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
This post presents evidence against Mormonism/LDS in three main areas. The first is in the area of science. The second is in the area of philosophy. And the third is in the area of history.
The scientific evidence
First, let’s take a look at what the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, believes about the origin of the universe:
“The elements are eternal. That which had a beggining will surely have an end; take a ring, it is without beggining or end – cut it for a beggining place and at the same time you have an ending place.” (“Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”, p. 205)
“Now, the word create came from the word baurau which does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos – chaotic matter, which is element, and in which dwells all the glory. Element had an existance from the time he had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and re-organized, but not destroyed. They had no beggining, and can have no end.” (“Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”, p. 395)
A Mormon scholar named Blake Ostler summarizes the Mormon view in a Mormon theological journal:
“In contrast to the self-sufficient and solitary absolute who creates ex nihilo (out of nothing), the Mormon God did not bring into being the ultimate constituents of the cosmos — neither its fundamental matter nor the space/time matrix which defines it. Hence, unlike the Necessary Being of classical theology who alone could not not exist and on which all else is contingent for existence, the personal God of Mormonism confronts uncreated realities which exist of metaphysical necessity. Such realities include inherently self-directing selves (intelligences), primordial elements (mass/energy), the natural laws which structure reality, and moral principles grounded in the intrinsic value of selves and the requirements for growth and happiness.” (Blake Ostler, “The Mormon Concept of God,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17 (Summer 1984):65-93)
So, Mormons believe in an eternally existing universe, such that matter was never created out of nothing, and will never be destroyed. But this is at odds with modern cosmology.
The standard Big Bang model thus describes a universe which is not eternal in the past, but which came into being a finite time ago. Moreover,–and this deserves underscoring–the origin it posits is an absolute origin ex nihilo. For not only all matter and energy, but space and time themselves come into being at the initial cosmological singularity. As Barrow and Tipler emphasize, “At this singularity, space and time came into existence; literally nothing existed before the singularity, so, if the Universe originated at such a singularity, we would truly have a creation ex nihilo.”
[…]On such a model the universe originates ex nihilo in the sense that at the initial singularity it is true that There is no earlier space-time point or it is false that Something existed prior to the singularity.
Christian cosmology requires such a creation out of nothing, but this is clearly incompatible with what Mormons believe about the universe. The claims about the universe made by the two religions are in disagreement, and we can test empirically to see who is right, using science.
Philosophical problems
Always Have a Reason contrasts two concepts of God in Mormonism: Monarchotheism and Polytheism. It turns out that Mormonism is actually a polytheistic religion, like Hinduism. In Mormonism, humans can become God and then be God of their own planet. So there are many Gods in Mormonism, not just one.
Excerpt:
[T]he notion that there are innumerable contingent “primal intelligences” is central to this Mormon concept of god (P+M, 201; Beckwith and Parrish, 101). That there is more than one god is attested in the Pearl of Great Price, particularly Abraham 4-5. This Mormon concept has the gods positioned to move “primal intelligences along the path to godhood” (Beckwith and Parrish, 114). Among these gods are other gods which were once humans, including God the Father. Brigham Young wrote, “our Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father, and again, He was begotten by a still more ancient Father, and so on…” (Brigham Young, The Seer, 132, quoted in Beckwith and Parrish, 106).
[…]The logic of the Mormon polytheistic concept of God entails that there is an infinite number of gods. To see this, it must be noted that each god him/herself was helped on the path to godhood by another god. There is, therefore, an infinite regress of gods, each aided on his/her path to godhood by a previous god. There is no termination in this series. Now because this entails an actually infinite collection of gods, the Mormon polytheistic concept of deity must deal with all the paradoxes which come with actually existing infinities…
The idea of counting up to an actual infinite number of things by addition (it doesn’t matter what kind of thing it is) is problematic. See here.
More:
Finally, it seems polytheistic Mormonism has a difficulty at its heart–namely the infinite regress of deity.
[…]Each god relies upon a former god, which itself relies upon a former god, forever. Certainly, this is an incoherence at the core of this concept of deity, for it provides no explanation for the existence of the gods, nor does it explain the existence of the universe.
Now let’s see the historical evidence against Mormonism.
The historical evidence
J. Warner Wallace explains how the “Book of Abraham”, a part of the Mormon Scriptures, faces historical difficulties.
The Book of Abraham papyri are not as old as claimed:
Mormon prophets and teachers have always maintained that the papyri that was purchased by Joseph Smith was the actual papyri that was created and written by Abraham. In fact, early believers were told that the papyri were the writings of Abraham.
[…]There is little doubt that the earliest of leaders and witnesses believed and maintained that these papyri were, in fact the very scrolls upon which Abraham and Joseph wrote. These papyri were considered to be the original scrolls until they were later recovered in 1966. After discovering the original papyri, scientists, linguists, archeologists and investigators (both Mormon and non-Mormon) examined them and came to agree that the papyri are far too young to have been written by Abraham. They are approximately 1500 to 2000 years too late, dating from anywhere between 500 B.C. (John A. Wilson, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1968, p. 70.) and 60 A.D. If they papyri had never been discovered, this truth would never have come to light. Today, however, we know the truth, and the truth contradicts the statements of the earliest Mormon leaders and witnesses.
The Book of Abraham papyri do not claim what Joseph Smith said:
In addition to this, the existing papyri simply don’t say anything that would place them in the era related to 2000BC in ancient Egypt. The content of the papyri would at least help verify the dating of the document, even if the content had been transcribed or copied from an earlier document. But the papyri simply tell us about an ancient burial ritual and prayers that are consistent with Egyptian culture in 500BC. Nothing in the papyri hints specifically or exclusively to a time in history in which Abraham would have lived.
So there is a clear difference hear between the Bible and Mormonism, when it comes to historical verification.
Deuteronomy 31:7 — We’ll see a theme in this chapter: be strong! In Numbers 13:28, the spies said the people of the land were “strong.” But in Deuteronomy 11:8, Moses commanded the people of Israel to “be strong” as he did in Deuteronomy 31:6. He also told Joshua the same thing in Deuteronomy 31:7 and again in Deuteronomy 31:23. It was the LORD, though, who commanded Joshua to “be strong” in Joshua 1:6 and 1:9, just before the officers answered Joshua by also encouraging him to be strong (Joshua 1:18). Finally, in Joshua 10:25, it’s Joshua himself encouraging the people with the admonition to “be strong!”
Deuteronomy 31:11 — Every 7 years the Israelites would spend 14 hours listening to the Law. Once Joshua arrived at Mount Ebal, he read the entire Law … yes, every word (Joshua 8:34-35)! Josiah had it read to him (2 Kings 22:10). Later after the Exile, the returning exiles discovered this commandment and followed it in Nehemiah 8:18 – possibly for the first time since Joshua!
Deuteronomy 31:12 — Four duties: hear, learn, fear, obey.
Deuteronomy 31:19 — Now you know why we try to include Scripture songs!
Deuteronomy 32:18 — Have you noticed how many times we’ve referred to the Rock so far? In the New Testament, Paul will expound this in 1 Corinthians 10:4.
Luke 12:15 — Which of the Ten Commandments is covetousness? If you need a refresher, try the finger-based mnemonic videos! There are several – find one that works for you!
Psalm 78:35 — Did you catch Who was their Rock?
Proverbs 12:22 — Again we see Solomon focusing on the power of the tongue!
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.
“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.” – 2 Timothy 2:8This presentation was given by Dr. Conrad Mbewe on January 19, 2024 at the Founders “Remember Jesus Christ” national conference in Southwest Florida.
