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
HOUSTON, TX — In accordance with his annual tradition, Joel Osteen has once again decided to wear his “pastor” costume for Halloween this year.
“Hee hee! Look at me! I’m a pastor! Get it?” a smiling Osteen was heard asking staff at Lakewood Church. “This getup has been workin’ like a charm for years now, baby. Now ain’t the time to go tryin’ on other costumes, you know what I’m sayin’?”
Every October, Osteen’s assistants at the church line up potential alternative costumes. “It’s the same thing each year,” said Lakewood staffer Ricky Morton. “We round up some really great costumes for him to try on — astronaut, cowboy, policeman, Mandalorian bounty hunter, Gandalf, Leonardo from the Ninja Turtles — but he always ends up sticking with the pastor costume. Never fails.”
“And then he wears it all year round.”
“It’s actually rather frustrating,” said fellow church staff member Robert Gibson. “We go to a lot of trouble to give him options, but he just goes with the same $10,000 suit every time. He loves the costume so much that he basically lives in that character now. It’s hard to tell when he’s dressed up for Halloween and when he’s just being himself.”
At publishing time, Osteen’s secretary confirmed that he plans on going door to door throughout the greater Houston area on October 31st asking for financial donations in lieu of candy.
A mother takes her homeschooled children to the public library, only to find it’s changed a lot since she was a kid.
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor.John 12:26
The highest service is imitation. If I would be Christ’s servant I must be His follower. To do as Jesus did is the surest way of bringing honor to His name. Let me mind this every day.
If I imitate Jesus I shall have His company: if I am like Him I shall be with Him. In due time He will take me up to dwell with Him above, if, meanwhile, I have striven to follow Him here below. After His suffering our Lord came to His throne, and even so, after we have suffered a while with Him here below, we also shall arrive in glory. The issue of our Lord’s life shall be the issue of ours: if we are with Him in His humiliation we shall be with Him in His glory. Come, my soul, pluck up courage and put down thy feet in the blood-marked footprints which thy Lord has left thee.
Let me not fail to note that the Father will honor those who follow His Son. If He sees me true to Jesus, He will put marks of favor and honor upon me for His Son’s sake. No honor can be like this. Princes and emperors bestow the mere shadows of honor; the substance of glory comes from the Father. Wherefore, my soul, cling thou to thy Lord Jesus more closely than ever.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.Mark 9:23
Our unbelief is the greatest hindrance in our way; in fact, there is no other real difficulty as to our spiritual progress and prosperity. The Lord can do everything; but when He makes a rule that according to our faith so shall it be unto us, our unbelief ties the hands of His omnipotence.
Yes, the confederacies of evil shall be scattered if we can but believe. Despised truth shall lift its head if we will but have confidence in the God of truth. We can bear our load of trouble or pass uninjured through the waves of distress if we can gird our loins with the girdle of peace, that girdle which is buckled on by the hands of trust.
What can we not believe? Is everything possible except believing in God? Yet He is always true; why do we not believe in Him? He is always faithful to His word; why can we not trust Him? When we are in a right state of heart, faith costs no effort: it is then as natural for us to rely upon God as for a child to trust his father.
The worst of it is that we can believe God about everything except the present pressing trial. This is folly. Come, my soul, shake off such sinfulness, and trust thy God with the load, the labor, the longing of this present. This done, all is done.
Everyone experiences storms in life—occasions that bring pain, suffering, or loss. It’s in turbulent times that all sorts of questions come to mind: Where is God? Why has this happened? Was it something I did? Did God cause it, and if so, why? When we find ourselves in tumultuous times, the safest place to go for answers is God’s Word.
The literal tempest described in today’s passage provides insight regarding the Lord’s role in the various upheavals we face. According to Psalm 107:25 God was responsible for this storm, as He was the one who raised the winds and waves that frightened the sailors.
Sometimes the Lord interrupts our life by sending turbulence so we will do what those sailors did—in their misery and helplessness, they cried for God’s help. He then brought them out of their distress by calming the storm and guiding them to a safe haven. In response, they thanked the Lord for His loving kindness and wondrous deliverance and praised Him to other people.
There’s nothing like the sense of relief that comes when a storm is past. But let’s not forget to respond like those grateful sailors.
Psalm 107:23-32 23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business on great waters, 24 They see the works of the Lord, And His wonders in the deep. 25 For He commands and raises the stormy wind, Which lifts up the waves of the sea. 26 They mount up to the heavens, They go down again to the depths; Their soul melts because of trouble. 27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And]are at their wits’ end. 28 Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, And He brings them out of their distresses. 29 He calms the storm, So that its waves are still. 30 Then they are glad because they are quiet; So He guides them to their desired haven. 31 Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! 32 Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people, And praise Him in the company of the elders.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” Isaiah 55:8, 9
My parents wanted me to become an Economist but I wanted a career in Mass Communication. I set off, weighing my options and chances without consulting God. Then came series of delays, disappointments and frustrations – God had a different agenda. Neither my parents’ plans nor mine met His priority list. He knows the future; He has a different assignment altogether wrapped up for me. The best way to make this happen was by allowing my arrangements to be interrupted through orchestrated disappointments so that, His divine will could be done in my life. Today, I am happy and fulfilled – God has positioned me where I am meant to be.
Can you relate to my story above? Are there times you got stuck with your aspirations or life pursuit? Your answer is simply the same as many others out there. Life is filled with dreams, and cravings. Daily, we find ourselves engrossed with lots of desperate visions. Little do we truly consider the future validity of our longings in the light of God’s purposes for us.
Pause and ponder over some disappointments you’ve encountered in life. Do you think they all happened by mistake? There are such disappointments that happen in life that were allowed by God to stop us on our tracks and prevent us from making grave mistakes. It could be disappointment in our relationships, carrier path, where to settle down, who to marry or businesses to engage in.
God is an All-Knowing God who sees the end from the beginning. Human beings are limited in their knowledge and see just the present. In our text above, the phrase “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts” connotes the huge disparity between God’s wisdom and our limited understanding. We are confined to our little thoughts while God is universal.
It is not all problems and disappointments that are destructive. Lots of them are organized compasses that redirect us to our places of purpose. What are you presently passing through? Heart break, delays or inexplicable circumstances? I want to encourage you that, there is a message behind that heartache. Like a loving father, God is protecting you from an unseen havoc. It might seem painful right now but, if you choose to obey God and let Him have His way, you will be happier at the end. LET GO AND LET GOD.
Biden: War proves status quo not working, two-state solution way forward Biden on Wednesday said that the war against Hamas following its brutal attack against Israel proved that a two-state solution was the only way to move forward. “There’s no going back to the status quo as it stood on October 6,” he said in a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “That means ensuring that Hamas can no longer terrorize Israel and use Palestinians civilians as human shields.
Day 20: In limited overnight operation, IDF sends tanks and infantry into Gaza Strip Israel Defense Forces announced this morning that it carried out a limited operation within the Gaza Strip overnight in an effort to prepare the area for the imminent ground invasion. During the operation, IDF troops targeted and struck several terror outposts, eliminated several terrorists, and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including anti-tank positions. The troops returned to Israeli territory upon completion of the operation
Historic Gesture: Italy’s Move to Reunite Ancient Temple Treasures with Israel In a heartening revelation, a prominent Italian parliamentarian has ignited excitement and hope by suggesting that Italy might hold certain ancient Temple vessels – and they wish to return them to their rightful home: Israel. The roots of these vessels date back to the destruction of the Second Temple, a pivotal event in Jewish history. Over the millennia, the fate of the Temple treasures became the stuff of legend, with many speculating their whereabouts.
UC Berkeley class offers credit for attending pro-Palestinian rallies University of California, Berkeley offers extra credit to students who participate in pro-Palestinian protests on campus or push their local California district representative to criticize Israeli “occupation.”
Outrageous Bias: Reuters Mideast Visuals Chief Openly Supported Terrorism as a Pro-Palestinian Activist Reuters’ regional head of video and pictures in the Middle East has publicly supported terrorists while working for a pro-Palestinian organization, demonized Israel, and criticized the US for providing military aid to the Jewish state, HonestReporting exposed on Monday in a revelation that calls into question his journalistic objectivity.
US House of Representatives approves resolution in support of Israel, 412 to 10 The resolution, titled “Standing with Israel as it defends itself against the barbaric war launched by Hamas and other terrorists”, passed by a majority of 412 to 10. Nine of the ten “no” votes were by Democrats: Reps. Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Andre Carson, Al Green, Summer Lee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Delia Ramirez and Rashida Tlaib. The lone Republican no vote was from Rep. Thomas Massie.
The World is Freaking Out Because Its Favorite Victims Suddenly Became Human Butchers What do you do when you spend a lifetime fighting for the Palestinian cause, and then, overnight, it becomes associated with the butchering, beheading, raping and mutilating of 1400 people, including infants, babies, women, rave dancers, families and the elderly? How do you spin that?
Squad of female IDF combat troops eliminated nearly 100 Hamas terrorists Lt.-Col. Or Ben-Yehuda, the commander of this unit, now recounts her experiences in the southern Gaza Strip, where her battalion eliminated approximately 100 terrorists. She also has a clear message for those who question the capabilities of female fighters in the Caracal (Desert Lynx) and Tank Battalion.
Rashida Tlaib’s alleged links to the Hamas terror organization The Canary Mission identified Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s connections with the Hamas terrorist organization in a new report. Canary Mission can confirm that @RepRashida has extensive fundraising ties to Hamas insiders, incl working w/Hamas activist Salah Sarsour who co-hosted a 2018 election campaign event. Tlaib’s Canary Mission profile: https://t.co/0XTmlE1akk pic.twitter.com/Stm3CObYHU
Gaza tunnels, terrorist infrastructure uncovered by Israeli geologist The infamous Hamas tunnels have played a central role in this worrisome development. Prof. Joel Roskin, a geomorphologist and geologist at Bar-Ilan University’s geography and environment department, has followed the changes in the Gaza tunnels over the years, analyzed the conditions that allowed their formation and expansion and revealed what geological and security conditions have enabled their speedy development.
