee, pandemic Medicaid rollback, and more.
Thomas Gallatin & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Biden panders to “transgenders”: In the wake of a “transgender”-identifying woman murdering three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville, Joe Biden elected to use the occasion to promulgate the Left’s bogus narrative of so-called transgenders being the “real” victims. Ahead of the now-canceled “Day of Vengeance” — a “transgender” rally in Washington, DC — Biden has proclaimed March 31 as “Transgender Day of Visibility.” He ridiculously asserted, “Transgender Americans shape our Nation’s soul.” He then obtusely claimed: “Today, too many transgender Americans are still denied … rights and freedoms. A wave of discriminatory state laws is targeting transgender youth, terrifying families and hurting kids who are not hurting anyone. An epidemic of violence against transgender women and girls, in particular women and girls of color, has taken lives far too soon.” Talk about a classic case of projection. Who are the ones seeking to give men access to female places? Who are the ones demanding pronouns be changed? Who are the ones advocating the medical and mental abuse of children? Who are the ones calling for scientific reality to be ignored in favor of a sexually deviant identity? Who are the ones calling for parental rights to be eliminated? Biden has officially beclowned himself.
Trans insurrections in Kentucky, Tennessee: In actions that demonstrate the above reality, activists stormed both Kentucky and Tennessee state houses on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. In both cases, these trans insurrectionists sought to interfere with normal operations of democratically elected governments that were seeking to pass legislation aimed at protecting children from abusive medical procedures. These activists demand the freedom to groom and mutilate children in order to further their immoral and bankrupt ideology. And in Kentucky, they even featured their own “shaman” dressed in satanic horns.
Senate ditches COVID emergency: In bipartisan fashion, the Senate voted to officially end the federal government’s COVID national emergency. The vote should have been unanimous given the fact that it has been three years since the pandemic first hit the U.S., but lawmakers voted 69-23 in favor of the Republican-initiated measure. Unsurprisingly, the only ones to vote against it were Democrats. The White House was also opposed to ending the COVID emergency powers due to the fact that it effectively pulls back on some of Joe Biden’s executive powers. However, Biden has indicated he will sign the legislation, recognizing that a veto would likely be overridden and it would be politically damaging to Democrats, as the vast majority of Americans have long recognized that the COVID pandemic is over.
Pandemic Medicaid rollback: The temporary expansion of Medicaid during the COVID pandemic expires today. In 2020, Congress expanded the government’s medical insurance program to automatically enroll individuals in Medicaid even if they no longer met the program’s requirements. Now, some 15 million individuals may find themselves off the Medicaid program. Of course, they will only be dropped if they fail to meet the program’s requirements. Leftmedia outlets will moan that not keeping people on the government dole leaves people in dire straits. Of course, this means that people will have to be proactive and figure out where they can qualify for medical insurance coverage. There is ObamaCare, after all.
House GOP passes energy bill: On Thursday, the House passed HR 1, or the Lower Energy Costs Act, so named to indicate its importance to Republicans. The legislation is an energy bill that seeks to expand America’s energy industry in fossil fuel production and mining, as well as speed up the approval process for infrastructure projects. Moreover, it rolls back some of Joe Biden’s climate change legislation. As Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA), the bill’s sponsor, explained: “This is a bill focused on helping those families who’ve been struggling, who’ve been saying for the last two years, is anybody in Washington looking out for the families who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, who cannot make ends meet, who are sick and tired of runaway inflation and higher costs? And the answer is yes, House Republicans are here with an answer to this problem.” Naturally, the Democrat-controlled Senate has already indicated the legislation is DOA.
Seattle fentanyl detectors: Drug abuse has become such a problem in Seattle that the city has begun installing fentanyl detectors in its public transportation buses due to the fact that too frequently its drivers have become sickened by exposure to fentanyl fumes. Part of the action behind these detectors, which are being installed in 50 buses, is connected to a study being done by the University of Washington in order to “better understand drugs that are being smoked on the buses and trains.” Due to the Democrat-run city’s soft-on-crime polices, open air drug use has become a much more common problem, to the point where the public is increasingly exposed to this dangerous social blight.
Headlines
McCarthy, GOP tear into Manhattan DA following Trump indictment (Daily Signal)
CBS News bans reporters from using the word “transgender” to describe transgender Nashville shooter (RedState)
Rand Paul blocks Josh Hawley’s bid to ban TikTok in GOP split (Washington Post)
More than 1,100 pages of Biden docs found at think tank (Daily Wire)
Ilhan Omar hit with ethics complaint over alleged abuse of government resources (Fox News)
John Fetterman’s hospital stay got extended again (Townhall)
GDP grew at 2.6% rate in fourth quarter of 2022 despite pressure from rising rates (Washington Examiner)
China and Brazil agree to ditch U.S. dollar for trade (PM)
China threatens to retaliate if McCarthy meets Taiwan leader (AP)
DC attorney failed to prosecute 67% of crimes in 2022 (Townhall)
Prescriptions for ADHD drugs spiked during the pandemic, CDC report finds (NBC News)
Policy: When it comes to Communist China’s grip on U.S. institutions, TikTok is only the beginning (The Federalist)
The world’s most formidable naval force won’t stay that way with misplaced priorities.