Pope Francis and His False Religion – Pastor Patrick Hines Podcast
▶️Pastor Patrick Hines has recently had a brand new book published, called, “Earth’s Foundational History – Part 1: Genesis Chapters 1 Through 5.” (Paperback – May 4, 2023) https://cutt.ly/16RCeZ0
These two books are also available on Amazon. All proceeds go directly to Pastor Hines:
▶️Am I Right With God?: The Gospel, Justification, Saving Faith, Repentance, Assurance, & The New Birth https://cutt.ly/S6RCbuM
▶️Redrawing the Battle Lines: 23 Sermons on Critical Issues Facing the Church https://cutt.ly/m6RCTi0
We subscribe to the Westminster Standards as our doctrinal statement. It consists of the following documents:
The Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Larger Catechism The Westminster Shorter Catechism
We also believe that Christian Worship is to be regulated and defined by God’s Word, the Bible.
Our worship services are designed to please and honor the Triune God of the Bible. We place Scripture reading and the preaching of the word of God at the center of worship along with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are God’s gifts to His church and ought to always be at the center of Christian worship. We are a congregation that loves to sing God’s praises, recite His Word back to Him, and actively engage in hearing and learning from God’s Word.
We embrace and promote a comprehensive Christian world and life view.
There is no area of life which is not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is to God and His law which all people, including governments and civil rulers, will answer. The Word of God embraces and informs the way we view marriage, the family, children, education, politics, worship, law, government, war, the church, missions, evangelism, and worship. In the world today there is a battle of opposing worldviews. There are basically only two positions: God’s Word and man’s ideas. We stand positively for Biblical truth and negatively against man’s ideas which are opposed to Biblical truth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for mankind.
Because all men fall short of obeying God’s law, all men everywhere are in need of divine grace and salvation from God. This salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners, was buried, rose again, and is alive today seated at God the Father’s right hand.
Pope Francis is the Pope and head of the Catholic Church, the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State.
Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. He has been noted for his commitment to interreligious dialogue.
Francis has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBT community and has permitted the blessings of same-sex couples. Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism; he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy. He has denounced the death penalty as intrinsically evil and termed it “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, “inadmissible”, and committed the Church to its abolition, saying that there can be “no going back from this position”
In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality, helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises, calling on the Western World to significantly increase immigration levels. In 2022, he apologized for the Church’s role in the “cultural genocide” of the Canadian indigenous peoples.
In these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointedheir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (1:2)
God’s full, perfect revelation awaited the coming of His Son. God, who used to speak in many different ways through many different people, has finally spoken in one way, through one Person, His Son Jesus Christ.
The whole New Testament is centered around Christ. The gospels tell His story, the epistles comment on it, and the Revelation tells of its culmination. From beginning to end the New Testament is Christ. No prophet had been given God’s whole truth. The Old Testament was given to many men, in bits and pieces and fragments. Jesus not only brought, but was, God’s full and final Revelation.
Coming in These Last Days
There are several ways to interpret the phrase, in these last days. It could refer to the last days of revelation. It could mean that this is the final revelation in Christ, there being nothing else to add to it. Or it could mean that in the last days of revelation it came through God’s Son. But I think the writer is making a messianic reference. The phrase “the last days” was very familiar to the Jews of that day and had a distinctive meaning. Whenever a Jew saw or heard these words he immediately had messianic thoughts, because the scriptural promise was that in the last days Messiah would come (Jer. 33:14–16; Mic. 5:1–4; Zech. 9:9, 16). Since this letter was written first of all to Jews, we will interpret the phrase in that context.
The woman at the well, though a Samaritan, told Jesus, “I know that the Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (John 4:25). She knew that when Messiah arrived, He would unfold the full and final revelation of God, as indeed He did.
The writer, then, is saying, “In these promised Last Days Messiah (Christ) has come and has spoken the final revelation of God.” Jesus came in these last days. Unfortunately, Messiah’s own people rejected Him and His revelation, and so the fulfillment of all of the promises of the last days has yet to be fully realized.
True and Complete
The Old Testament had been given in pieces. To Noah was revealed the quarter of the world from which Messiah would come. To Micah, the town where He would be born. To Daniel, the time of His birth. To Malachi, the forerunner who would come before Him. To Jonah, His resurrection was typified. Every one of those pieces of revelation was true and accurate; and each one related to the others in some way or another. And each one in some way or another pointed to the Messiah, the Christ. But only in Jesus Christ Himself was everything brought together and made whole. In Him the revelation was full and complete.
Since the revelation is complete, to add anything to the New Testament is blasphemous. To add to it The Book of Mormon, or Science and Health, or anything else that claims to be revelation from God is blasphemous. “God has in these last days finalized His revelation in His Son.” It was finished. The end of the book of Revelation warns that if we add anything to it, its plagues will be added to us, and that if we take anything away from it, our part in the tree of life and the holy city will be taken away from us (Rev. 22:18–19).
In the first verse and a half of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit establishes the preeminence of Jesus Christ over all the Old Testament, over its message, its methods, and its messengers. It was just what those Jews, believing and nonbelieving, needed to hear.
And so is established the priority of Jesus Christ. He is greater than the prophets. He is greater than any revelation in the Old Testament, for He is the embodiment of all that truth, and more. God has fully expressed Himself in Christ.[1]
2 “The universe” at the end of v. 2 renders τοὺς αἰῶνας (tous aiōnas, GK 172), which elsewhere more often means “the ages.” In Jewish thought time was divided into two “ages,” “the present age” and “the age to come” (see 6:5), so that “the ages” taken together represent the totality of time but by transference can also be used of the whole physical creation. See 11:3 for the same use of τοὺς αἰῶνας, tous aiōnas, with reference to the original creation of the universe; cf. the title “King of the Ages” used for God, e.g., in 1 Ti 1:17. Paul speaks of this αἰῶν (aiōn) in parallel with this κόσμος (kosmos, “world,” GK 3180) in 1 Corinthians 1:20 and 3:18–19.[2]
1:2 / In these last days (lit., “at the end of these days”) God has spoken through his Son. The writer uses eschatological language, that is, language of the last or end time, thereby affirming that we have entered the eschatological age. In other words, God’s plan has now come to fruition; we have entered a new age (cf. 9:26). A fundamental turning point has been reached as God speaks climactically, definitively, and finally through his Son. Any further speaking about what remains to happen in the future is but the elaboration of what has already begun. All that God did previously functions in a preparatory manner, pointing as a great arrow to the goal of Christ. This is the argument our author so effectively presents throughout the book. Christ is the telos, the goal and ultimate meaning of all that preceded.
But in what sense was the writer, or any of the writers of the nt for that matter, justified in referring to his time as the last days? The key to understanding this kind of statement (see also 4:3; 6:5; 9:26; 12:22ff.), is found in the theological ultimacy of Christ. There is no way our writer can have recognized the reality of Jesus Christ—who he is and what he has done—and not have confessed this to be the last time. The sense in which it is “last” is not chronological but theological. The cross, the death, and the exaltation of Jesus point automatically to the beginning of the end. Theologically we have reached the turning point in the plan that God has had all through the ages, so by definition we are in the last days. Eschatology is of one theological fabric: when God has spoken through his Son, the eschatological age has begun, and we are necessarily in the last days theologically. These are the last days because of the greatness of what God has done. The surprise is, of course, that this period of eschatological fulfillment is so prolonged that these last days are not necessarily (though for any age it may turn out that they are) the last days chronologically.