Hamas launches long-range rockets at Eilat and Haifa Hamas has expanded the scope of its rocket attacks Wednesday, targeting the Israeli cities of Eilat and Haifa. One long-range rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip Wednesday, setting off the sirens in communities near Haifa, including in the towns of Daliyat al-Karmel and Kerem Maharal, the IDF says.
New tool lets artists fight AI image bots by hiding corrupt data in plain sight From Hollywood strikes to digital portraits, AI’s potential to steal creatives’ work and how to stop it has dominated the tech conversation in 2023. The latest effort to protect artists and their creations is Nightshade, a tool allowing artists to add undetectable pixels into their work that could corrupt an AI’s training data, the MIT Technology Review reports. Nightshade’s creation comes as major companies like OpenAI and Meta face lawsuits for copyright infringement and stealing personal works without compensation. Nightshade essentially works as a poison …
Extremely dangerous Category 5 Hurricane “Otis” makes unexpected landfall near Acapulco, Mexico Tropical Storm “Otis” explosively intensified into a Category 4 hurricane in just 12 hours and continued intensifying on its way toward Mexico where it made landfall at 06:25 UTC (00:25 LT) on October 25, 2023, as a Category 5 hurricane. This is now one of the fastest-intensifying hurricanes in the world’s history.
Calm urged as pneumonia cases in children increase Hospitals in parts of China are seeing a surge in infections of mycoplasma pneumoniae — a pathogen that commonly causes respiratory illnesses among young children.
France Mobilizes 7,000 Soldiers Following Suspected Islamist Stabbing France will mobilize up to 7,000 soldiers to increase security around the country after a teacher was fatally stabbed and three other people wounded in a school attack by a former student suspected of Islamic radicalization, the president’s office said Saturday.
NYPD Rescue Jewish Students at Cooper Union College Trapped by Menacing Pro-Hamas Mob Jewish students at Cooper Union college in New York City were terrorized by a menacing mon of pro-Hamas demonstrators who trapped them in a library and cafeteria, banging on the doors and windows and loudly chanting. New York City Police eventually rescued the Jewish students.
Israeli farming crisis spreads to the north Over two weeks have passed since the outbreak of the war, and agriculture in the northern Israel is now taking a hit after the severe damage to farms and agriculture in the Gaza border area. Many fields, groves and plantations in the north have been closed by order of the army, and entry to them is still prohibited today.
Biden calls for ‘concentrated effort’ toward future two-state solution for Israel, Palestinians President Biden Wednesday called for a “concentrated effort” on the part of world leaders to work toward a two-state solution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, as Israel’s war with Hamas looks to reshape the region and leaves open questions to the future for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Amazon begins delivering medications by drone in Texas Amazon Pharmacy customers located in College Station, Texas, can now have their prescription medications delivered by drone, the company announced in a blog post Wednesday.
US records surge in anti-Semitism The Anti-Defamation League claims there has been a 388% rise in anti-Semitism since October 7. Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States have surged by close to 400% in the weeks following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, according to the Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
EU states hoarding Russian fertilizer intended for poor countries Nearly 100,000 tons reportedly remain blocked at ports in Latvia, Estonia, and Belgium Western countries have still not released Russian fertilizer cargoes intended as humanitarian aid for poor African nations, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Sunday.
Top Banker: ‘Arrest’ WEF for ‘Democide’ over ‘Bioweapon’ Covid Shots A prominent former Swiss banker has called for the arrest of corporate elites and unelected globalist bureaucrats over allegations of “democide.” Top banker Pascal Najadi has joined forces with Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger, a seasoned health expert from Geneva, to demand criminal prosecutions of those behind Covid shots, which they describe as “bioweapons.”
Italy Becomes First Nation To Ban Bill Gates’ Fake Meat Due To ‘Serious Health Concerns’ Italy has become the first country to issue a total ban on Bill Gates’ synthetic meat products after numerous studies found that lab-grown fake meat products cause turbo cancers in humans. Meanwhile, in the U.S. the Biden administration has fast-tracked the controversial products for approval
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.” —James Madison (1788)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1881, there was a gunfight at the OK Corral between the Earp brothers and “Doc” Holliday on one side and the infamous Clanton gang on the other. It made for plenty of depictions on film over the years. Today, police are vilified by Democrats who bear responsibility for increasing crime. —Mark Alexander
Louisiana’s Mike Johnson is a rock-ribbed Christian conservative who seems to be able to get along with everyone.
Douglas Andrews
By late yesterday morning, we in our humble shop had a hunch that Louisiana’s Mike Johnson would be our nation’s next House speaker. And, sure enough, he is. By a unanimous GOP vote early yesterday afternoon — 220 Republican votes for Johnson, 209 Democrat votes for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — the Christian conservative congressman whom New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said “epitomizes servant leadership” became the 56th speaker of the House.
“And not a New York minute too soon,” said an exasperated Mark Alexander.
Having been sworn in to his new role immediately after his acceptance speech, Johnson now succeeds Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted on October 3 by eight Republicans in coalition with the entire Democrat caucus.
Say what you will about those eight Republicans — Florida’s Matt Gaetz, Arizona’s Andy Biggs, Colorado’s Ken Buck, Tennessee’s Tim Burchett, Arizona’s Eli Crane, Virginia’s Bob Good, South Carolina’s Nancy Mace, and Montana’s Matt Rosendale — but the three weeks of utter chaos they created by ousting McCarthy ultimately resulted in the right man at the right time. And that oh-so-clever Democrat conference should’ve been more careful about what they wished for. Because the relatively brief drug-like rush they got at their Republican colleagues’ expense ended yesterday with the election of a younger, smarter, smoother, more constitutionally conservative Republican speaker.
Have a nice day, Democrats!
To the political junkies who watched yesterday’s floor vote unfold, it must’ve been sweet to see Johnson jump ahead of Jeffries without bleeding a single GOP protest vote — not to former Speaker McCarthy, not to Johnson’s fellow Louisianian Steve Scalise, not to former New York congressman and gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin. This was an early indication that the conference was utterly united behind Johnson and ready to get the House back in order, eager to get the 118th Congress back to work.
Perhaps disturbed by Johnson’s Christian credentials and his support for traditional marriage, Minnesota Democrat Angie Craig engaged in some disgraceful political grandstanding during the vote call, shouting, “Happy wedding anniversary to my wife!” before casting her voice vote for Jeffries.
Prior to becoming speaker, the four-term Republican was the GOP conference vice chair and served on multiple key congressional committees. On Tuesday night, he outpolled another rising star in the party, Florida’s Byron Donalds, in a head-to-head secret ballot after Tennessee’s Mark Green and Texas’s Roger Williams withdrew their names from consideration. As we noted yesterday, Johnson is a Freedom Caucus member with a strong 91 American Conservative Union rating, and he’s also a past president of the highly influential Republican Study Committee, the largest committee in the GOP conference. Above all, though, he’s both smart and likable, two attributes that sometimes seem to be in short supply, especially in the Beltway.
Johnson was on Donald Trump’s impeachment defense team, and he was against the certification of the grievously flawed 2020 election. When Trump was asked yesterday about Johnson, the once and perhaps future president called him “a tremendous congressman respected by everybody.” Indeed, Johnson isn’t a polarizer, and he doesn’t draw the fire that some “America First” Republicans do. And while the Democrats are already calling him “MAGA Mike,” we suspect he’ll smile and nod and roll with that moniker and ultimately bring credit to it.
Still, even at this early stage in his tenure, Johnson appears to be making all the right, er, detractors, as this post from sleazy Adam Schiff makes clear: “You might be Googling who Mike Johnson is this morning. Let me make it simple: Johnson is a hard-right, pro-Trump, leading election denier in the House. Sadly, this is what passes for Speaker material in the Republican conference.”
Wow. You mad, bro?
Interestingly, Schiff and every single one of his sore-losing Democrat colleagues voted for a hard-right hard-left, pro-Trump anti-Trump, leading election denier in the House: Hakeem Jeffries.
We should note that Johnson and Jeffries know each other, at least roughly, because they served on the House Judiciary Committee together. We’ll see whether Jeffries, who’s 0-19 in speakership races, is interested in working across the aisle or simply obstructing Johnson, who’s undefeated in speakership races.
More fitting was this post from Florida Congresswoman Kat Cammack, who wished Johnson well before yesterday’s floor vote: “Congratulations to my friend Mike Johnson! As our new Speaker designee, he has already made incredible strides bringing our conference together. He is a good man and a constitutional conservative. He believes in #WeThePeople! Together, we serve on the Weaponization subcommittee. The new era of vision, faith, and freedom is here. Let’s do this!”
And this quote from a fellow Louisianian: “I have seen this man in action since he was a state representative,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. “I’ve seen a commitment, a self-service commitment, to things bigger than himself.”
After an all-House quorum vote, Stefanik, who chairs the Republican conference for which Johnson was vice chair, nominated her colleague in a speech that lasted just under seven minutes. Of Johnson, Stefanik said:
A deeply respected constitutional lawyer, Mike has dedicated his life to preserving America’s great principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Mike is a titan on the Judiciary Committee and a dedicated member of the House Armed Services Committee. And as vice chair of our conference, he has united all of our members to speak clearly and boldly on behalf of the American people. A friend to all and an enemy to none, Mike is strong, tough, and fair, and above all, Mike is kind.