Brian Mark Weber
The United States Navy has long ruled the seas. That reputation was earned over many years, and while the Navy remains a formidable force on the world’s oceans, that strength may be waning more quickly than any of us realize.
China’s military has been on the rise in recent years, but instead of keeping pace with China’s emergence as a global sea power and making sure America stays on the cutting edge of technology, our Navy has another priority: climate change.
“The Department of the Navy is stepping forward with Climate Action 2030, a broad, multi-pronged approach,” explains the U.S. Department of Defense website. “The Navy is working to improve efficiency of ships, electrifying vehicles and greatly reducing emissions.” Furthermore, “The Navy is also funding efforts to help restore coral reefs and is eager to pursue further efforts on coral reef research, regrowth and even creation.”
Coral reef research? Electric vehicles? This is the Navy’s answer to China’s explosive growth as a naval power?
Unfortunately, the current Navy leadership thinks so.
“China, which is rapidly becoming the dominant marine force, doesn’t give a damn about adapting to climate change,” says journalist Daniel Greenfield, “except when it comes to peddling its junk solar panels assembled by slave labor to woke companies that will resell them at a massive markup while gobbling up tax credits because when we go ‘green,’ it only weakens us and strengthens our enemies.”
Indeed, while the West goes green, China continues building coal plants. “China became the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2006 and is now responsible for more than a quarter of the world’s overall greenhouse gas emissions,” reports the BBC.
Greenfield adds: “While our military brass obsessed over diversity, equity and inclusion, the PRC turned the South China Sea into its own private backyard, enabling it to potentially cut off traffic to the United States. China has built up chains of islands studded with its naval outposts so that its fighter jets and ant-ship and anti-aircraft missiles now encompass not only the coasts of Taiwan and China, but much of the coastlines of everything from Thailand to Malaysia to the Philippines.”
While current Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro publicly recognizes the threat from China’s navy, he and the Biden administration have planned to reduce the number of U.S. warships.
“The Biden administration released its proposed budget for 2024, which calls for shrinking the Navy fleet even though most military experts and senior Navy officers have called for more ships to deter China’s larger fleet,” Fox News reports. “For several years now, the Navy has set a goal of having 355 manned ships. But, for the last three years, the Biden administration has proposed shrinking the fleet below the roughly 298 ships it has available now, instead of increasing it toward a 355-ship goal.”
Meanwhile, the People’s Liberation Army is expected to have 400 ships by 2025.
But not to worry — President Joe Biden has mandated that each military service have a sustainability officer. Meredith Berger, assistant secretary of the Navy, talks about LED lighting and new salt-resistant paint for naval vessels.
That sure won’t deter China in a naval battle. But hey, if we can’t win, at least the paint on our ships won’t peel.
Even The Atlantic, not exactly a pro-military publication, warns: “It is time for the United States to think and act, once again, like a seapower state. As the naval historian Andrew Lambert has explained, a seapower state understands that its wealth and its might principally derive from seaborne trade, and it uses instruments of sea power to promote and protect its interests. To the degree possible, a seapower state seeks to avoid direct participation in land wars, large or small.”
That’s a clear, sensible assessment of the current state of the U.S. Navy compared to the gobbledygook in the Climate Action 2030 plan.
Assuming the Navy transitions to an electric vehicle fleet, reduces building emissions by 50%, implements nature-based erosion solutions, and diverts solid waste from landfills (all prominent objectives in its Climate Action plan), how will any of this prevent China from dominating the seas in the 21st century?
Of course, it will do nothing to combat China’s rise as the world’s new sea power.
A century from now, historians will scratch their heads and wonder how America could have been so naïve to give it all away. By then, maybe our leaders will have learned their lesson about the climate change religion.
Then again, maybe it will be too late to do anything about it.
Two Black Hawk helicopters collided during a training mission, killing all nine aboard.
Nate Jackson
Military work is dangerous, whether in combat or in training for it. That was illustrated again all too painfully Wednesday night when all nine U.S. Army personnel aboard two Black Hawks were killed when the helicopters collided and crashed into a field during what the Army called a “routine training mission.”
The soldiers were all part of the renowned 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. That isn’t far from Nashville, where six Christians were murdered in a hate crime Monday.
Officials from the Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama, will investigate to determine what caused the crash. As of our publishing time, the identities of the soldiers have not yet been released, but we will update when more information is available.