This book, this opening passage, and particularly verse 2, point to the centrality of the Son and the superiority of the Son to all that preceded, all that exists now, and anything that might exist in the future. God has now spoken to us climactically by his Son, in whom, as Paul puts it, all of God’s promises are “Yes” (2 Cor. 1:20). The very mention of the Son has strong ot messianic overtones, as is evident immediately in verse 5, which quotes Psalm 2:7, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father,” and 2 Samuel 7:14, “I will be his father, and he will be my son.” Indeed, the remainder of the chapter, with its numerous ot quotations, points to the unique identity of the Son as the Promised One, the Messiah designated by God to bring about the fulfillment of God’s great plan and purpose.
The true nature of the Son is then expounded in seven glorious phrases that portray his incomparable superiority. He is, in the first instance, the one whom he [God] appointed heir of all things. In the Hebrew culture, to be a son means to be an heir, especially when one is the only or unique son. Therefore, the Son of God, by virtue of his sonship, is appointed the one who will finally possess everything. To the messianic Son of Psalm 2:7 (quoted above) are also spoken the words, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession” (Ps. 2:8). The Son is thus of central significance at the beginning, in creation, and at the end, in inheritance. Paul’s language is parallel: “all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16).
Second, the Son is described as the one through whom he [God] made the universe. The Son is God’s agent in the creation of the universe of all space and all time—in short, of all that exists. This view of Christ is present also in the Fourth Gospel (John 1:3, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”), and in Paul (Col. 1:16, “all things were created by him”; 1 Cor. 8:6 “through whom all things came”). The background of this view possibly lies in the concept of Divine Wisdom, which, personified, is instrumental in creation according to Proverbs 8:27–31 (cf. Wisd. of Sol. 9:1f., 9).[3]
[1] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1983). Hebrews (pp. 5–7). Moody Press.
[2] France, R. T. (2006). Hebrews. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 39). Zondervan.
[3] Hagner, D. A. (2011). Hebrews (pp. 22–23). Baker Books.
How do we know we’re growing in Christ? How do we know the Holy Spirit is at work in us?
Firstly, because if you’re genuinely saved, you know He is because He said He would be. It’s a matter of faith and trust in believing what God says He will do, He will do.
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
Secondly, because we look back. If you sit on your lawn and stare at the grass, you cannot see it growing. But go away for the weekend and arriving home, suddenly you can see it’s grown 2 inches and needs a mow!
Our sanctification may be fast or slow, hurtle along steadily or go in chugs and fits, but it’s happening.
Finally then, brothers and sisters, we request and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel even more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1).
Of course, it doesn’t happen passively, with God dripping down holiness to our mind and heart. We participate in this sanctifying work. There are verbs for us in this process, verbs such as walk, pursue, slay, cleanse… We are active in the sanctifying work.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1).
I sometimes despair, like Paul did, that I am a wretched woman, sick of my sin, pleading ‘who will deliver me from this body of death?!’ But then I find a marker on my walk. We do not have a personal roadmap to see the way ahead, but we know that if we stay within the guardrails of His commands and pursue holiness, our steps will be directed forward.
We may not see the path ahead but we advance step by step in faith and He directs our steps.
Establish my steps in Your word, And do not let any wickedness overpower me. (Psalm 119:33).
I’ll share a few personal insights to some of the markers that show me the Spirit is alive and working inside me.
1. Prayer moves me. It’s mind-blowing to think that we can clasp our hands, bend our heads, and speak to the Majestic, Powerful God above, and He eagerly listens! This makes my eyes tear up every time. Before I was saved, I cared not for any of the things God cares about, and I certainly didn’t speak to Him. I suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. Now I am moved just at the thought I can petition Him.
2. Some particular Bible verses move me. All the Bible’s word is emotional, causing conviction or rejoicing in my heart. But there are a few I just don’t know why they bring me to tears every time I read them. One is Zechariah 1:11, the scene of the Man among the Myrtles. It brings me to tears. Why should such unremarkable words bring me to my knees? It must be the Spirit. I’ve long ceased trying to figure to out.
Another one is the verse from Acts 2:27/Psalm 16:10, FOR YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR WILL YOU ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY.
Thinking of our precious Savior’s body moldering in the tomb is beyond infinitely grievous to my soul.
Lastly for the purposes of this essay, the nickname Dayspring for our Lord. It also moves me. It’s the King James version that uses the word dayspring, it’s now an archaic word and we usually just say ‘dawn’ or ‘sunrise’.
Why should so old and innocuous a word move my spirit? It can only be because the Spirit is alive and working within me. The Holy Spirit rejoices at the Dayspring Himself, and so must I.
Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, (Luke 1:78 KJV)
Here is a rabbit trail into MacLaren’s Expositions on ZACHARIAS’S HYMN: THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH, Luke 1:78 – Luke 1:79.
“As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song, Mary and Zacharias brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed it. The human members of this choir may be regarded as the last of the psalmists and prophets, and the first of Christian singers.”
EPrata photo
Look back on your road of sanctification. See what markers of progress you find. Books you own but now see aren’t as healthy or edifying as you once thought? Movies where the language or certain scenes now bother you? Old tee shirts with slogans you now find corrupt? Verses which move you, ones that ‘leap off the page,’ or stick in your head?
If the Spirit is in us, He will be working on our corrupt nature, slowly siphoning off the dross and cleansing the heart ever purer.
Oh what a day it will be when we are finally purified, glorified, and no sin in us! And it is due to Him who died for His people, love beyond words.
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”Read More
In response to the disciples asking, “when will these things be?” (Matt. 24:3), Jesus saysno one knows, not even . . . the Son, but the Father only. In his incarnate life, Jesus learned things as other human beings learn them (cf. Luke 2:52; Heb. 5:8). On the other hand, Jesus was also fully God, and, as God, he had infinite knowledge (cf. John 2:25; 16:30; 21:17). Here he is apparently speaking in terms of his human nature. This is similar to other statements about Jesus which could be true of his human nature only, and not of his divine nature (he grew and became strong, Luke 2:40; increased in stature, Luke 2:52; was about 30 years old, Luke 3:23; was weary, John 4:6; was thirsty, John 19:28; was hungry, Matt. 4:2; was crucified, 1 Cor. 2:8). Taking account of these verses, together with many verses that affirm Christ’s deity, the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451 affirmed that Christ was “perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man.” Yet it also affirmed that Jesus was “one Person and one Subsistence.”
With regard to the properties of his human nature and his divine nature, the Chalcedonian Creed affirmed that Christ was to be “acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved.” That meant the properties of deity and the properties of humanity were both preserved. How Jesus could have limited knowledge and yet know all things is difficult, and much remains a mystery, for nobody else has ever been both God and man. One possibility is that Jesus regularly lived on the basis of his human knowledge but could at any time call to mind anything from his infinite knowledge.
taken . . . left.The description may indicate that one is taken away to final judgment (cf. Matt. 24:39) while the other remains to experience salvation at Christ’s return. Or possibly the one who is taken is among the elect that the Son of Man will “gather . . . from the four winds” (Mat. 24:31).
2. Luke 21:25–28
“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”Read More
Jesus Foretells the Coming of the Son of Man. Having warned of the approaching destruction of the temple and Jerusalem (Luke 21:5–24), Jesus turns now to the more distant future and foretells his second coming.
The Coming of the Son of Man. Jesus turns next to teachings about the consummation of all things and his return.signs in sun and moon and stars.The powers of the heavens will be shaken describes great changes in the skies.they will see.The second coming involves the visible return of the Son of Man from heaven (Acts 1:11), bringing history to its end.These things . . . take placerefers to Luke 21:25–27.straighten up and raise your heads. A posture of hope and confidence.Redemptionrefers to the time of Christ’s return, when mortality puts on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53) and the redemption of the body takes place (Rom. 8:23).