Stefanik concluded: “The people are looking to this great chamber to save America. And save America, we will. And as we embark on the path ahead, I am reminded of Galatians 6:9: ‘And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.’ House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson will never give up,” she said. “Today is the day we get this done. May God bless our next speaker, Mike Johnson. May God bless the United States of America, and I yield back.”
Then came the vote, then the final tally, then Johnson’s turn to speak. He didn’t disappoint. He gave a great and stirring speech, especially on what had to be extremely short notice.
He began in a classy way, by acknowledging his Democrat colleagues. Then he thanked “our speaker emeritus, Kevin McCarthy, [who] is the reason we’re in this majority today.”
As The Wall Street Journal reports: “Johnson, 51 years old, represents Louisiana’s deep-red fourth district, in the state’s northwest that includes Shreveport, where he grew up. Johnson is the son of a firefighter who was critically burned and disabled in the line of duty. He is the father of four children of his own.”
During his speech, Johnson noted that he was the first member of his family to graduate from college and that his dad died of cancer just three days before he was elected to Congress in 2016. As the Journal continues: “He has been an attorney with a focus on social conservative issues, including defending the state’s same-sex marriage ban before the Louisiana Supreme Court. His opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion along with support for religious freedoms has continued to guide him as a legislator.”
“I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today,” said Johnson, the first speaker from the state of Louisiana. “To use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country.”
He thanked his wife and his four kids, and the Lord. And his mother, whom he said bore him at age 17. He talked about the House as an institution. Talked about “the beauty of America that allows a firefighter’s kid like me to come and serve in this sacred chamber.” Talked about how his House predecessors had continually strived together to improve what Lincoln called “the last best hope of man on earth.” Talked about how “a strong America is good for the entire world.”
Johnson is an unapologetic man of faith, and it was clear in this passage:
I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear — that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today: To use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country. And they deserve it. And to ensure that our Republic remains standing as the great beacon of light and hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it.
For that, he received a bipartisan standing ovation.
He noted our Declaration of Independence, which he called our birth certificate. And he quoted British author and Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton, who said that America “is the only nation in the world that was founded on a creed.”
Johnson promised that the first bill he’d bring to the floor would be a bill in support of Israel (and he did so hours later). Then he shifted to our southern border: “The status quo is unacceptable,” he said. “Inaction is unacceptable. And we must come together and address the broken border. We have to do it.”
He then addressed the skyrocketing cost of living, the prices that have increased 17% in the last two years. And to fix it? “We have to bring relief to the American people by reining in federal spending and bringing down inflation.”
Then, in a breath of fresh air, Johnson didn’t say that global warming was the greatest threat we face. Instead, he said this: “The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt. And while we’ve been sitting in this room, the debt has crossed almost $33.6 trillion dollars. And in the time it’s going to take me to deliver this speech, we’ll go up another $20 million in debt. It’s unsustainable. We have to get the country back on track. … The consequences if we don’t act now are unbearable. We have a duty to the American people, to explain this to them so they understand it well. And we’re going to establish a bipartisan debt commission to begin working on this crisis immediately. Immediately.”
He noted that we live in a time of bitter partisanship — partisanship that had been painfully evident there among his colleagues. He then invoked Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator, who said he was merely communicating great things.
“What are those great things?” Johnson asked.
“I call them the seven core principles of American conservatism, but let me concede to you all: I think it’s really quintessentially the core principles of our nation. I boil them down to individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity. Those are the foundations that made us the extraordinary nation that we are today.”
We’d do well to write them down.
“I believe in my heart that the best days of America are still ahead of us,” Johnson said in conclusion. “God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.”
We have a sense we’re going to like Speaker Mike Johnson.
The Patriot Post is a touchstone of Liberty for tens of thousands of local grassroots influencers and “grasstop” leaders across the nation — and we provide the most accurate and on-target conservative advocacy on the Web.
Some of you have been with us since the beginning more than 27 years ago. Some have supported us for many years. Many more have recently joined our ranks — which are now growing faster than ever.
Grassroots conservatives have always done the heavy lifting for Liberty in our communities and states, and supporting The Patriot Post’s mission is the most cost-effective way to ensure Liberty prevails.
Our mission and operations budgets are funded solely by the generosity of American Patriots like you.
Twenty-two dead in Maine, Hamas goes old tech, good and bad news on abortion, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Twenty-two dead in Maine: A massive manhunt is ongoing in the area of Lewiston, Maine, for 40-year-old Robert Card, a firearms instructor and Army reservist and a “person of interest” who authorities believe — let’s get real: who authorities know — opened fire first at a bowling alley and then at a bar just before 7 p.m. last night, killing 22 and wounding dozens more. It’s unclear whether these two locations were posted as gun-free zones (read: mass-casualty zones), but what was desperately needed last night was a good guy with a gun. The tragedy here is compounded by a missed opportunity: an utter failure to institutionalize a known risk. Card recently reported mental health issues, including hearing voices in his head. Apparently, he’d threatened to shoot up his Army unit and had been committed to a mental-health facility for two weeks during the summer, but he was then released. Maine has a “yellow-flag law,” which allows law enforcement — but not family members — to remove guns from those deemed to be a threat. As Nikki Haley noted on Fox News last night, 80% of mass shootings are mental-health related, and 70% involve suicidal tendencies. Mental health, not a “gun culture,” is thus the driving force behind the overwhelming majority of such massacres.
Hamas goes old tech: One of the key questions surrounding the massive and murderous attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists was the organization’s ability to plan and carry out such a plan without having been detected. Israel’s intelligence services have long been the world’s gold standard for uncovering such plots well in advance, but this time, they failed miserably and catastrophically. As it turns out, Hamas went low tech to subvert Israel’s high-tech capabilities. As the New York Post reports: “A small cell of Hamas terrorists used old-school landline phones specially installed in the ‘spider web’ of tunnels under Gaza to evade Israeli intelligence forces for two years while plotting the group’s horrific Oct. 7 attack. … The hard-wired phone system allowed Hamas to communicate without being detected by Israel or the United States.” In addition, Hamas plotters held in-person planning meetings, avoided digital and cellular communications, and kept their barbaric designs from their rank-and-file terrorists so as to better maintain secrecy. Israel and the U.S. will no doubt adapt their intelligence-gathering methods going forward, but at a human cost of more than 1,400 dead and more than 200 still held hostage.
Team Biden’s anti-anti-Semite, and Dems rebuke Omar: Anti-Semitic attacks have risen in the U.S. in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, increasing by some 388% according to the Anti-Defamation League. The Justice Department official tasked with prosecuting these hate crimes is Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke, but she has a history of supporting anti-Semitic groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that is explicitly anti-Israel. Clarke has praised anti-Semites like Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Linda Sarsour, and Tamika Mallory, and while Clarke was a student at Harvard University, she organized a speaking event for then-Wellesley College professor Tony Martin, a known anti-Semite who made the false claim that Jews were behind the international slave trade. Meanwhile, anti-Semitic Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MI) was recently blasted by fellow Democrat Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY) for her claim that he was “happy” Palestinians were getting killed. Torres noted that Omar voted against Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. “Were it not for Iron Dome interceptions, there would be far more dead Israelis, far more, by orders of magnitude,” he said. “And so the policy position she has taken would have led to more dead Israelis and more dead Palestinians.”
Biden’s northern border malfeasance: Our ongoing efforts to chronicle Calamity Joe Biden’s open-borders malfeasance has become monotonous, but some new numbers indicate that it’s not just our southern border thrown wide open by the guy who notoriously invited “all those people who are seeking asylum” to “immediately surge to the border.” Indeed, in the fiscal year just concluded, the U.S. apprehended more illegal border crossers at one northern border sector than in the prior 11 years combined — years including roughly half of Barack Obama’s term in office and his unconstitutional amnesty. As Just the News reports, “Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 6,700 foreign nationals from 76 countries attempting to enter the U.S. illegally from Canada.” That’s a 550% increase from fiscal 2022 for the border sector covering 295 miles across northeastern New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Our agents there must feel like they’re playing Whac-A-Mole.
UAW comes to tentative agreement: After a costly strike of nearly six weeks — a strike that saw an enfeebled Joe Biden become the first president to ever engage in a shameless picket-line photo op — the United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company may have come to terms. As NBC News reports, “The agreement will need to be ratified by UAW members, thousands of whom have walked off the job at Ford factories throughout the U.S., including its Kentucky Truck Plant, the company’s largest factory worldwide.” So far, though, both sides have been tight-lipped: Neither spokespeople for Ford or the UAW were willing to comment on their earlier negotiations.
Good and bad news on abortion: Georgia’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Peach State’s law banning abortions after six weeks is constitutional. The court’s 6-1 majority cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling last summer, noting that the justices overturned Roe by finding it to have been “egregiously wrong from the start.” Georgia’s law has reduced abortions in the state by 40%. However, across the entire country, the ending of Roe has resulted in an uptick in abortions, with the last 12 months averaging 183 more abortions per month than prior to the Court ruling. You can thank Democrats’ rabid promotion of the cult of death.
The ACLU and HIV: Tennessee recently passed a law making it a felony for a person who knowingly has an HIV infection to engage in prostitution. Anyone found in violation will be hit with a Class C felony and will be registered as a lifetime violent sex offender. Seems like an entirely reasonable law, but leave it to the leftist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to come out against the legislation, claiming that it is racist. In announcing a lawsuit against Tennessee over the law, the ACLU asserted, “This law is unconstitutional and disproportionately affects Black and transgender women.” Who, exactly, are the racists? Does the ACLU not recognize the fact that it has just negatively stereotyped an entire racial group? Exposing the hypocrisy even more, the ACLU supported the mandating of vaccines, which it said were a “justifiable intrusion on autonomy and bodily integrity” because these rights “do not include the right to inflict harm on others.” Tell that to the HIV-infected man dressed up like a woman.