The 101st is one of the more famous divisions in U.S. Army history, playing a critical role in numerous major battles, including Operation Overlord (D-Day), the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Hamburger Hill (Vietnam), and important missions through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 1,700 member of the division paid the ultimate price in battle, thousands more survived with wounds and scars, and nearly 1,000 were taken as POWs.
Various officials released heartfelt statements after the crash.
Kentucky Governor Andy Bashear: “Today is a tough and tragic day for Kentucky. For Fort Campbell, for the 101st. The nine individuals we lost are children to God, they will be mourned and missed by their families, by their communities. We are blessed to live in the freest country in the history of planet Earth. But we must remember that freedom relies on those who are willing to serve. Some of which paid the ultimate price. We’re going to wrap our arms around these families. We’re going to be there with them not just for the days, but the weeks and months and the years to come. We’re going to let them know they are loved, they are special. They’ll allow us to carry some of their grief. We’ll do that for as long as we can.”
Tennessee Representative Mark Green (USA Maj., retired): “These Americans died doing what they have to do, train for war to defeat our enemies when called on and to defend Liberty. They train just like they’re going to fight, which creates risk, and, unfortunately, in rare circumstances, accidents that result in deaths.”
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: “Please join me in praying for everyone involved in the Fort Campbell helicopter accident, especially our service members and their families.”
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn: “It’s been a difficult week for our state. Please join us praying for the families of the 9 Fort Campbell service members who lost their lives in a tragic aircraft accident, and supporting their loved ones as they navigate this difficult time.”
Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty: “Devastated to hear of this accident near Fort Campbell. Please join me and my family in praying for the loved ones of the brave service members who lost their lives as they endure unimaginable grief.”
We offer our gratitude for these soldiers, and may God comfort their grieving families.
Confronting AOC Over Big Lie — The Heritage Oversight Project served Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with an ethics complaint for breaking House rules by intentionally defaming Libs of TikTok.
‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It’ — D. John Sauer, special assistant attorney general of Louisiana, told Rep. Jim Jordan he was stunned by the number of times Dr. Anthony Fauci failed to recall when he took his deposition.
How Intelligence Agencies Infiltrated Social Media Companies — Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger explains how the Twitter Files exposed the way federal government agencies worked to direct social media companies to censor speech.
“Everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.” —Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (“In Constitutional America, it’s ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ In Democrat fascist America, it’s ‘prove your innocence.’” —Tim Young)
“There is not a crime crisis in Washington, DC.” —DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson
“I again call on Congress to pass the assault weapons ban. … The velocity with which it comes out of that muzzle, what it does when it hits the body — most bullets would go just straight through and out … but it blows up once it’s inside your body.” —Joe Biden
For the Record
“Even if Democrats somehow managed to win enough congressional seats to entertain a constitutional amendment repealing the Second Amendment, and even if enough states agreed with repeal, and even if Democrats then outlawed guns at the federal and state levels, that’s when the hard part starts — they’d have to enforce the new ‘no guns’ regime. Yet sending heavily armed federal agents door to door across all of America to collect hundreds of millions of guns, or even just tens of millions if ‘assault weapons’ are all they sought to confiscate, doesn’t seem, well, safe or peaceful.” —Nate Jackson
Upright
“Make no mistake. A storm is brewing in this country that screams, ‘Christianity is the problem!’ The calls will come — if they haven’t already — for the faithful to step back from cultural engagement, to acquiesce on biblical truth where the battle is raging the fiercest: for our children. It’s the same argument the Left has been using on the parents of confused kids — give in or they’ll hurt themselves. To the church it will be: back off or they’ll hurt others. … But that’s not the way forward in a nation broken and bleeding. As much as the other side would like to manage the chaos by indulging these delusions and passing meaningless legislation, the problem isn’t the state of our laws; it’s the condition of the heart.” —Tony Perkins
“It is our moment to do what the brave officers in Nashville did: confront and engage the crisis. These aren’t men who sat on the sidelines, letting the shooter take aim at more children. They rushed straight into the face of danger and protected the weak. As Christians, we’re called to do the same: confront evil and protect the vulnerable so they may know Jesus.” —Tony Perkins
“Our hearts go out to … the trans community as they are under attack right now.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“God made me in her image. God made me transgender.” —former Human Rights Campaign Press Secretary Charlotte Clymer (“So, lemme get this straight. You’re certain about ‘God’s’ gender, but not your own? Got it.” —Darrell B. Harrison)
Observations
“It is telling that the Transgender Day of Visibility falls on the final day of Women’s History Month. Pride Month, in June, already exists to honor the LGBTQ+ community. Why must one of the days of Women’s History Month also be devoted to the acknowledgment of trans-identifying people?” —Cat Cattinson
“This heightening of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among teens and young adult women is complex. There isn’t a simple fix or a simple way to prevent our girls from this suffering. Ultimately, these young women need to have their purposes, positions, and identity given back to them, and that can only be achieved by reversing the damage that grooming, technology, and psychological disempowerment has wrought and by returning/discovering the healing power of faith in God.” —Emmy Griffin
“We’re being offered a deal: Accept radical gender ideology, drag for kids, porn in libraries, grooming in schools, compelled speech, the mutilation of minors, etc., and trans people will stop killing themselves and murdering others.” —Seth Dillon (“And even if we went along with all of it, the violence wouldn’t stop because it’s innate in the ideology.” —Allie Beth Stuckey)
“We gave the trans crowd everything they wanted — tolerance, acceptance, a key to the women’s room, and trophies meant for women. It just wasn’t enough. It never will be. That’s the problem.” —Kevin Downey Jr.