3. John 5:28–29
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.Read More
Jesus reaffirms the resurrection on the last day. Cf. Dan. 12:2.Those who have done good . . . those who have done evildoes not imply that people’s deeds in this life are the basis on which judgment is pronounced (for that would contradict John’s strong emphasis on belief in Jesus as the way to gain eternal life: see John 3:16; 5:24–25; etc.). Instead, good works function as evidence of true faith, and if good works are lacking they show an absence of true faith. All those who truly believe will be brought “from death to life” (John 5:24) and as a consequence will do good and will therefore enjoythe resurrection of life.
4. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.Read More
cry of command . . . voice of an archangel . . . trumpet of God.The three noises summon the dead to wake from their slumber. The only “archangel” identified in the Bible is Michael (Jude 9). Trumpets in the OT proclaimed the Lord’s presence (Ex. 19:16; 1 Chron. 16:6; Ps. 47:5; Joel 2:1; Zech. 9:14); in Jewish tradition, the “trumpet” was associated with battle, the day of the Lord, and the resurrection (cf. 1 Cor. 15:52).first . . . Then.Dead Christians rise from their graves to the realm of the living, and then the living and the dead together arecaught upfrom the earth into the air to meet Christ. The Greek for “caught up” (harpazō, “to grab or seize suddenly, to snatch, take away”) gives a sense of being forcibly and suddenly lifted upward (see John 6:15; Acts 8:39).together with. The dead Christians would suffer no disadvantage (cf. “we who are alive . . . will not precede,” 1 Thess. 4:15). clouds. Probably not earthly rain clouds but thecloudsof glory that surround the presence of God (cf. Ex. 13:21; 33:9–10; 40:38; Num. 12:5; 1 Kings 8:10–11; Ps. 97:2; Dan. 7:13; Matt. 17:5; Mark 13:26; Acts 1:9; Rev. 14:14).to meet.The Greek termapantēsisis often used of an important dignitary’s reception by the inhabitants of a city, who come out to greet and welcome their honored guest with fanfare and celebration, then accompany him into the city (cf. Matt. 25:6; Acts 28:15; a related termhypantēsisis used in Matt. 25:1; John 12:13). It may indicate that the subsequent movement of the saints after meeting Christ “in the air” conforms to Christ’s direction, thus in a downward motion toward the earth. However, some interpreters caution that the vivid symbolism of apocalyptic language must be kept in mind to avoid over-interpretation of the apocalyptic details.in the air.The sky.
5. Revelation 1:7
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.Read More
Announcement of the Coming King.coming with the clouds. Jesus will come as the Son of Man with universal dominion (cf. Dan. 7:13–14), though his subjectspiercedhim (Zech. 12:10).wail.Most scholars think the wailing is a reaction to judgment instead of the kind of grief that leads to salvation. The coming one is theLord God, Alpha and Omega(first and last letters of the Gk. alphabet) (see Rev. 1:17; 22:13). Jesus is the beginning of all history (the Creator) and also the goal for whom all things are made (all history is moving toward glorifying him).
6. Hebrews 9:27–28
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.Read More
appointed . . . to die once.Every person has but a single life before eternaljudgment. This repudiates reincarnation and any idea that there will be a second chance to believe after death, since immediately after the reference to the fact of death comes the phrase “and after that comes judgment,” with no hint of any intervening opportunity for change of status. The final judgment will take place when Christ comes again—he diedonceas an offering for thesins of many, and he will appear a second time in judgment, when he will save his followers.those who are eagerly waiting for him. This clear anticipation of Christ’s return (see Heb. 10:25; cf. Rom. 8:19, Rom. 8:23, Rom. 8:25; 1 Cor. 1:7; Gal. 5:5; Phil. 3:20) calls all who hope for salvation to expectant perseverance.
7. Matthew 24:26–31
“So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”Read More
Look, he is in the wilderness . . . Look, he is in the inner rooms.The Messiah will not come secretly to a select group and stay hidden from public view. Rather, he will appear like a flash oflightning—sudden and visible to all.
Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.It seems best not to “over-interpret” this striking proverbial expression. It probably means simply that, just as people from far away can see vultures circling high in the air, Christ’s return in judgment will be visible and predictable. A similar view is that the vultures suggest the widespread death that will accompany the return of Christ to judge those who have rejected his kingdom. In either case, it will be impossible for people not to see and recognize the return of Christ.
sun . . . moon . . . stars . . . powers. It is possible that this is entirely literal language (with “stars” perhaps referring to a large meteor shower). Others take it as a mixture of literal and figurative language, and still others take it as entirely figurative, pointing to political judgment on nations and governments. The argument in favor of a figurative interpretation is that this verse echoes possibly figurative language about heavenly disturbances in the OT prophets, such as Isa. 13:10; 34:4; Ezek. 32:7; Joel 2:10; and Amos 8:9. Those arguing for a literal interpretation point to biblical accounts of actual darkness: cf. Ex. 10:21–23 and Matt. 27:45. The idea of the stars falling and the heavens being rolled up is mentioned elsewhere in the NT as well (see Heb. 1:12; 2 Pet. 3:7, 10, 12; Rev. 6:13–14). Whether these events are to be understood as being primarily literal or primarily figurative, it is clear that these will be “earth-shattering” events, through which all creation will be radically transformed at the return of Christ. (Regarding the “new heavens and the new earth,” see Isa. 65:17; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1.)
sign of the Son of Man.Some suggest that this is a type of heavenly standard or banner that unfurls in the heavens as Christ returns in “power and great glory,” while others understand it to be the arrival of the Son of Man himself as the sign of the end-time consummation of the age (cf. Matt. 16:27; Matt. 26:64).mourn. Either a sorrow that produces repentance, or a great sadness of regret in light of coming judgment.they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. This most clearly is end-time language that recalls Daniel’s prophecy (Dan. 7:13–14) and points to Jesus’ return at the end of the age (cf. 2 Thess. 1:7–10; Rev. 19:11–16).with power and great glory. Christ will be revealed as the eternal ruler of the kingdom of God, designated by the Ancient of Days to receive worship and to exercise dominion over the earth and all of its inhabitants (cf. Dan. 7:13–14). The return of Christ is a literal event, in which Christ “will come in the same way” that the disciples “saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
A trumpet callis associated in Jewish end-time thought (Isa. 18:3; Isa. 27:13) and also in Christian writings (1 Cor. 15:51–52; 1 Thess. 4:16) with the appearance of the Messiah.his angels . . . will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.The involvement of angels probably indicates that, when Jesus returns, he will not only gather to himself all believers alive on the earth but will also bring with him all the redeemed who are in heaven (cf. 1 Thess. 4:14; Rev. 19:11–16).
8. 1 Thessalonians 5:1–3
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.Read More
These verses are closely linked to 1 Thess. 4:13–18: both offer reassurance concerning the fate of Christians at the second coming, and 1 Thess. 5:9–10 alludes back to 1 Thess. 4:13–18. It seems that the Thessalonians either were worried that they might not be prepared for the day of the Lord or were insecure about their status on that day in view of the recent unexpected deaths.
Now concerning. Paul may be responding to a question from the Thessalonians communicated by Timothy.the times and the seasons. That is, when the day of the Lord will occur (cf. Acts 1:7). The Thessalonians’ question likely arose more from anxiety than idle curiosity, since Paul’s answer reassures rather than rebukes them and seems concerned with both the “how” and the “when” of the day of the Lord.you have no need to have anything written to you. In spite of what the Thessalonians apparently think, there is no real need for Paul to write them on this matter.