Oregon edumacation: Speaking of leftist racism, Oregon’s state Board of Education recently suspended for at least five years the requirement of basic competency in reading, writing, and math in order to qualify for high school graduation. Why? Well, according to Oregon officials, holding to those basic requirements negatively impacts students of color. In other words, the Beaver State’s Board of Education has effectively declared that black students are not smart enough to learn how to read, write, or do math. It’s the soft bigotry of low expectations. Once again, who are the racists? As former Oregon Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan observed, “At some point … our diploma is going to end up looking a lot more like a participation prize than an actual certificate that shows that someone actually is prepared to go pursue their best future.” Exactly. What employer would want to risk hiring a high school graduate from Oregon?
Democrats aim to disbar John Eastman: In the wake of the 2020 election, one of the individuals who advised Donald Trump regarding legal theories for challenging the results was lawyer and constitutional scholar John Eastman. Ever since, Eastman has found himself the target of Democrats who are effectively trying to punish him for offering his services to Trump. It was Eastman who presented the novel and likely unconstitutional view that Vice President Mike Pence had the unilateral authority to delay Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote. For this, Democrats are seeking to get Eastman disbarred, with the State Bar of California working to strip him of his law license. For Democrats, the overall goal is to prevent Republicans from legally objecting to any future election results. Only Democrats are permitted to challenge elections.
Beyond rehabilitation? The footage is, we warn you, sickening, and perhaps you’ve already seen it. Two utterly twisted Las Vegas punks steal a car and then go joyriding, filming themselves as they speed down the road and plow into a bicyclist — killing him just for kicks. “Yeah, hit his ass,” the one says to the other. So he did. The victim was 64-year-old Andreas Probst, a 35-year law enforcement veteran and former chief of police, who Las Vegas police say was out for a morning bike ride on August 14. But as the New York Post reports, the most disturbing part of this story might have just now materialized, as the two accused teens — 18-year-old Jesus Ayala and 16-year-old Jzamir Keys — “laughed at each other, smiled, and seemingly flipped off their victim’s family during a court hearing earlier this week.” Weeks earlier, video footage of Ayala’s arrest shows him flippantly requesting a burger from the arresting cop and betting him that he’ll be back on the streets in short order. “They really had no remorse,” said Probst’s 27-year-old daughter Taylor. “This is just a game to them.”
Headlines
Palestinian terrorist brags to parents: “Your son killed Jews!” “I killed 10 with my bare hands!” (Daily Wire)
Rashida Tlaib among Democrats who voted against Israel support resolution (Washington Examiner)
Cooper Union barricades Jewish students inside library as pro-Palestinian protesters bang on doors (New York Post)
Pro-Palestine protester calls for boycott of Nike while wearing Nikes (Not the Bee)
Jamaal Bowman to plead guilty to misdemeanor for pulling fire alarm in a Capitol building (NBC News)
Trump fined $10,000 after taking the stand in civil fraud trial (National Review)
U.S. GDP grew at a 4.9% annual pace in the third quarter, better than expected (CNBC)
Humor: To shed “gay beer” image, Bud Light partners with sport where sweaty men in underwear hug for 25 minutes (Babylon Bee)
After Americans have been killed and wounded by Hamas, what is the commander-in-chief willing to do about it?
Nate Jackson
On Tuesday at the UN, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointedly warned Iran regarding any attack on American forces by Iran or its proxy terrorists, which he cast as standing strong with Israel. “The United States does not seek conflict with Iran,” Blinken said. “We do not want this war to widen. But if Iran or its proxies attack U.S. personnel anywhere, make no mistake. We will defend our people.” And we’ll do so “swiftly and decisively.”
Iran had already crossed Blinken’s red line before he even painted it, so what will the U.S. do?
Under a weak and feckless Joe Biden, almost certainly nothing.
This is the same guy, after all, who unfroze $6 billion in Iranian assets before trying to act tough about that money. He’s the same guy who has been working for his entire term to reinstate Barack Obama’s foolish nuclear deal with Tehran, the same guy whose administration removed any mention of Iran in a draft UN resolution on the Israel-Hamas war.
On October 7, Iranian-backed and trained jihadists launched their assault on Israel, killing 1,400 people including 33 Americans. Several more Americans are Hamas hostages. Since then, Iran-backed militias have targeted U.S. assets in Syria and Iraq in more than a dozen missile and drone attacks, injuring at least two dozen U.S. troops.
“The Biden administration, for days, has withheld those details,” reported The Washington Post Tuesday. Biden certainly didn’t mention it in his speech last week.
White House spokesman John Kirby acknowledged Monday that Iran is “actively facilitating these attacks.” But Senator Tom Cotton knew of “multiple attacks against Americans by Iran’s proxies” back on October 19.
Regardless of timing, what is Vacation Joe going to do about it?
Besides ignoring it for American forces, our commander-in-chief keeps pushing Israel to delay doing anything.
After weeks of carefully targeted air strikes, the Israel Defense Forces launched a small advance ground operation last night. “In preparation for the next stages of combat, the IDF operated in northern Gaza. IDF tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts,” the IDF wrote in an official statement following the incursion. “The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory.”
Yet a larger incursion will wait until the U.S. firms up missile-defense systems meant to protect American troops. There are roughly 3,500 American troops stationed in Iraq and Syria, with more in Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Another reason for the delay, however, is Biden’s call for a humanitarian “pause” during which to distribute more aid to the Palestinians Hamas. We certainly don’t want innocent people to suffer, but as we noted yesterday, a great many Palestinians are hardly innocent, even when they’re not quite taking up arms against Israel.
Israel needs to do “everything in its power to protect innocent civilians,” Biden said yesterday, though that’s awfully hard to do when terrorists deliberately put civilians in harm’s way. As for aid, Hamas decides what aid gets to which people. And the people love them for it all.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 6,500 dead — primarily civilians, of course. But don’t trust a word or number that comes from Hamas. Remember that supposed hospital attack.
Even Biden understands that much: “I have no notion the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people were killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed … but I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are giving.”
Good for Biden for that much, but this entire story is one of America’s utter and dangerous lack of deterrence under this president.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw said it powerfully last week: “If you want to prevent war, you have to be able to threaten it and threaten it credibly. And that takes statements that make people uncomfortable. President Trump did this all the time. He had an intuition for what deterrence actually was.”
Standing in the middle grants you the illusion that you are being evenhanded.
Ben Shapiro
The easiest moral place to stand is in the middle.
Standing in the middle is comforting. It grants you the illusion that you are being evenhanded, that you see nuance and complexity where others see black and white. It is flattering to be in the middle — no one hates your viewpoint enough to make you their opponent, and yet you get to stand apart from everyone, tut-tutting both sides.
When it comes to Israel and its terror-backing enemies, the West has, for some decades, taken precisely that position.
Sure, Israel should be able to defend itself.
But not too much.
Yes, Israel has the right to exist.
But it must make concessions to those who seek Israel’s destruction.
When Israel’s enemies pursue the worst atrocities in four generations, it’s difficult to maintain that position of studied neutrality, in which attacks on Israel are chalked up to political differences and shrugged away. It turns out that scenes of brutally massacred children, women and men tend to upset the moral stomach.
But then the stomach settles again.
All it takes to return to that sophisticated neutrality is a few false platitudes — a few comforting lies.
Three of those lies have been provided in significant supply by the hard Left and its allies in the legacy media.
The first lie is that Israel must be warned not to engage in human rights violations.
We hear this nostrum all the time: from the president of the United States, from the United Nations, from the media. The idea is that if Israel’s leadership isn’t reminded in the wake of the worst pogrom since the Holocaust, those rude Jews might carpet-bomb Gaza. The purpose of the lie is simple: to get Israel to stop defending itself at the first available opportunity. If you warn the world that Israel is likely to pursue atrocities, and then — as inevitably happens in war — something terrible happens, Israel can quickly be shoved back into the box of moral equivalence.
Voila! Status quo ante restored.
Of course, this lie is a lie. And it is a stupidly offensive lie, in the same way that it is a lie when the United Nations warns the United States about human rights violations. Israel is a professional military that abides by the rules of war. Its enemies openly cheer the death of civilians, both Israel’s and their own. By all rights, the entire political and media infrastructure ought to be using their supposed moral suasion on human rights to convince Hamas to release hostages and protect their own citizens. But, of course, there’s no real interest in that. The lie must be maintained. Israel has to be warned about human rights, because secretly, the Jews are just like Hamas.
Then there’s the second lie: that we must all remember the vaunted Peace Process. Yes, the Peace Process that was obviously and clearly a ruse undertaken by Yasser Arafat in order to provide the jumping-off point for a genocidal war on the Jews; the Peace Process that has ended in the election of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the leadership of Islamic Jihad and the terror-paying Palestinian Authority in the West bank. We must, the lie goes, remember the two-state solution!
Of course, this lie is dangerous, too. It’s dangerous because, once again, it inevitably places the blame on Israel for terrorism against Israel. If only the Jews had made more concessions — other than, you know, the partition plan of 1947 (rejected by the Arabs); the Egyptian-Israeli peace deal of 1979 (the Arab states boycotted Egypt after Anwar Sadat’s peace with Israel for almost a decade); the Oslo Accords themselves; Ehud Barak’s 2000 Camp David proposal (rejected by Arafat, and a violent terror war launched resulting in the death of 1,184 Israelis); the Gaza Withdrawal of 2005 (Hamas was elected and has been launching terror attacks ever since); Ehud Olmert’s 2008 peace plan (rejected by Mahmoud Abbas outright); and former President Donald Trump’s so-called Deal of the Century (rejected before even being seen).