The Manhattan district attorney’s case against former President Donald Trump is a “legal disaster” that has far-reaching legal ramifications, according to his former lawyer Jenna Ellis.
“The case against Donald Trump is a legal disaster, a weaponizing [of] the justice system against a political opponent,” Ellis, a former attorney for Trump’s 2020 campaign, told The Epoch Times after a grand jury in New York voted to indict the former president.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has been investigating Trump in connection with an alleged hush money payment to adult performer Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, who is the frontrunner in the field of 2024 presidential hopefuls, has denied any wrongdoing, describing the March 30 indictment as “political persecution and election interference.”
Attorney Jenna Ellis arriving for a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, on Nov. 19, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Ellis expressed the same view.
“The only reason DA Alvin Bragg is bringing charges is because Trump is running for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination,” she said, noting that such efforts are likely to backfire.
“The DNC and RNC want a post-Trump America, yet they are incentivizing donors and the MAGA base to rally support against Trump because no one deserves to be politically prosecuted.”
She pointed to Trump’s top potential rival for the Republican nomination in 2024, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came out to denounce the indictment as “un-American.” He also declared that he will not assist in any extradition of Trump, a Florida resident, “given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda,” referring to controversial billionaire financier George Soros.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before his speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center National Harbor, Md., on March 4, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
A throng of prominent Republicans have come to Trump’s aide in the wake of the indictment and criticized the charges against him as politically motivated.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), like Ellis, said that Bragg has “irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election.”
“As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump,” he wrote, vowing that the House will “hold Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House GOP conference chair, released a statement saying the indictment was a “dark day for America.”
“The radical Far Left will stop at nothing to persecute Joe Biden’s chief political opponent ahead of the 2024 presidential election to suppress the will and voice of the American people,” she wrote.
Democrats, in the meantime, hailed the news, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying that Trump is “subject to the same laws as every American.”
The swift response from DeSantis is rewarding politically, Ellis noted. With such a statement, she said, he is positioning himself as “a champion for the rule of law” and an “executive officer who will not allow political games.”
“Voters will love that display of strength and backbone,” she said.
Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina has told CNN that Trump, who is reported to be in Florida currently, will likely be arraigned early next week.
Despite quick action by regulators and policy makers, there’s a rising risk that banking-system stress will spill over into other sectors and the U.S. economy, “unleashing greater financial and economic damage than we anticipated,” said Moody’s Investors Service, one of the Big Three credit-ratings firms.
Simply put, the risk is that officials “will be unable to curtail the current turmoil without longer-lasting and potentially severe repercussions within and beyond the banking sector,” Atsi Sheth, Moody’s managing director of credit strategy, and others wrote in a note distributed on Thursday. Still, the agency’s baseline view is that U.S. officials will “broadly succeed.”
Moody’s warning came as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicated that the U.S. could take additional actions if needed to stabilize the banking system, and after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell assured Americans on Wednesday that the central bank would use its tools to protect depositors.
Musk, who is also the platform’s owner and chief executive, became the most followed account on Thursday evening when he reached approximately 133.05 million followers, passing former President Barack Obama, who has about 133.04 million followers.
For two thousand years, Christians have insisted that Jesus rose physically from the dead on the Sunday after his crucifixion. The historicity of the resurrection is central to Christian theology because Jesus’s death and resurrection are both tied to our salvation. While most religions teach that we are saved on the basis of the good things we do, Christianity teaches that we are saved on the basis of what Jesus did for us. The Bible insists that while we were still far from God, ignoring him, rejecting him, and rebelling against him, God drew near to us in Christ to bear our sin, to take our punishment, and to die on the cross in our place. The resurrection was God’s confirmation that Jesus was who he claimed to be, and it is God’s assurance to Christians that they have been forgiven.