The phraseday of the Lordis common in the OT Prophets (see note on Amos 5:18–20). It refers to the great and terrible day when Yahweh will intervene to punish the disobedient (e.g., Isa. 13:6–16; Joel 1:13–15; 2:1–11; Obad. 15–20; Mal. 4:5) and to save the faithful (e.g., Isa. 27:2–13; Jer. 30:8–9; Joel 2:31–32; Obad. 21). In Paul’s letters it is equated with the second coming.like a thief in the night.Throughout the NT, the thief simile suggests unexpectedness and unwelcomeness (Matt. 24:43–44; Luke 12:39–40; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 3:3; Rev. 16:15). The negative aspect is clearly present in 1 Thess. 5:4, and there is no reason to think that it is absent here. However, although some have wondered whether Paul is threatening the Thessalonians with the prospect of final judgment, it seems more likely, in view of 1 Thess. 5:4 and 1 Thess 5:9, that he is actually reassuring believers who are insecure, perhaps as a result of the recent deaths in their midst.people. That is, unbelievers.peace and security. Possibly an allusion to imperial Roman propaganda or (perhaps more likely) to Jer. 6:14 (or Jer. 8:11), where similar language is used of a delusional sense of immunity from divine wrath.labor pains. An analogy referring to the judgment and destruction on the day of the Lord. Cf. Isa. 13:8; Jer. 6:24.
9. 1 Corinthians 15:51–52
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.Read More
mystery.Christians who are alive at the time of the resurrection will be transformed so that their bodies become spiritual and immortal like the bodies of those who are resurrected from the dead. (See 1 Thess. 4:13–18.)
10. John 14:1–3
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”Read More
Believe in Godis translated as an imperative (or command), but the Greek could also be rendered as a statement, “You believe in God.” The imperative is probably better in light of the previous sentence. What troubles the disciples is Jesus’ imminent departure (see 13:36). “Believe,” in keeping with OT usage (e.g., Isa. 28:16), denotes personal, relational trust.
In light of the context (Jesus going to the Father; John 13:1, 3; John 14:28), it is best to understandmy Father’s houseas referring to heaven. In keeping with this image, themany rooms(or “dwelling places,” Gk.monē) are places to live within that large house. The translation “rooms” is not meant to convey the idea of small spaces, but only to keep consistency in the metaphor of heaven as God’s “house.” In a similar passage, Jesus speaks of his followers being received into the “eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9; cf. 1 Cor. 2:9).
For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. (Psalm 72:12)
The needy cries; what else can he do? His cry is heard of God; what else need he do? Let the needy reader take to crying at once, for this will be his wisdom. Do not cry in the ears of friends, for even if they can help you it is only because the Lord enables them. The nearest way is to go straight to God and let your cry come up before Him. Straightforward makes the best runner: run to the Lord and not to secondary causes.
“Alas!” you cry, “I have no friend or helper.” So much the better; you can rely upon God in both capacities-as without supplies and without helpers. Make your double need your double plea. Even for temporal mercies you may wait upon God, for He careth for His children in these temporary concerns. As for spiritual necessities, which are the heaviest of all, the Lord will hear your cry and will deliver you and supply you.
O poor friend, try your rich God. O helpless one, lean on His help. He has never failed me, and I am sure He will never fail you. Come as a beggar, and God will not refuse you help. Come with no plea but His grace. Jesus is King; will He let you perish of want? What! Did you forget this?
One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you. (Joshua 23:10)
Why count heads? One man with God is a majority though there be a thousand on the other side. Sometimes our helpers may be too many for God to work with them, as was the case with Gideon, who could do nothing till he had increased his forces by thinning out their numbers. But the Lord’s hosts are never too few. When God would found a nation, He called Abram alone and blessed him. When He would vanquish proud Pharaoh, He used no armies, but only Moses and Aaron. The “one-man ministry,” as certain wise men call it, has been far more used of the Lord than trained bands with their officers. Did all the Israelites together slay so many as Samson alone? Saul and his hosts slew their thousands but David his ten thousands.
The Lord can give the enemy long odds and yet vanquish him. If we have faith, we have God with us, and what are multitudes of men? One shepherd’s dog can drive before him a flock of sheep. If the Lord sent thee, O my brother, His strength will accomplish His divine purpose. Wherefore, rely on the promise, and be very courageous.
Israel Warns Iran Of Massive Regional War If Directly Attacked With Israel’s embassies around the world on a heightened state of alert, and extra IDF reservists called up, and home and weekend leave for all combat troops having been abruptly canceled Thursday, the Israeli population is anxiously awaiting a response – with some reports saying residents are already seeking the safety of bomb shelters. Tehran has vowed that vengeance is coming soon for the Monday Israeli airstrike on its embassy in Damascus. Israeli officials have told Axios late in the day that such an act would “take the current conflict to another level”
April nor’easter with heavy, wet snow pounds Northeast, knocks out power to hundreds of thousands A major spring storm brought heavy snow, rain and high winds to the Northeast, downing trees and power lines and leaving nearly 700,000 homes and businesses without power at one point. A woman was killed by a falling tree in a New York City suburb and a second woman died in a New Hampshire fire caused by the weather. Two feet (61 centimeters) of snow was expected in parts of northern New England by Thursday evening, with wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph
The Agenda To Eradicate Biblical Christianity From American Culture In the latest obvious attack on God, believers, and the biblical worldview, the Biden Democrats used a high-profile opportunity to offend Christians. Days before Easter, they banned religious (read “Christian”) images at the White House and also declared March 31 (Resurrection Sunday) the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Make no mistake: this is the new religion of the Left. Vice President Kamala Harris passionately proclaimed, …“we celebrate transgender and nonbinary Americans,” and said, “We won’t stop fighting for you.”
Bulgarian police uncover hidden Hamas weapons cache linked to arrests in Germany German police arrested several Hamas terrorists in the country following Israeli intelligence tip; the interrogations led investigators to a warehouse in southern Bulgaria housing stocks of weapons and ammo. The four Hamas members, all Lebanese nationals, are suspected of planning to carry out attacks against Israeli individuals and institutions in Europe under instructions from a terror group in Lebanon.
Outrage over aid-worker deaths is about saving Hamas, not civilians A mistaken strike that caused the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers who were bringing food and other supplies into the Strip is being treated as not merely a tragic accident all too common in wars, but as an act of transcendent symbolism that proves that Israel’s tactics are too brutal to be allowed to continue.
Israeli Security Services Thwart ISIS Terrorist Attack in East Jerusalem Israeli security forces announced on Thursday that they foiled terrorist attacks planned by supporters of Islamic State (ISIS) in east Jerusalem. “Two terrorists planned to prepare charges and explosive devices and shoot at a police station, and in the Teddy Stadium area in Jerusalem,”
US looking at media report that Israel used AI to identify bombing targets in Gaza The report in +972 Magazine and Local Call was published on Wednesday. According to the 972+ report, the tool is dubbed “Lavender,” and was heavily relied upon in the onset of the war in Gaza. The sources told +972 cited six Israeli intelligence officials as sources, who said that “Lavender” marked 37,000 Palestinians as suspected terrorists — and their homes — for possible air strikes. The IDF, … denied that AI was used
Israeli embassies around the world put on high alert amid Iranian threats Israeli embassies across the globe were placed on high alert following increasing threats of an Iranian attack on Israeli diplomats, sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Additionally, some ambassadors have been requested not to arrive at public events over fears for their security.
US: Iran is a viable threat to Israel’s safety Tehran is posting a public and viable threat to Israel, the United States said on Thursday, as Israel braced for the possibility of a retaliatory attack after its suspected killing of Iranian generals in Damascus this week. Israel said it would respond forcefully, signaling it had stiffened its military preparedness.