But Israel, the lie goes, must continue to make painful concessions. If they don’t, Jew-murder is inevitable. Moral equivalence restored!
Finally, there’s the third lie: that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism. That lie is currently being encouraged by the equation of antisemitism with Islamophobia by many members of our elite. The antisemitism we see today on college campuses is part and parcel of the anti-Semitism that ended with the slaughter of 1,500 Jews in the Gaza Envelope: hatred of Jews is the driving force behind hatred of Israel. But in order to restore any semblance of moral cover for hating Israel, anti-Zionism must be separated from anti-Semitism. The easiest way to accomplish that is to downplay the obvious reflection between international Jew-hatred and attacks on Israel, and instead to subsume anti-Semitism under the broader rubric of lack of multicultural tolerance.
It’s a lie, and it’s an obvious lie. Yes, there are occasional acts of targeting of Muslims. They are nothing like the targeting of Jews. They do not follow the same logic, they do not occur anywhere near as frequently, and they are not spurred by a sort of cycle of violence in the Middle East.
All of these comforting lies are useful in allowing the morally idiotic to attempt to regain a high ground via a falsely restored moral equivalence. And how eager they are for that moral equivalence! That moral equivalence allows Leftist Jews to pretend that they won’t be lumped in with their fellow Jews by the intersectional coalition; it allows the intersectional to pretend that they are on the side of the righteous even as they make excuses for Hamas; it allows the international community to continue to pressure Israel after the mass murder of Jews.
Never Again doesn’t apply, after all, if the Jews are part of the problem.
And so, after approximately one week of global dyspepsia with the evil of Hamas, the world is gradually returning to its steady diet of moral equivalency. They’re doing so with eagerness and alacrity. And that should be terrifying to those who actually oppose genocidal Jew-hatred.
Latest PodcastPopCon #19: Just Say No to GenocideWhat has happened to Israel is a cultural moment that cannot be ignored. Sterling and Andrew discuss why this horrific event is related to pop culture, the disturbing reactions on display from the Left, and how we as Americans should respond.
This is a case study in how the radical Left operates.
Emmy Griffin
Imagine, if you will, a parent’s nightmare scenario. Your child was unfortunate enough to have earned the trust of another student who was planning a school shooting at their middle school. This would-be juvenile shooter had a hit list and a date all planned. Then your child and other classmates all had to testify against this thwarted school shooter. That is nightmare enough, correct? Hopefully, that’s the end of the story for your student’s brush with danger.
Well, for parents at Giles County High School in Tennessee, that was not the end of the nightmare. This August, that same student who was planning on taking a gun to the middle school and shooting anyone he could only 16 months prior was permitted to come back starting in high school. That disturbed teenager again shares classes with some of the kids who testified against him.
When horrified parents complained, the school district disingenuously blamed Republican lawmakers in Nashville who weren’t passing more restrictive gun legislation. One of the mothers, whose child was on the hit list, replied: “Gun laws are not going to affect kids who are not supposed to have guns anyway. It’s sad that our kids are being used as pawns.”
Parents were also directed to talk to the school system’s outside attorney, whose statements also reflected the school’s. In other words, he urged parents that if they don’t like it, take it up with the state capitol to lobby for gun restrictions. What do gun restrictions and left-wing anti-gun activism have to do with the dangerous student being allowed to return to school with people he intended to murder?
No parent could get a straight answer.
The school superintendent for Giles County, Vickie Beard, also continued to mislead parents, telling them: “Tennessee law does not authorize or allow expulsion of students from public schools. Tennessee law does allow suspension of students for a calendar year or up to 180 days for zero-tolerance offenses. Due to Constitutional and privacy rights, we cannot discuss specifics.”
Tennessee’s longstanding law actually states that school authorities have the right and the duty to expel students who have committed a “zero-tolerance” act. In fact, school authorities can choose the length of time that a student is expelled for such offenses, but at a very minimum it’s one calendar year.
This whole nightmare that these kids and their parents are suffering through is a thinly veiled attempt by the school system to force parents to lobby for red flag laws. Gun restrictions are more important to leftist administrators than the safety and well-being of students in their schools.
This is what parents are having to deal with in rural Tennessee; imagine that same scenario in a larger city where the major teachers unions hold sway. Teachers unions during COVID lockdowns were happy to hold our public school children’s education in suspense so that they could get their way on certain benefits and monies.
Our public school children are the innocent pawns of left-wing social experiments and culture war agendas. Leftists in the school district are so sure of their power that they aren’t even hiding it anymore.
A Leftmedia outlet bemoans what it calls the “gay tax” for same-sex couples seeking to become pregnant in the UK.
Thomas Gallatin
One of the regular practices the Left uses to push culture and politics in its desired direction is to imbue long-accepted terminology with new definitions.
While that title itself is pregnant with a massive oxymoron, as same-sex couples cannot naturally create a genuine family because they cannot procreate, that isn’t the novel term redefinition the BBC aims to establish, since same-sex “marriages” are now accepted by the West. Rather, the new idea being pushed is that of a “gay tax.”
The article explains that under the UK’s universal healthcare system, known as the National Health Service (NHS), same-sex couples — specifically lesbians, in this case — do not qualify for government-covered fertility services, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intrauterine insemination (IUI), simply because they want those services.
In order for lesbian couples to qualify for NHS coverage of fertilization treatment, they have to demonstrate that they are struggling with infertility. That’s kind of hard due to the fact that their same-sex activity naturally precludes any possibility of pregnancy or even knowing whether they struggle with infertility.
So, these couples have to personally pay for IVF or IUI services, which can run over £20,000. That, the BBC concludes, is a “gay tax.”
As noted above, there is so much cognitive dissonance here that it’s liable to make one go crazy.
Fundamentally, homosexuality does not nor can it ever produce more humans. Procreation is only possible in heterosexual unions. And heterosexual union, long exclusively recognized and termed “marriage,” has been the fundamental building block for the creation of a family, which in turn is the fundamental building block toward creating society.
To put things in reverse, without marriage, there is no family, and without families, there is no society.
However, rejecting this most basic social reality, the Left has pushed the fairytale of homosexual unions being equivalent to marriage. Then, due to the fact that these unions by nature cannot produce children, they have sought to overcome this by redefining family.
In the case of the UK’s universal healthcare system, the argument of “unfairness” is thrown around and the term “gay tax” is coined in an effort to shame anyone who would oppose the genuinely ludicrous idea that those who have rejected the natural means of procreation should still be entitled to have children. And, by the way, the rest of society should have to pick up the tab for these entitled societal rebels.
Freedom and rights can only go hand in hand if they exist irrespective of another individual having to provide a service. While homosexuals may have the right to engage in their deviant behavior, their desire to also have a family despite their chosen same-sex union is to demand “super rights.” It is a demand that society offer services unique to them that others in society do not qualify for, and indeed have to pay for and provide. And they make these demands for “super rights” on the basis that they are victims of discrimination.
They want to have their cake and eat it too.
This story should be a warning against Americans’ apparent ongoing march toward universal healthcare. But it also is a warning about how a social contagion takes hold — it’s not just in isolated pockets, but soon spreads like a cancer.
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
Why Isn’t There a Palestinian State? — Why don’t the Palestinians have their own country? Is it the fault of Israel? Of the Palestinians? Of both parties? David Brog, executive director of the Maccabee Task Force, shares the surprising answers.
NewsGuard: Fact-Checkers With Too Much Power — Its mission is to “counter misinformation on behalf of readers, brands, and democracies.” In other words, it “guards” the news by telling you what you can and cannot trust. Of course, this begs the question: Can you trust NewsGuard?