Because of its theological significance, many people assume that the resurrection is merely an article of religious faith, not an event for which there could be any historical evidence. But that is not the case. In fact, I would argue that even from a purely secular standpoint, the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is quite strong. For instance, skeptic Jeffery Lowder, a cofounder of Internet Infidels, writes that “strong historical arguments” can be made for the resurrection. Although he thinks that such arguments are insufficient, he agrees that “for theists [people who believe in God’s existence] . . . the resurrection is a plausible explanation.”1 Similarly, renowned atheist-turned-deist philosopher Antony Flew affirms that “the evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity.”2 Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide even states, “I accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event.”3
What historical evidence was sufficient to convince these non-Christians that the resurrection should be taken seriously and not carelessly dismissed? Although there are other lines of evidence, I’ll sketch an argument for the historicity of the resurrection that rests on four main points: the death and burial of Jesus, the empty tomb, the belief of the apostles, and the conversion of Paul.4
1. Jesus’s Death and Burial
Contemporary historians are virtually unanimous in their acceptance of Jesus’s death on the cross.5 His death by crucifixion is the single fact most mentioned in all the historical records of his life, both Christian and non-Christian. It is recorded in numerous books of the New Testament, including all four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, Hebrews, 1 Peter, and Revelation. It is mentioned by non-Christians like Josephus and Tacitus. It is discussed in apocryphal gospels such as the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Truth. And it is referenced by numerous early Christian writings, including 1 Clement and the epistles of Barnabas and Polycarp. Moreover, it is extremely unlikely that the early Christians would have invented the story that their Savior was an executed criminal. Agnostic Bart Ehrman writes:
It is hard today to understand just how offensive the idea of a crucified messiah would have been to most first-century Jews. . . . Since no one would have made up the idea of a crucified messiah, Jesus must really have existed, must really have raised messianic expectations, and must really have been crucified.6
New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann captures the scholarly consensus when he writes, “The fact of the death of Jesus as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”7 Similarly, there is strong evidence for the historicity of Jesus’s burial. Most importantly, Jesus’s burial is recorded in all four Gospels. The burial of Jesus is also explicitly mentioned in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, written in the late AD 50s, around thirty years after Jesus’s death, and it probably reflects a much earlier creed.8 Given that multiple attestation is one of the major criteria by which New Testament scholars adjudicate the historicity of an event,9 the fact that several independent sources reference the same event strongly suggests that it is historical. Second, the Gospels all claim that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious court that condemned Jesus to death. It seems unlikely that early Christians would have invented this detail involving such a prominent figure, one who was a member of a group opposed to the early Christian movement.10
If we accept the position that Jesus did actually die on the cross and was actually buried, we must then ask, What happened to Jesus after his death and burial?
2. The Empty Tomb
Second, the New Testament Gospels claim that the tomb of Jesus was found empty on the Sunday following his crucifixion. While this claim is not universally affirmed, a recent survey of three decades’ worth of academic literature shows that it was accepted by the majority of scholars who wrote on that subject.11 The strongest piece of evidence in favor of the historicity of the empty tomb is the report that it was discovered by women. This detail may not strike us as odd, but it is surprising, given the low status of women in the first century. For example, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Jewish law expressed the following sentiment regarding the reliability of women: “Let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.”12 If the early Christians were inventing narratives to support their own version of events, why not ascribe the discovery of the tomb to witnesses who would have been received as more credible?
Reflecting on this piece of evidence, Jewish New Testament scholar Geza Vermes concludes:
In the end, when every argument has been considered and weighed, the only conclusion acceptable to the historian must be that the opinions of the orthodox, the liberal sympathizer and the critical agnostic alike—and even perhaps of the disciples themselves—are simply interpretations of the one disconcerting fact: namely that the women who set out to pay their last respects to Jesus found to their consternation, not a body, but an empty tomb.13
Notice that Vermes is not defending the resurrection; he suggests that it may have been an “interpretation” of the disciples. Nevertheless, he recognizes the strength of the women’s testimony as evidence that the tomb was really found empty.
A second factor supporting the historicity of the empty tomb is the fact that just seven weeks after Jesus’s death, the apostles began preaching the resurrection in Jerusalem itself, the very city in which Jesus had been crucified. Had he been lying in a tomb even for this length of time, his features such as hair, teeth, stature, and the wounds of crucifixion would have still been identifiable.14 It is difficult to see how the fledgling Christian movement could have survived despite the opposition of the ruling authorities if the corpse of Jesus had been interred within walking distance of the temple. Any skeptic who wanted to refute the claims of the apostles could have silenced them by taking a short stroll to the burial place of Jesus. Yet we have no record of anyone claiming that the disciples lied about the empty tomb. How did Christianity grow so rapidly in the very place where Jesus was buried if it could have been falsified so easily?15
Finally, at the end of his Gospel, Matthew provides what amounts to a dialogue between Christians and Jews regarding the body of Jesus.16 He states that the Jewish leaders of his day insisted that Jesus’s body had been stolen by the disciples, a claim that apparently was still circulating in the second century, since it is referenced in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho.17 But this accusation implies that the Jewish leaders believed that the tomb was actually empty; obviously, they would not have accused the disciples of grave robbery if they believed that Jesus’s body was still in the tomb. For these reasons, most skeptical responses to the resurrection do not simply dismiss the empty tomb as a legend, but try to provide some alternative explanation for it.