Qatar should have expelled Hamas, senior diplomatic officials say Qatar should have “kicked Hamas out of Qatar, closed their bank accounts, and said there would be no more funds for Gaza in the future,” absent a deal to release the hostages, a senior diplomatic official has told The Jerusalem Post. Only this kind of approach might have yielded a hostage deal a few weeks ago and kept the Qataris as the official moderators, as opposed to now, when Egypt may have displaced them, explained top Israeli sources.
Hospitals instructed to prepare for mass-casualty incident Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov asked hospital directors and the heads of the health system to continue preparing for a scenario of a mass-casualty incident and to hold drills for medical staff to be prepared to treat patients and reinforce medical staff.
Netanyahu to Republicans: ‘There’s an attempt to ram a Palestinian state down our throats’ “That’s what this conflict is about. Everything that you’re hearing in recent years, in recent months, in recent days, and in recent hours emphasizes this basic truth. This is a larger battle. there is a contrary move, an attempt to force, ram down our throats a Palestinian state, which will be another terror haven, another launching ground for an attempt, as was the Hamas state in Gaza. That is opposed by Israelis, overwhelmingly.
Biden’s support for Israel wobbling due to elections, says Israeli minister Speaking at a conference in Eilat, Energy Minister Eli Cohen suggested that public criticisms of Israel were for the Democratic party’s political benefit, rather than representing a fundamental change in the U.S.’s view of Israel. “The only change I see in the Americans’ stance is because of the upcoming elections in the United States,” Cohen said. He emphasized that the Jewish State would make its own decisions, regardless of Washington.
Israel’s top security agency failing to protect PM from protesters, minister accuses National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attacked Shin Bet head Ronen Bar for failing to take measures to protect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as protesters with torches breached the barriers of his residence on Tuesday night. “Just last week, I warned the Shin Bet chief about the disregard for the prime minister’s security and was rebuffed,” Ben-Gvir said. “I demand that Shin Bet wake up immediately and take the security of the prime minister of Israel and his family seriously,” he added.
First Time In Months: Gaza terrorists fire rockets at southern Israel Palestinian terrorists fired a barrage of rockets towards the southern Israeli city of Netivot from Gaza on Thursday night, sending over 40,000 people running for shelter for the first time in nearly three months.
Biden is ‘pissed,’ warns Netanyahu that US policy depends on Israel’s actions Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone Thursday for their first direct talk since an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip was accidentally targeted by Israeli warplanes, leaving seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen organization dead. The two leaders spoke for approximately 45 minutes
IDF chief: Only military pressure will bring the hostages home Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Wednesday that a hostage release deal with Hamas will only come as a result of military pressure. Addressing IDF commanders in the former Hamas stronghold of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, Halevi said, “We are pressing to deepen the achievement” of the military operation in Gaza City’s Shifa hospital, “and we are pressing to try to initiate movement in the negotiations, to bring about an agreement for the release of the hostages.” This, he continued, was “a top priority,
As war rages, why are Israelis searching for God, and even considering Jesus? Every year, tens of thousands of Christians visit the Garden Tomb – that is, the empty tom – in Jerusalem to reflect on the life, death, and miraculous resurrection of Jesus. But this year, with Israel engaged in brutal war against Hamas in Gaza for almost six months, more and more Israeli Jews than ever before are wrestling with existential questions. They’re asking about life and death and life after death – and even whether Jesus of Nazareth might, in fact, be the Jewish Messiah.
Strong M6.1 earthquake hits off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.1 hit off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan at 03:16 UTC on April 4, 2024. The agency is reporting a depth of 40 km (25 miles). The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) is reporting M6.0 at a depth of 40 km.
This Is The Eclipse “Conspiracy Theory” That The Mainstream Media Doesn’t Want To Talk About …there are certainly a lot of “theories” about this eclipse that are clearly not accurate, and the mainstream media has successfully debunked a number of them. However, there is one “theory” regarding this eclipse that the mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about, and I will discuss that “theory” in this article.
Have You Heard About The 2 Gigantic Crosses That Stand At The Intersections Of The Eclipses? …A 111 foot tall cross stands where the path of the Great American Eclipse of 2024 will intersect with the path of the Great American Eclipse of 2017 on April 8th. And a cross that is 77 feet and 7 inches tall stands where the path of the Great American Eclipse of 2024 will intersect with the path of the “ring of fire” solar eclipse of 2023 on April 8th. Is it just a coincidence that 2 giant crosses stand at the intersections of these eclipses? I don’t think so.
I Am Grateful Today Last night another set of storms ripped through Central Ohio. That is where I have lived my entire life. Columbus, our Capital City, sits in the middle of the state. Although Cleveland and Cincinnati are more likely to come to mind when you think of the Buckeye State, Columbus is the largest city in the state.
Tuberculosis breaks out at Chicago migrant shelters following measles cases Chicago health officials have announced that a “small number” of tuberculosis (TB) cases have been reported at some migrant facilities following a recent outbreak of measles among migrants living in the Windy City’s shelters.
Anti-Semites Insist Modern Jews Are Not Descendants Of Abraham, Isaac, And Jacob The world continues to distance itself from Israel and the Jewish people, giving increasing credence to the prophecies of Zechariah 12. The weed of Jew-hatred has found fertile soil in the various conspiracy theories spun about the Jewish people, spanning over centuries.
Israel beefs up air defenses, calls up troops as Iran payback for Syria strike looms The IDF said on Wednesday that it bolstered its air defense array and had called up reservists, as the country girded for a potential Iranian response to a strike in Syria earlier this week in which several high-ranking Iranian military officials were killed.
Ukraine Lowers Age of Conscription by Two Years to Fill Troop Shortfalls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law that lowers the country’s age of conscription by two years to make up for troop shortfalls. The new legislation lowers the age of mobilization from 25 to 27 years, meaning more young men will be removed from the struggling Ukrainian economy and sent off to the meatgrinder in anticipation of another Russia summer offensive.
Pestilences And Earthquakes We are living in an era of endless disasters. Over the past several years, we have been hit with one thing after another, and the pace of events seems to have picked up steam in 2024. Just think of all the things we have seen in recent days. There was the historic terror attack in Russia, then the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed, and then Israel’s strike on a building right next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus threatened to spark a major regional war. Less than 24 hours ago, a catastrophic earthquake hit Taiwan, but that is already starting to fade from the news cycle because so much else is happening right now.
Humza Yousaf received the most complaints on the first day of Scotland’s new “hate crime” legislation Since the controversial “hate crime” legislation came into effect on Monday it is reported that almost 4,000 complaints have been made to Police Scotland. The police are reportedly dealing with 60 complaints on average per hour…“A lot of those complaints were about Humza Yousaf, on the same complaint about his parliamentary rant,” an insider told TheSun.
Australians are facing a new “climate criminal” – soil A study published in the Nature Portfolio Journal warns that Australia’s soil is becoming a net carbon emitter and threatens to ruin the country’s net zero goals. “They claim that over the next 80 years, Australian soil … will release up to 100 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere,” Sky News host James Macpherson said. “There you have it … dirt is now a major threat to the future of planet Earth. “I reckon some greenie councillor is going to make you concrete everything now that they know dirt is a climate criminal.”
The Indoctrination Brain – ‘The Most Evil Thing Ever Done’ A previously unidentified neurobiological mechanism of indoctrination that significantly alters personality has been unveiled by molecular geneticist Dr Michael Nehls. Dr. Nehls has spoken about his alarming findings of an unprecedented attack on mental freedom that occurred during COVID and claims that there is a “silent war” against the human brain already well underway.