“You might be Googling who Mike Johnson is this morning. Let me make it simple: Johnson is a hard-right, pro-Trump, leading election denier in the House. Sadly, this is what passes for Speaker material in the Republican conference.” —Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) (“Interestingly, Schiff and every single one of his sore-losing Democrat colleagues voted for a hard-right hard-left, pro-Trump anti-Trump, leading election denier in the House: Hakeem Jeffries.” —Douglas Andrews)
Touché
“Smoke coming out of the Chimneys in Washington, DC. It’s either a new speaker or Hunter’s hitting the pipe again. My sources tell me BOTH.” —Jimmy Failla
Non Sequitur
“We faced adversity on September 11th, 2001, when the [Twin] Towers and the Pentagon were unexpectedly struck, killing thousands of lives in an instant. We faced adversity right here in the House of Representatives when on January 6th, 2021, a violent mob of insurrectionists, incited by some in this Chamber, overran the House floor as part of an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Keeping the Hospital Lie Going
“Media outlets and third-party analysts have raised doubts about claims and evidence offered by both Israel and the Gaza Ministry of Health, and I agree with the United Nations that an independent investigation is necessary. I cannot uncritically accept Israel’s denials of responsibility as fact.” —Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
The BIG Lies
“The Republicans are trying to sabotage the Biden administration’s efforts to fix the issues at the border and then bash the administration while they are doing that.” —Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY)
“Nobody’s turning a blind eye to Iran’s complicity.” —National Security Council spokesman John Kirby (“Biden unlocked a $6 billion gift for Iran last month. Before that, he unlocked a $10 billion gift. And before that, he stopped enforcing sanctions on Iranian oil (another ~$80 billion).” —RNC)
For the Record
“The United Nations was established, primarily by the United States, in the aftermath of World War II, in an attempt at creating a family of nations. It has been a disaster area ever since, serving more as a propaganda tool on behalf of third-world autocracies than the institution for defense of democracy that served as its initial mission. The UN should be disbanded and defunded.” —Ben Shapiro
“While Hamas/Palestinian terrorists are decapitating Israeli babies, Biden is busy propagating his fake ‘Islamicphobia’ narrative.” —Mark Alexander
Belly Laughs of the Day
“If you want to give [Biden] … a report card: A+. … We are one nation that has truly global responsibilities, and he’s managing it all.” —John Kirby
“Joe Biden is the most popular man in Israel, much more so than Bibi Netanyahu.” —Council on Foreign Relations president emeritus Richard Haass
“The president is doing his job. He’s doing his job domestically and as commander-in-chief.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Non Compos Mentis
“We’re suing Tennessee for their ‘aggravated prostitution’ statute that targets people with HIV with harsh punishment and lifetime sex offender registration. This law is unconstitutional and disproportionately affects Black and transgender women. The law elevates engaging in sex work from a misdemeanor to a felony based on someone’s HIV status — a protected disability.” —ACLU (“I have news for the ACLU: Knowingly exposing people to a deadly disease disproportionately affects the victim of such exposure.” —David Strom)
Junk Science
“[My wife] got the booster and did not get COVID. I did not get the booster and I got COVID. So, another round for you, science.” —”comedian” Stephen Colbert
Re: The Left
“Excusing crime such as theft will only lead to more of it. Communities that have been most negatively impacted by crime are lower-income black and Hispanic communities, but culture, not color, is to blame. When a community not only tolerates but celebrates and lionizes criminals as the real victims, then it’s not shocking when criminal activity increases. Furthermore, when law enforcement is demonized as the villains, it will result in fewer cops and more crime. Then as crime rises, the law-abiding leave if possible.” —Thomas Gallatin
Insight
“Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” —C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)
On Thursday’s “Wake Up America,” Kentucky Rep. James Comer says there are things he knows Joe Biden has done that he hasn’t been able to make public just yet. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
Republicans have finally elected the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana is an Evangelical Christian who is being described as a staunch conservative, and he’s clearly got the support of the majority of Republicans.
The big moment came Wednesday afternoon after 22 days, multiple contenders, four official nominees, and rounds of frustrating votes for the GOP House majority.
With Republicans controlling the House only 221-212 over Democrats, Johnson could afford just a few detractors to win the gavel. He won 220-209, with a few absences.
One of the first things I did after becoming editor in chief of Blaze Media was make Steve Baker a contributor. This is because for the last two years, Steve has been performing the rarest job in America: carefully investigating the truth about the events of January 6, 2021.
When it comes to the protest more than two years ago at the United States Capitol, instead of speaking truth to power, most media outlets are speaking lies to the powerless on the behalf of the powerful.
The narrative about that day that every person in polite society is now supposed to accept is at least as grossly exaggerated as the 2020 George Floyd riots were downplayed. But people obey power, not facts.
First, let’s state the obvious: The Democratic Party continues to use the protest as an excuse to demonize, delegitimize, and viciously persecute its domestic political opposition, including half the nation that supported the Republican nominee the Democrats are now trying to imprison.
The narrative about January 6 is being used as a wedge that our ruling class mercilessly hammers to separate “good” and “respectable” Republicans who go along with it from — according to Joe Biden — “extremist,” “authoritarian,” “insurrectionist” Republicans who threaten the very soul of our nation.
But if anyone truly cares about justice under the law and our system of government, the question of what happened that day should not revolve around whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican or whatever they happen to think about Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
All Americans should care about one thing above all else: the truth.
The truth is out there
For years now, tens of thousands of hours of Capitol CCTV footage containing the truth about January 6 has remained hidden from the American public and defense attorneys for more than 1,100 citizens (and counting) who face federal prosecution.
Since they took over the House this year, Republicans have talked a big game about their intention to release the footage. Tucker Carlson was given access and started in on it for a few nights — but mysteriously and suddenly stopped before he was eventually axed at Fox News. No one thinks his silence was by choice.
After I hired Steve Baker, we were told by House Republicans that we had to wait until a process was established to watch and request video footage. We did that. One of the first things our team discovered when they were allowed to watch the footage was the apparent perjury of U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus during the Oath Keepers’ trial.
Even if the largest “conservative” TV network has shown little interest in the truth about January 6, its audience and millions of Americans are keenly interested. And so are we. Today, Blaze News is launching “The Truth About January 6,” a new video series highlighting our ongoing investigation.
On the eve of launching our blockbuster exclusive on Lazarus, we received an 11th-hour call informing us that because then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy had just been ousted from his position in a surprise vote, we could not release the Capitol CCTV videos that would validate the findings of our investigation.
Without a speaker, we were told that the Committee on House Administration did not have the authority to give our intended presentation of those videos the required “security review” and approve of their public release.
Blaze Media has made numerous entreaties for alternate pathways for congressional approval or some kind of statement from the overseeing committee chairman addressing the reason for the delayed release.
While many of our readers demand we “go nuclear” and release the only videos we currently possess relating to Lazarus, in violation of our agreement with the committee, we have acted consistently within the House’s published media policy.
Blaze Media’s team also examined hours of video evidence we do not yet possess that proves that U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn also lied about what happened on January 6 — footage that we still need reviewed and released by Congress.
On Wednesday afternoon, we received this short response from a senior aide to the Committee on House Administration: “This is a decision for the Office of the Speaker of the House.”
Later in the afternoon, U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) became the speaker of the House of Representatives.
With prior narratives increasingly incapable of sustaining Americans’ enthusiasm for pouring weapons into the West’s proxy war in Ukraine, the Biden administration is now using a pitch that’s both refreshingly and appallingly honest: promoting the Ukraine war as a way to enrich the U.S. arms industry and its employees.
The new angle comes after Americans have been subjected to a succession of pitches aimed at selling a war that’s utterly irrelevant to U.S. security interests. We’ve been variously told the war is necessary to defend democracy, to deter Putin’s aggression, to degrade Russia’s army, and even to deter China from invading Taiwan. With support for the war sagging across the political spectrum — and a growing number of Republican legislators saying enough is enough — the propaganda machine is increasingly grasping at straws
We got our first taste of the new cash-centric, Keynesian war-pitch in Biden’s prime-time Oval Office address last week, which was aimed at selling a $106 billion funding request that will furnish more aid to Ukraine and Israel, with other vote-getting goodies thrown in.
The speech positioned aid to Ukraine and Israel necessary to prevent the destruction of the two countries’ (overrated) democracies. But then, in a discordant note, Biden awkwardly pivoted to the supposed economic benefits that will come from borrowing even more money and shoveling it into the coffers of weapon manufacturers:
“We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment. Equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries, made in Arizona. Artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas. And so much more.”
That was just the opening salvo of the administration’s new money-centered appeal. It’s likely to fall flat with the average citizen, but they’re not the principal audience anyway. In the US empire, the only hearts and minds that matter win are the ones in the House and Senate.
Underscoring that fact, Politico has obtained talking points being distributed by the White House to Capitol Hill’s leading warmongers. In part, the document reads:
“This supplemental request invests over $50 billion in the American defense industrial base — ensuring our military continues to be the most ready, capable, and best equipped fighting force the world has ever seen — and expanding production lines, strengthening the American economy and creating new American jobs.”
Politico reports that White House officials are also circulating “slides showing nearly $20 billion in investment in the industrial base via U.S. support for Ukraine. That includes nearly $3.1 billion in contracts targeted toward expanding the nation’s industrial base capacity, including increasing artillery production approximately six-fold over three years.”
In recent months, anyone with sound morals and a clear mind cringed as various officials started publicly celebrating the Ukraine conflict as a means of weakening Russia without any loss of American life or limbs. One of the worst examples of that casual ghoulishness where Ukrainian lives are concerned came fromSenator Mitt Romney, who cheerfully described the billions being poured into Ukraine as “about the best national defense spending I think we’ve ever done. We’re losing no lives in Ukraine!”
The single most important thing we can do to strengthen America relative to China is to see Russia defeated in Ukraine. A weakened Russia deters the CCP’s territorial ambition, and halts Putin’s vision of reestablishing the old Soviet Union. Supporting Ukraine is in our interest. pic.twitter.com/X21GGs0lTW
Now, we see the War Party graduating from public indifference to Ukrainian lives to spotlighting the profits and overtime pay to be reaped from the Ukraine meat-grinder. Maybe we should applaud it as truth in advertising: After all, the war was always about enriching and empowering the military-industrial complex anyway.
The House needs to do more than question the personnel Grassley identified. It must first open a long-overdue impeachment inquiry into FBI Director Christopher Wray.
While January 6th protesters languish in prison for participating in a fed-filled march on the Capitol, the Biden family sits pretty atop their ivory tower as the FBI covers for their multitude of obvious crimes.
In two bombshell reports from Just the News, we learn that not only was a prosecutor livid over the FBI’s “reluctance” to pursue credible claims of corrupt Biden dealings in Ukraine (the thing Democrats impeached Trump for asking about), the agency had evidence from more than 40 informants spanning ‘years of investigation,’ which DOJ and FBI officials sought to undermine, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed in a Wednesday letter.
Former Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady revealed to the House Judiciary Committee that his team found enough credible evidence in its initial review of Hunter Biden’s dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and possible corruption by Joe Biden to refer criminal matters to three separate U.S. Attorney’s offices in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Delaware for further investigation.
But almost immediately after he was assigned by the Justice Department in 2020 to review Biden family matters in Ukraine, Brady said he encountered resistance at both the FBI and the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s office that at times required him to escalate to his bosses in the deputy attorney general’s office. –Just the News
“It was a challenging working relationship,” Brady said of the agency in testimony earlier this week. “I think there was reluctance on the part of the FBI to really do any tasking related to our assignment from DAG Rosen and looking into allegations of Ukrainian corruption broadly and then specifically anything that intersected with Hunter Biden and his role in Burisma. It was very challenging.”