3. The Belief of the Apostles
Third, the followers of Jesus claimed to have seen him alive after he had been executed. They did not claim to have seen him only once or for a short time; they claimed to have seen him repeatedly over an extended period of several weeks. They also did not merely claim to have had a vision of him but said that they touched him, talked to him, and ate with him.18 These experiences were not limited to one or two individuals but included large groups of people, including five hundred at one time.19 What are we to make of these claims?
It is nearly universally accepted by historians that the disciples genuinely believed they had encountered the resurrected Jesus, even if they were mistaken in their belief. For instance, Gerd Lüdemann, who denies the historicity of the resurrection, nonetheless states, “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’ death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.”20 The reason for this consensus is the persecution endured by the apostles for their belief in the resurrection. The apostles were repeatedly beaten and imprisoned. We have good historical evidence that James, Peter, and Paul were all executed for their faith, and church tradition maintains that as many as eleven of the twelve apostles were eventually martyred.21 Given the suffering that the apostles faced, it is difficult to maintain that they knew the resurrection to be a hoax. What would their motivation have been if they knew for certain that they had invented the resurrection stories?
As a parallel, it’s reasonable to infer that the terrorists who destroyed the Twin Towers on 9/11 were sincere. If they were certain that Islam was false, why were they willing to kill themselves and thousands of others? What would they have had to gain? Likewise, we can infer that the apostles were sincere. Like the terrorists on 9/11, they would have had little to gain and a great deal to lose by acting upon a known falsehood. But unlike the terrorists, the apostles were in a position to know with complete certainty whether their claims were true. They were claiming to have seen, touched, and conversed with a man who had been executed just days earlier. If they had intentionally invented that claim, they would have known for certain that it was not worth dying for.
Muslim author Reza Aslan, who argues that it’s “impossible to know” exactly what happened after Jesus’s death, nonetheless recognizes the significance of these considerations. He writes:
One could simply . . . dismiss the resurrection as a lie, and declare belief in the risen Jesus to be the product of a deludable mind. However, there is this nagging fact to consider: one after another of those who claimed to have witnessed the risen Jesus went to their own gruesome deaths refusing to recant their testimony. That is not, in itself, unusual. Many zealous Jews died horribly for refusing to deny their beliefs. But these first followers of Jesus were not being asked to reject matters of faith based on events that took place centuries, if not millennia, before. They were being asked to deny something they themselves personally, directly encountered.22
When they began to face persecution and even death, why would they continue to affirm what they knew to be a lie? The best explanation is that they truly believed they had seen Jesus risen from the dead, whether or not their belief was correct.
4. The Conversion of Paul
Fourth, the conversion of Paul is an important datum reported in the book of Acts and by Paul himself in several of his New Testament letters. He had originally been a vehement opponent of the church and had even consented to the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. While traveling to Damascus to continue his persecution of the early church, Paul suddenly became a Christian, claiming he had encountered Jesus on the road. Unlike the other apostles, Paul had not been a follower of Jesus during his ministry and was clearly no friend to the early church. Thus, his testimony can be regarded as that of a “hostile witness,” someone who had no incentive to accept Christian testimony about the resurrection unless he himself had an experience that he could unambiguously interpret as confirmation that Jesus was alive.23
The weight of this piece of evidence is significant. First, Paul’s conversion put him at immediate odds with the Jewish religious leaders in every city to which he traveled. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul recounts how he was whipped, beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked as a result of his faith (2 Cor. 11:24–25). Moreover, the physical consequences of his conversion are perhaps even less significant than its spiritual implications. Like many Pharisees, Paul regarded the claims of Jesus’s followers—that their Master was the divine Messiah—to be not only false but utterly blasphemous (see Acts 22:2–5; 1 Tim. 1:13). However, Paul underwent a complete religious transformation in a matter of days. He went from regarding Jesus as a false prophet to believing that Jesus was the unique Son of God, who alone offered salvation to all humanity.
This event is psychologically surprising. It would have been as unexpected as Richard Dawkins, the vocal Oxford atheist, suddenly announcing that Jesus appeared to him in his study and that he was now a Christian. While we might think he was crazy, it would be hard to deny that something extraordinary had taken place to bring about such a complete reversal. In fact, the conversion of Paul is even more surprising than the hypothetical conversion of Dawkins, given that Paul embraced not a world religion with billions of followers but a despised, persecuted religious sect with no power and few adherents. Therefore, anyone who doubts the resurrection must provide a plausible account of why Paul underwent such a dramatic conversion in such a short period of time.