“I would have thought that would be something, especially as has been publicly reported, there’s information relating to Hunter Biden’s activities on the board of Burisma in Ukraine, that might have been helpful in our assessment of the information that we were receiving about him. I would have expected that be shared,” Brady continued, adding that he encountered similar resistance trying to hand off evidence to David Weiss and his deputy Lesley Wolf in the fall of 2020.
“Speaking generally, from a process perspective, I think there was both a skepticism of the information that we were developing, that we had received, and skepticism and then weariness of that information,” Brady said of Weiss’s office. “I think they were very concerned about any information sharing with our office.
“It became problematic at different points, which required Mr. Weiss and me to get involved and level set, as it were, but it was regularly a challenge to interact with the investigative team from Delaware,” he continued.
Second, the 40 informants.
In a Tuesday letter, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed that the FBI had more than 40 informants on the Biden family over an extended period of time, but that most avenues of investigation were thwarted.
“This letter is based on years of investigation, including the provision of information, records, and allegations from multiple Justice Department whistleblowers that indicate there is – and has been – an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family, including but not limited to FD-1023s referencing the Biden family,” wrote Grassley.
“This alleged political infection breaks faith with the American people, and it will ruin our governmental institutions should it continue. As just one initial example,” he continued, “I’ve been made aware that at one point in time the FBI maintained over 40 Confidential Human Sources that provided criminal information relating to Joe Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden.”
Grassley says Americans need to know: “Did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down?”
“That’s a lot of taxpayer dollars implemented towards one target or one target set,” former Trump advisor Kash Patel said on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “Any national security prosecutor like myself will tell you that usually you have a couple or maybe a handful… but 40? That’s the most I’ve ever heard of. That’s more than in mob cases and RICO cases.”
The Iowa lawmaker further indicated that he had identified 25 Department of Justice and FBI personnel for interviews “who either had a direct or indirect role in the allegations” he mentioned. He further asked that Garland provide him with a litany of records on the Biden family.
The Department of Justice already faces allegations of slow-walking the tax investigation into first son Hunter Biden. A pair of IRS agents who worked on the case came forward earlier this year with allegations that Biden-appointed officials had worked to stifle the investigation and prevent the bringing of more sever charges against Hunter Biden.
Grassley’s requests come as the House of Representatives continues its own investigations into the first family. Those efforts have thus far uncovered extensive foreign payments linked to Biden family businesses.
And of course, the establishment protects its own.
Many Christians around the world celebrate Reformation Day on October 31. To celebrate in advance, we here at CWC thought it was worth sharing the following video.
Producer of the ‘American Gospel’ series, Brandon Kimber, invited well-known Christian apologists to the post-episode discussion “‘Gravesoaking’ and Dr. Michael Brown”. They are Ps. Chris Rosebrough, Justin Peters, Steve Kozar, Jess Westwood and Richard Moore. Not only do they address Dr. Brown’s unethical behaviour surrounding this docuseries, they also tackled a range of important theological issues that many churches today are wrestling with.
We hope you take this resource with a bible in hand and watch this with friends and family for Reformation Day. Below is the description of the video on YouTube. You can also follow the AGTV link to get paid access for early viewing on the episodes ‘Gravesoaking’ and ‘House Of Generals’.
Brandon Kimber, Chris Rosebrough, Justin Peters, Steve Kozar, Jesse Westwood, and Richard Moore discuss the reasons for producing the “Grave Soaking” episodes, and how this impacted Dr. Michael Brown’s decision to withdraw his participation from American Gospel: Spirit & Fire. For context, the Grave Soaking episodes will premiere here (10/25, and remain until 10/31/23):
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning Beautiful Christian Life LLC may get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through its links, at no cost to you.
When we are faced with problems in our relationships, our sinful natures want to place fault with the other person while minimizing or even completely ignoring our personal responsibility for the situation. How can honest self-reflection contribute to improving our relationships?
Taking time to appreciate the other person’s perspective can help us to move forward in a positive direction.
The Protestant Reformation theologian John Calvin reminds us of our selfish tendency as sinful beings to justify ourselves over others:
“We are all so blinded and upset by self-love that everyone imagines he has a just right to exalt himself and to undervalue all others in comparison to self.” — John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, chapter II:IV.
In the midst of relationship problems, be humble, examine yourself, pray, and think of ways to grow in godly character. As difficult as it is to do, we need to self-reflect and consider how our own perspectives, values, expectations, personal history, and selfish desires have contributed to the present troubled relationship.
We also need to take time to reflect on the perspectives, values, expectations, and personal history of the other person as well, and how those factors may have also contributed to the relationship problems. It’s good to ask ourselves whether we have truly loved this person as an image-bearer of God.
In our prayers we humbly ask for God’s help to heal our relationships.
Humbly ask the other person for forgiveness for any wrongs you have done to him or her. Think of ways, both big and small, to encourage improvements in the relationship and try not to dwell on the ways you want the other person to improve.
As we pray to God we humbly acknowledge that we are in God’s story, not the other way around. In prayer we lift up our sins, worries, hurts, disappointments, and anxieties to our Creator who is all-knowing, all-present, and all-powerful.
Recognizing our limits helps us to rest in God’s sovereignty as to the future outcome of the relationship.
In our prayers we ask for God’s help to heal our relationships because of our love for God and our fellow image-bearers. In his letter to the Ephesian church the apostle Paul exhorts fellow believers to remember how God has forgiven us in Christ:
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. — Ephesians 4:31-32
As we pray for forgiveness and a heart to forgive others, we also recognize that we can only control so much in our relationships and God is sovereign in all things. Rejoice that God is in control of all things, including our relationships, and even in seemingly hopeless situations he can bring restoration.
17 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”
5 Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,1 whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. 8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind,2 to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” 11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. 12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you3 shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water.
Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. 15 Behold, they say to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come!” 16 I have not run away from being your shepherd, nor have I desired the day of sickness. You know what came out of my lips; it was before your face. 17 Be not a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. 18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction!
Keep the Sabbath Holy
19 Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
24 “‘But if you listen to me, declares the LORD, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. 27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear4 my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’
12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13 “Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations, Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. 14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion?5 Do the mountain waters run dry,6 the cold flowing streams? 15 But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway, 16 making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head. 17 Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.”
18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”
19 Hear me, O LORD, and listen to the voice of my adversaries. 20 Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. 21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by the sword in battle. 22 May a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet. 23 Yet you, O LORD, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.
The Broken Flask
19 Thus says the LORD, “Go, buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the LORD, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.”
6 Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants1 regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. 2 Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.
False Teachers and True Contentment
Teach and urge these things. 3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound2 words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and3 we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before4 Pontius Pilate made the good confession, 14 to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
20 O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” 21 for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.
5:8 The doctrine of the intermediate state between our death and Christ’s return teaches that when Christians die they, that is, their spirits, go immediately into Christ’s presence and are “at home with the Lord,” while their bodies remain here and are buried in the grave (Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23). When Christ returns, the bodies of believers will be raised from the dead and reunited with their spirits (1 Cor. 15:22, 23; 1 Thess. 4:14, 16). See “Death and the Intermediate State” at Phil. 1:23.[1]
5:8absent from the body Likely alludes to an intermediate period between a believer’s death and the final resurrection of all people (compare Rev 20:11–15). When believers die, they leave the physical body and enter the presence of Christ (compare Phil 1:23; 1 Thess 4:13–18).[2]
5:8Away from the body and at home with the Lord refers to the “intermediate state” between a Christian’s death and the resurrection of all believers’ bodies on the day Christ returns. Paul means that when he dies, though his physical body will be buried here on earth, he expects that he (as a “spirit” or “soul” without a body) will go immediately into the presence of Christ, and will be present with Christ in that condition until the day of resurrection (cf. Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23; Heb. 12:23).[3]
5:8 absent from the body … at home with the Lord. Because heaven is a better place than earth, Paul would rather have been there, with God. This sentiment simply states Paul’s feelings and longings of v. 6 from a reverse perspective (see notes on Php 1:21, 23).[4]
5:8 After the parenthetical thought of v. 7, Paul resumes where he left off in v. 6. He was not only confident (v. 6) that he was going to be with the Lord; he was pleased that he would be with the Lord after his death. This is one of the passages in the NT that indicates where believers will go immediately after their death; they will be with Jesus in heaven (Phil. 1:23). Jesus’ promise to the repentant criminal on the cross next to Him indicates this: “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).[5]
5:8. Here Paul resumes the discussion that he began in v 6. He was not only confident he was going to be with the Lord, but he was confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body, which is groaning and decaying (4:16), and to be present with the Lord. He desires the eternal because that would mean living at home with the Lord (Phil 1:21–23). Residence in the Lord’s presence commences as soon as the departure from this earthly body occurs, even though believers do not receive their glorified bodies until the Rapture.[6]
5:8 Verse 8 resumes the thought of verse 6 and completes it. Paul is of good courage in view of the blessed hope that lies before him, and he can say that he is well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. He has what Bernard calls a case of “heavenly homesickness.”
This verse might seem to contradict what the apostle has just been saying. In the preceding verses he has been longing for the glorified body. But here he says that he is willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, that is, willing rather to be in the disembodied state that exists between death and the Rapture.