Gary R. Habermas and Antony Flew, Did the Resurrection Happen? A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew, ed. David J. Baggett (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 85.
Quoted in Carl E. Braaten, introduction to The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1982), 13. Lapide’s position on the resurrection is particularly interesting because he takes a fairly critical approach to the accounts found in the Gospels, dismisses the empty tomb as a later embellishment, and yet concludes that the resurrection was a historical event on the basis of the radical transformation of the disciples’ lives (see 123–31).
I follow the general argument presented in William Lane Craig, “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?,” in Jesus under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus, ed. Michael J. Wilkins and J. P. Moreland (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 141–76. See also Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3rd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 333–404; Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2004); and N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003).
I say “virtually” because there is a small movement known as Jesus Mythicism, which rejects not only the idea that Jesus died on the cross but also that he ever existed. See, for example, Robert M. Price, The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition? (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2003). It is difficult to overstate how marginal this idea is among biblical scholars. An excellent dialogue between Price and more mainstream scholars can be found in James K. Beilby and Paul Rhodes Eddy, eds., The Historical Jesus: Five Views (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009). See also Bart D. Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (New York: HarperOne, 2012).
Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?, 163–64.
Gerd Lüdemann, with Alf Özen, What Really Happened to Jesus: A Historical Approach to the Resurrection, trans. John Bowden (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 17.
For example, “[The statement in 1 Cor. 15] was probably formulated within the first two or three years after Easter itself, since it was already in formulaic form when Paul ‘received’ it. We are here in touch with the earliest Christian tradition, with something that was being said two decades or more before Paul wrote this letter.” WrightThe Resurrection of the Son, 319.
Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 192–93.
Craig, Reasonable Faith, 364.
Gary Habermas, “Resurrection Research from 1975 to the Present: What Are Critical Scholars Saying?,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 3, no. 2 (2005): 135–53.
Geza Vermes, Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981), 41.
Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 70
Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 70.
Craig, Reasonable Faith, 369–70.
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith, chap. 108, New Advent, https://www.newadvent.org/.
Craig, Reasonable Faith, 385.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:6).
Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus?, 80.
See a book-length discussion of the apostles’ fate in Sean McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles: Examining the Martyrdom Accounts of the Closest Followers of Jesus (London: Routledge, 2018).
Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Random House, 2013), 174.
Habermas and Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, 124.
Neil Shenvi (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) has worked as a research scientist at Yale University and Duke University and has published over thirty peer-reviewed papers. He is married to Christina and currently homeschools their four children.
God’s Word paints a picture of a future when death will be swallowed up in Christ’s victory on the cross and where believers will live eternally with him.
What if I told you that a glorified and risen body was not just a New Testament hope? And what if I told you it was rooted in previous biblical revelation?
Jesus’s teachings affirmed a future resurrection for the righteous and the wicked, but he himself was raised in the middle of history as the firstfruits of the life that will be ours.
This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
PART I (9:26 – 9:26) A Momentous Act in American History: Former President Trump to Be First President or Former President Indicted on Criminal Charges – What Does This Mean?
PART II (14:13 – 14:13) Is There A Predictable, Historical Progression in the Modern Era That Leads to a Liberal Free Fall? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letters from Listeners of The Briefing
PART III (18:15 – 18:15) If Jesus is God, Why Does His Death Matter? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letters from Listeners of The Briefing
PART IV (24:15 – 24:15) Can Virtue Be Taught? Are Humans Born with a Moral Compass and Virtue? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letters from Listeners of The Briefing
PART V (26:17 – 26:17) Why Doesn’t God Answer My Prayers? — Dr. Mohler Responds to a Letters from Listeners of The Briefing
US politics have gotten even raunchier with the country’s first prosecution of a former president
Tony Cox, a US journalist who has written or edited for Bloomberg and several major daily newspapers.
Just when one might have supposed that American politics couldn’t get any trashier, New York City prosecutor Alvin Bragg and former President Donald Trump have proven that the nation hasn’t yet reached the bottom.
The US political system now resembles a reality television show, and with Trump’s indictment on Thursday by a Manhattan grand jury, viewers should cringe at how vulgar and obnoxious the program has become. In fact, if it were a scripted soap opera, it would be too unbelievable and tacky for daytime TV audiences.
Consider the story line, which begins with a $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star, stage-named Stormy Daniels, to buy her silence on allegations of an affair with the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidate. Then you have the boisterous defendant, a former reality TV star who has been divorced twice and is currently married to an ex-model 24 years his junior. And don’t forget Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who is financially backed by billionaire Democratic Party sugar daddy George Soros and is so far left that he’s almost allergic to prosecuting alleged crimes – unless they involve self-defense or a Republican suspect.