But there is no contradiction. There are three possibilities for the Christian, and it is simply a matter of which is most to be preferred. There is the present life on earth in this mortal body. There is the state between death and the coming of Christ, a disembodied state, but one in which the spirit and soul are consciously enjoying Christ’s presence. Finally, there is the consummation of our salvation when we receive our glorified bodies at the coming again of the Lord Jesus. Paul is simply teaching in this passage that the first state is good, the second is better, and the third is best of all.[7]
5:8 This is such a wonderful verse for Christians. It asserts that we will be with the Lord in some sense at death. This refutes the concept of soul sleep. Although our fellowship with other believers is uncertain at this stage and our fellowship with the Lord is not all it will be after we receive our new bodies on Resurrection Day, the great confidence is that we will be with Him! This truth is not clearly taught elsewhere in the Bible except possibly Phil. 1:21–23, which makes this a very significant verse! In light of this truth Paul and all believers can face any and every circumstance in life.[8]
8. We are confident, indeed, and prefer to be away from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Paul reinforces the beginning of verse 6 by repeating the same clause, “we are confident” and by adding the word indeed. But what he is saying sequentially is the opposite of the presumed Corinthian slogan: “While we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord” (v. 6). He reverses the words of this slogan and communicates his longing to be with the Lord. He writes the same teaching elsewhere: “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Phil. 1:23). Paul wants to leave his physical body and enter heaven in the presence of the Lord.
These words would not have caused any difficulty if Paul had not written that he did not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed (vv. 3–4). How can Paul, who abhorred the thought of a separation of body and soul, say that he prefers to be away from the body? Paul’s overriding desire is to be with Christ, which for him is life, and to die, gain (Phil. 1:21). He has to choose one of three different states:
1. to be alive at Christ’s return and to receive a transformed and glorified body;
2. to die, to leave the body, and to be at home with the Lord with an unclad soul;
3. to remain in the body because of obligations to serve the church (Phil. 1:24–26).
Of these three choices, Paul opts for the first one. But if the Lord tarries and death overtakes Paul, he would opt for the second choice. Nonetheless, because of the progress of the gospel in the church, he has to choose the last option. In summary, if there is a delay in Christ’s coming, Paul prefers the second state.
How do we interpret the apparent conflict in Paul’s presentation? Perhaps a parallel can be drawn by pointing to Paul’s commission as an apostle to the Gentiles and his readiness to die for the Lord (Acts 20:24; 21:13). He asked the church at Rome to pray for him that he might visit them on his way to Spain (Rom. 15:23–25, 30–32), yet at the same time he was willing to face death in Jerusalem. The conflict is resolved when we understand that Paul lived by faith and trusted in the Lord. He was ready to serve the Lord but also to die for him and then “to be at home with the Lord.” The Greek is more descriptive, however, than English translations convey, for it expresses movement and rest: “to go on home to [and be with] the Lord” (compare NEB, “go to live with the Lord”).39
The Lord is always near his people (Ps. 119:151; 145:18), and when he calls them to glory, that relationship continues (Rev. 22:7, 12, 20). They leave the body and are forever in the Lord’s presence. The verb to be at home describes a state that begins at the moment of death.[9]
8 After the corrective digression vv. 6b-7, Paul now resumes his line of argument from v. 6a, to give his second reason for the believers’ confidence. This he does by repeating the verb from v. 6a, though not as a participle, “being confident,” but as the finite “we are confident.” It is a confidence arising from the presence of the eschatological Spirit (see on v. 5). This “confidence” he expresses as his preference (“we are content rather …”) to be (literally) “away from home, out of the body” so as to be “at home, with the Lord.” This preference he expresses elsewhere in a context about his death, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Phil 1:23).
Both the verbs (“to be away from … to be at home with”) are in the aorist (completed action) tense, as is the case with verbs in earlier verses (“pulled down”—v. 1; “put on”—v. 2; “put off”—vv. 3, 4; “swallowed”—v. 4). These aorist verbs point to a single moment in the future when the end time descends upon the present (cf. 1 Cor 15:52). While these future references in the earlier verses are about a future, impersonal mode of existence (“a building from God”—v. 1; “a dwelling from heaven”—v. 2; “life”—v. 4), this verse portrays the future in personal terms. We will be “at home with the Lord.”
There is nothing indefinite or conditional about the believers’ future hope. Just as Paul can say, “we have a building from God” (v. 1), so now he is confident that when the time comes for us to be “away from the body,” we will be “at home with the Lord.” But when would Paul have us understand this to be—at the general resurrection (4:14), or at death (5:3, 4)?
He is now referring to that state of being between death and the general resurrection. To die—when the tent is pulled down (v. 1), when one is found naked (v. 3)—is expressed here as being “away, out of the body,” which, however, means to be “at home with the Lord.” Until the general resurrection it is a body-less state (lit. “out of the body”28). Here is a tension of some magnitude. On the one hand, death means being “found naked … unclothed” (vv. 3, 4); yet it also means “being at home with the Lord.” Death, therefore, while being shrunk from on account of its “nakedness,” is also able to be embraced with great anticipation, for it will mean being “with the Lord,” or, as he will say elsewhere, “with Christ” (Phil 1:23).
Two factors give the believer an immediate and urgent hope, notwithstanding the real possibility of death preceding the onset of the coming age. One is that God, who “has raised the Lord Jesus from the dead … will also raise us … present us [at the judgment seat]” (4:14; 5:10). The dead will not remain dead: “The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable” (1 Cor 15:52). The other is that God has given us his Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing the fullness of the blessings of the coming age (v. 5).
Nonetheless, the passage vv. 2–9, in which Paul frankly faces the real possibility of death intervening before the resurrection, expresses some ambivalence. On the one hand, there is a sense of burden in prospect of the nakedness of disembodiment (vv. 3–4). But on the other, there is a confident preference to be “out of the body” so as to be “at home with the Lord.” By analogy, a chronically ill person may be apprehensive of the surgery that is in prospect, yet full of hope for the restoration of health that will result from it.[10]
[2] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (2 Co 5:8). Lexham Press.
Jeremiah 49:23 — Hamath is an interesting city that nobody has heard of. It’s mentioned 39 times in the Old Testament and is the 4th largest city in modern Syria. It was a city-state that sent gifts to David (2 Samuel 8:9). Sennacherib had conquered them as he went towards Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:34). By Jeremiah’s time it was considered part of the Syrian lands.
Jeremiah 49:28 — Nebuchadnezzar was used by God, but Solomon knew that already (Proverbs 21:1). All we have is under the providence of God. I was just at Plymouth Plantation and a guide pointed out that the Pilgrims saw the providence of God in every action of life. God has a plan for His people.
Jeremiah 50:2 — Psalm 75:7 exemplifies this and the previous chapter. God exalts and brings down nations.
Jeremiah 50:19 — God is not done with Israel! He will return Israel to the land!
Jeremiah 50:34 — This is my Redeemer too!
Titus 1:2 — This isn’t a modern “hope I win the lottery” but a sure confidence because God cannot lie!
Titus 1:12 — Paul is quoting a pagan prophet. Paul was a Pharisee, skilled in the Jewish law, but also in pagan customs. He read greatly (2 Timothy 4:13).
Titus 1:13 — Rebuke them sharply! Paul is encouraging Titus in spite of the challenges in Crete:
“things that are wanting” (Titus 1:5)
“self-willed … angry … given to wine … striker … given to filthy lucre” (Titus 1:7)
“gainsayers” (Titus 1:9)
“unruly and vain talkers and deceivers” (Titus 1:10)
“teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” (Titus 1:11)
“Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth” (Titus 1:14)
“their mind and conscience is defiled” (Titus 1:15)
“abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:16)
Psalm 97:9 — This is a key verse in understanding the nature of God in regards to His transcendence – “existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level.”
Psalm 98:3 — In Joshua 2:10-11, the Jerichoites heard about how God parted the Red Sea. We have a responsibility today to take His message to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20).
Proverbs 26:14 — Not just fools, but sloths. Those who prefer their bed will not be used to their fullness by the LORD.
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
The heartbeat of heaven is within believers. The hope of heaven comforts us and motivates us as we await our redemption while actively serving the Lord with our gifts and talents.
One of our world’s great tragedies is that churches sometimes perpetrate falsehoods about God. This happens whenever a person or an institution confuses the gospel of grace with religious routine.
Perhaps you’ve heard before, or have been given the impression, that what you need to do is get yourself as fit as you possibly can in order to approach God: that God will not accept you unless you come acceptably to Him, unless you have something good you can show for yourself. Nothing could be further from the truth! All the fitness that God requires is that you see and confess your need of Him.
By our very nature, we do not see our need for God. Instead, we resist Him: “No one seeks for God … No one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:11-12). It is therefore a great and glorious experience when suddenly, perhaps taking even ourselves by surprise, we find ourselves saying, You know, this wonderful offer of salvation in Jesus is exactly the thing that I need. To see, to know, to feel, and to experience the depth of our insufficiency and then begin to see the light of God’s mercy is nothing short of a miracle.
When Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector who came to the temple, He had exactly this sort of humble self-recognition in mind. The Pharisee pleads his righteousness and is proud that he is “not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). The tax collector, however, takes an utterly different approach. He has no confidence in himself and no sense that he deserves an audience with a holy God. All he can muster are these precious words: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And yet it is this man, the tax collector, who Jesus says “went down to his house justified, rather than the other” (v 14).
This parable is a wonderful invitation to those of us who know we have messed up in life. It is also a great challenge to those of us who have been Christians for years—for the devil loves to point us to our good works and suggest that we now deserve acceptance from God. As the religious expert, the Pharisee should have known better, but his religious uprightness blinded him to grace. Don’t be fooled as he was. In the end, all that you ever bring to God is an empty cup for Him to fill. You are never anything other than a sinner in need of mercy—but you need never be anything other than that, for God loves to be merciful to sinners. Come freely. Come with empty hands. Come without worry. He has mercy for you.
Truth2Freedom's Blog 