One of the tenets of a good drama is that it makes the viewer empathize with one or more of the characters, but in this case, it’s tough to root for anyone. For starters, it’s rather distasteful to have a president who might have reason to pay hush money to an adult film actress. He’s apparently the first American president to have done so, just as he’s also the first who: played a role in a ‘Wrestlemania’ skit; became a billionaire while running six of his businesses through bankruptcy protection from paying creditors; got caught on tape boasting about grabbing women “by the pu**y”; and tried to force an elderly lady out of her home to make room for a parking lot next to his casino. The list of unseemly firsts could go on. Suffice to say that if Jerry Springer’s tabloid talk TV show hosted politicians, Trump would be the first to get an invitation.
With Thursday’s indictment, the twice-impeached Trump is also now the first current or former US president to be criminally charged. Team Soros has set a perilous new precedent by using the criminal justice system to take out a political rival. The people who talk so much about protecting freedom and democracy are trying to take Trump off the menu of 2024 election options for US voters, essentially deciding for them whom they can choose. It’s the behavior of a banana republic, and there’s really no turning back.
It’s also ironic that for all his faults, Trump is being prosecuted for the wrong reasons. As is typical in a twisted justice system, the supposed villain isn’t punished for his alleged serious offenses; rather, the case is about something bogus or piddling.
It’s not illegal to pay hush money, even to a porn star. As legal scholar Jonathan Turley has pointed out, Bragg is trying to resuscitate seven-year-old allegations that both the US Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission found unworthy of pursuing. The criminal charge that could have been relevant – failing to declare a political donation – would require proving that the payment was made for the sole purpose of helping Trump’s presidential campaign. It’s not hard to imagine other potential motivations for a married celebrity and businessman to keep such embarrassing allegations from becoming public.
Bragg, who campaigned for his DA office on a promise to prosecute ‘Bad Orange Man’, likely felt pressure to appease his Trump-hating supporters by following through. He faced criticism last year after declining to file charges against the former president, prompting two senior prosecutors on his team to resign in disgust. Turley called Bragg’s case against the former president “long on politics and short on the law.”
As if the whole episode isn’t disgusting enough at face value, we have corporate media outlets doing their usual bit of hyping and spinning, cheerleading the Democratic Party’s latest effort to put Trump in prison. Just as distastefully, Trump has used the indictment as a fund-raising tool and urged supporters to protest on his behalf – disregarding how ugly the strife in the streets could become.
The fact we even have the Trump saga to talk about is a reflection of how much American politics has spiraled downward over the past few decades, making any sense of dignity or decorum a distant memory. Even just two decades ago, it would have been hard to believe that the standards for elected high office in the US would slide this far.
For instance, the political career of former Senator John Edwards, a Democrat presidential candidate in 2004 and 2008, was essentially ended by revelations of an extramarital affair. It used to be assumed that such scandals were career killers. The Democrat frontrunner in the 1988 presidential race, Gary Hart, dropped out in disgrace after news of his infidelity broke. Prior to Trump, there had only been one US president with a divorce on his resume, and talented orator Ronald Reagan could charm voters into forgetting about a breakup that occurred more than 30 years before he was elected.
Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, was a political laughingstock after a plagiarism and dishonesty scandal torpedoed his first presidential campaign in 1988. By the time he ran for president in 2020, he was an agedly confused gaffe machine whose lying had only increased in frequency. He had also been accused of sexual assault by a former intern, and all the world could go online and see video footage of Biden getting uncomfortably close to young girls at public events.
Voters apparently didn’t care, and the media took a far different approach than in 1988, running interference for Biden rather than scrutinizing his character. In fact, when a bombshell report exposed the Biden family’s influence-peddling operation just a few weeks before the 2020 election, the press helped squash the story and promote a lie that it was Russian disinformation. The media showed surprisingly little interest in the evidence contained on a laptop computer abandoned by Biden’s son, Hunter, who was kicked out of the Navy Reserve for a failed drug test and fathered a child out of wedlock with a woman he reportedly met while she was a stripper and he was having an affair with his brother’s widow.
If this is the best that America has to offer, the nation has bigger problems than its politics. The US becomes more divided, dysfunctional, debased and degenerate every day. Could the Roman Empire, while in its death throes, really have been any more depraved and corrupt than America 2023? And this should ring familiar: the Romans viewed themselves as superior beings, without equal anywhere, and felt destined to rule the world.
The collapse of Rome, when it came, wasn’t pretty. Constant wars, overspending and political instability weakened the foundation. Inflation ran rampant, wealth inequality widened and democracy crumbled amid increasing political violence and decadence. The degraded republic was ruled by madmen in its latter days, accelerating its downfall.
As we watch American politics devolve like a raunchy reality TV program, it feels almost like we’ve seen this show before.
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