Smithsonian agrees to pay students $50k after kicking them out for wearing pro-life hats The American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) has reached a final settlement with the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum on behalf of a group of visitors discriminated against for wearing pro-life messages on their clothing, touting “one of the largest reported settlements ever against the federal government in a First Amendment case.”
“It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute.” —James Madison (1816)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1792, George Washington determined that legislation apportioning representatives among the states was unconstitutional, so he issued the first presidential veto. He issued only one other veto during his two terms. As is always the case, modern presidents would do well to take heed of Washington’s example. —Mark Alexander
The president’s demands will only weaken Israel and strengthen Hamas.
Nate Jackson
On August 26, 2021, America lost 13 warriors to a cowardly suicide bombing attack at the Kabul airport. That attack happened as American forces were following the surrender and retreat orders of their commander-in-chief, Joe Biden.
In retaliation, Biden authorized an airstrike that ended up killing a U.S. aid worker and nine members of his family, seven of whom were children. At first, Team Biden did a bit of chest-thumping over the tough response to American deaths. Weeks later, when what officials called a “tragic mistake” became undeniable, it was quietly made public as a Friday afternoon news dump.
No U.S. troops were punished for that strike, which was probably the correct decision given that orders came from higher up. But no Pentagon leaders were held accountable, either. Biden certainly never accepted responsibility. His name doesn’t even show up in NPR’s December 2021 — four months later — story about no punishments.
We rehash that history because civilian casualties are the unfortunate result of war and because the episode sheds informative light on an Israeli airstrike that killed seven international aid workers, including one American, early this week in Gaza.
First of all, like Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Hamas’s murderous strike in Israel — funded and backed by Iran — and Israel’s subsequent war to destroy Hamas likely never would have happened if Joe Biden were not the commander-in-chief. His disgraceful exit from Afghanistan set the stage for chaos and war around the world.
Second, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly took responsibility and apologized publicly for “a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip.” He added, “It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
Two Israel Defense Forces officers were dismissed, and three others were officially reprimanded. “Those who approved the strike were convinced that they were targeting armed Hamas operatives and not [World Central Kitchen] employees,” the IDF said in a statement. “The strike on the aid vehicles is a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures.”
Given the animosity Israel faces around the world, that certainly wasn’t going to be the end of it. The World Central Kitchen suspended operations, and its leaders are understandably outraged, though their accusations that the IDF is “deliberately” targeting workers are overblown.
Remember, human shields are a key part of Hamas’s strategy. The opposite is true of Israel. Hamas works to ensure that civilians die because it draws sympathy from ignorant quarters that are already predisposed to opposing Israel.
Predictably, Team Biden panders to those ignorant quarters.
Saying he’s “outraged and heartbroken” over the deaths, Biden smeared Israel for killing civilians without noting Hamas’s role. “Israel has not done enough,” he insisted, “to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians” or “to protect civilians” more generally.
The same Joe Biden who thrives on avoiding accountability called Netanyahu and pressured him to change Israel’s strategy and tactics. He then went to great lengths to ensure everyone knew the contents of that phone call. The White House said in a statement that the president wants “measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.” Biden also again demanded an “immediate ceasefire” — never mind that Hamas has rejected every other attempt at a ceasefire and started the war in the first place.
Biden’s subordinates trotted out to echo their boss. “If we don’t see the changes that we need to see,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned, “there will be changes in our policy.” He even cautioned that Israel risks “becoming indistinguishable” from Hamas and its terrorist brutality.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby added: “If there’s no changes to their policy in their approaches, then there’s going to have to be changes to ours. There are things that need to be done. There are too many civilians being killed.”
Kirby insisted that U.S. support for Israel is still “unwavering,” but he admitted that Team Biden is also reconsidering. That’s contradictory and hardly reassuring.
The White House also made sure to leak that Jill Biden is very upset. “Stop it, stop it now, Joe,” she is reported to have told him about civilian casualties.
What effect will the Biden administration’s outcry have? It depends on whether Israel eventually bows to pressure and stops short of finishing the job of destroying Hamas. But Team Biden has given Hamas a clear message: Make sure civilians die so as to pressure Israel.
Blinken says Ukraine will join NATO, No Labels is a no-go, a voter registration wake-up call for the GOP, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Blinken says Ukraine will join NATO: We’re not sure what Joe Biden’s grand plans are for ending the war in Ukraine — or at least putting a stop to the depletion of our treasury and our military stockpiles in seemingly endless support of it — but we tend to think that pronouncements of Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO are unlikely to bring the Russian bear any closer to the negotiating table. Nevertheless, “Ukraine will become a member of NATO,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday at a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels. “Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership.” Blinken didn’t break any new ground with the announcement. Instead, he reaffirmed the agreement of NATO’s membership, made at last year’s summit in Lithuania, that Ukraine would eventually gain membership. Blinken was also no doubt laying the groundwork for NATO’s next annual summit, which will take place in Washington in July. The devil is in the details, though, and that’s certainly the case with Ukraine’s membership, which is predicated on certain conditions being met. As The Hill reports, “The deliverables are consequential amid concerns over waning U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine, with House Republicans holding up additional American assistance and fears that the return of former President Trump to the White House could see a retreat of the U.S. from its commitments to allies and partners.” Whatever these fears of Donald Trump might be, supporters of the Biden administration’s policy in Ukraine should remember that Vladimir Putin didn’t invade his neighbor on Trump’s watch. He did so on Biden’s watch, and he continues to ruin Ukraine on Biden’s watch because the American president’s weakness is provocative.
No Labels is a no-go: The center-left No Labels party announced on Thursday that it would not be running a candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The party “would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House,” explained party founder and CEO Nancy Jacobson. “No such candidates emerged so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down.” Apparently, what took the air out of No Labels’s sails was the recent passing of founding chairman and former Senator Joe Lieberman, who died on March 27 at the age of 82 after suffering a fall. Furthermore, No Labels surmised that a third-party candidate would have no real chance of winning the election, and doing so would only help Donald Trump’s election prospects. It’s clear that given the option of a Trump or Biden presidency, the No Labels leadership prefers Biden. This decision doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road for No Labels. “I wouldn’t rule anything out,” party board of advisors member Andy Bursky stated. “The organization has not been beaten by this effort, it has been strengthened by this effort.” Sure thing.
A voter registration wake-up call for the GOP: Voter registrations have kicked into high gear across the country, but the numbers in three states should be especially troubling for Republicans. Those states are Texas, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. In just one week in March, 386,422 individuals attempted to register to vote. Even more concerning is the number of registration attempts made in Texas without a photo ID. Some 277,077 registration attempts were made, with 196,578 being registered and the remaining 80,499 being rejected. In Texas, one can request a mail-in ballot using just the last four digits of a Social Security number. The trouble is that illegal aliens have been receiving SSNs “with DHS authorization.” Democrats appear to be using the same playbook in Texas and Arizona that they used in California to turn a once rather evenly split state deep blue. The Democrats did it through the use of illegal immigration. This is why voter integrity laws matter.
Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district could decide the presidency: We’re not sure who the Nebraska knuckleheads were whose bright idea it was to enact a state law back in 1991 that apportions the Cornhusker State’s five electoral votes based on how each of the two major party’s presidential candidates perform in each of the state’s three congressional districts, but it needs to be repealed, like, yesterday. Nebraska is uber-reliably Republican. It went for Donald Trump by nearly 20 points in 2020, and yet it coughed up one of its precious electoral votes to Joe Biden. Not a bad deal for a guy who can’t even muster 40% of the state’s vote. As The Federalist reports: “The law has twice sent one of Nebraska’s electoral votes to a Democrat presidential candidate thanks to the 2nd District, which contains Omaha. The 2nd District voted for Biden in 2020 and for Obama in 2008.” This is why the state legislature needs to get its act together and pass LB 764, which would repeal that Democrat-friendly winner-doesn’t-take-all state law and thereby deny Joe Biden a potential path to 270 electoral votes. As The Federalist continues: “Nebraska’s split vote could end up being crucial. If Biden were to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin but lose Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona, for example, he could still reach 270 — so long as he received one of Nebraska’s electoral votes.” The state’s legislative session ends on April 18, so the clock is ticking. If you’re interested in learning about why it hasn’t yet happened, knock yourself out.
Another murder by a serially deported illegal and a stunning statistic: Another day, another murder by a guy who should never have been in our country. The latest casualty from Joe Biden’s Open Borders America comes to us from Ohio, where a serially deported Mexican illegal wouldn’t take “no” for an answer and finally ended up killing someone. Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez, 46, was charged with aggravated murder, using a weapon while intoxicated, possession of drugs, and more after officials determined that a body found in an alley was, in fact, a homicide and that Garcia-Gutierrez was responsible for it. “Garcia-Gutierrez has been deported 7 times and he has been in our jail 11 times using 7 different names and 3 different [dates of birth],” the Butler County Sheriff’s Office reports. “This is a perfect example of what the sheriff has been saying all along. Illegal immigrants are a danger to our country.” They don’t say. As Donald Trump once said, “They’re not sending us their best.” In case anyone was still wondering. In other immigration news, The Federalist reports a grim statistic that helps put Joe Biden’s border malfeasance into perspective: “In nearly four years in office, President Joe Biden has let in nearly the same amount of illegal foreign citizens that Ellis Island accepted legally in 60 years. Democrats don’t want, however, to acknowledge all the problems with such an influx because they can use a ballooning foreign-born illegal population to fundamentally alter U.S. elections.” It’s no wonder that immigration is the most important issue to the American people in this election cycle.
Biden distorts MLK to mark his assassination: An opportunistic Joe Biden marked April 4 as the grim anniversary of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.‘s assassination on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. “Dr. King and generations of foot soldiers known and unknown,” Biden read, “embody a patriotism that continues to inspire generations of Americans, including me.” He added: “But on this day, and in this time, we all do well to remember another essential lesson about Dr. King’s life and legacy. All Americans — regardless of party or background — should be able to reject political violence and hate-fueled violence in any form. We must condemn it, not condone it. We must confront it, not whitewash it. As we do, we must teach history and make history, not erase history. We must choose community over chaos.” Just when we think Joe Biden’s handlers can’t stoop any lower, they hand us their beers and conflate the January 6 riot with the cold-blooded murder of the nation’s leading civil rights figure. As for whitewashes, we’d note that some 1,200 J6 rioters and Capitol tourists were arrested, charged, and convicted for their actions, while 214 rioters during Trump’s inauguration in 2017, who were responsible for injuries to six cops that day, had every last one of their charges dropped by the Department of Justice.
It’s not child abuse if you’re black: On Tuesday, a hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announced that in order to not perpetuate “structural racism” it would avoid reporting potential instances of child abuse and neglect to call the authorities in cases of positive illicit drug tests if the mother is black. The reason, according to Mass General Brigham (MGB), is that “black pregnant people are more likely to be drug tested and to be reported to child welfare systems than white pregnant people.” The nonprofit healthcare system added, “As a part of our United Against Racism effort to achieve health equity for patients and communities across our system, we … are addressing policies that may unwittingly perpetuate structural racism.” So, according to MGB, it’s racist to hold black mothers accountable for illicit drug use that may be harming their children because a higher percentage of black mothers are drug users. Evidently, concern over the welfare of the child is secondary when it comes to upholding the woke ideology of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The irony here is that the hospital’s old policy was absolutely devoid of any racial considerations. The new policy is to file with child welfare agencies only “if there is reasonable cause to believe that the infant is suffering or at imminent risk of suffering physical or emotional injury and that ‘substance exposure’ alone, including treatment with methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, does not require a report of abuse or neglect in the absence of protective concerns for the infant.” In other words, now the race of the mother will be a deciding factor in whether the hospital elects to contact the authorities.
Barr sues California over EV truck mandate: Former Attorney General William Barr now represents the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and has filed a lawsuit against California over its EV truck mandate. “California’s attempt to effectively abolish the internal combustion engine by forcing Americans to buy EVs is not only illegal but a threat to our American free enterprise,” Barr argued. “This mandate is unlikely to produce any net reduction in carbon emissions, and even if it does, any benefit will be negligible in comparison to the massive costs these mandates impose on our economy and individual American families.” He added, “We filed this suit to protect Californians from government overreach and to ensure they have continued access to affordable, reliable, and accessible fleets.” Democrat lawmakers in California have pushed a radical climate agenda to the detriment of the state’s economy in an effort to force residents into purchasing EVs. California’s Advanced Clean Fleets law requires fleets managed by state and local governments to be 50% zero emissions by the end of this year and 100% zero emissions by 2027, and all commercial truck sales to be zero emissions by 2036.
Headlines
Job growth zoomed in March as payrolls jumped by 303,000 and unemployment dropped to 3.8% (CNBC)
Ford delays production of new electric vehicles by years as consumers sour on EVs (Daily Wire)
Biden moves to protect federal workers from Trump “deep state” purge (Washington Examiner)
Federal judge rejects Trump’s effort to throw out classified documents case over his claims he had a right to take the files (Daily Mail)
Nearly one-third of Americans think neither Trump nor Biden would be good president (National Review)
FCC plans to restore net neutrality repealed by Trump (Roll Call)
Humor: Biden still polling well with 3 AM mail-in ballot demographic (Babylon Bee)
A former ESPN anchor who interviewed the president in early 2021 reveals the lengths to which his handlers went to keep him on script even back then.
Douglas Andrews
In retrospect, it’s pretty clear that Sage Steele had no business being an ESPN anchor. She was too thoughtful, too principled, and too independent for the job.
Our first sense of this came a few years ago when she spoke out publicly against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate of ESPN’s parent company, Disney. “I respect everyone’s decision,” Steele said at the time, “I really do, but to mandate it is, um, sick.”
It was sick, and it seems even more so with the passage of time.
This week, we got yet another sense that Steele had been selling herself short with ESPN when she shared her account of an all-too-telling interview with Joe Biden in March 2021, just two months into his presidency. It seems that even back then, long before 86% of the American people had come to realize the extent of the president’s cognitive decline, his handlers didn’t trust him to deviate even slightly from a tightly written script.
“That was an interesting experience in its own right,” Steele told Fox News, “because it was so structured. And I was told, ‘You will say every word that we write out, you will not deviate from the script and go.’”
In fact, says Steele, her interview script left nothing to chance. “To the word,” she said. “Every single question was scripted, gone over dozens of times by many editors and executives. Absolutely. I was on script and was told not to deviate. It was very much ‘This is what you will ask. This is how you will say it. No follow-ups, no follow-ups. Next.’ … This went up to the fourth floor, as we said, where all the bosses, the top executives, the decision makers are, the president of our company, the CEO, where they all worked.”
Knowing what we now know about the degree of scripting involved in that interview, it’s interesting to go back and watch it anew.
If this was the level of control-freaky paranoia within the Biden camp more than three years ago, just imagine what it must be like today. It’s no wonder he can’t seem to even find his way without an escort. No wonder he continually embarrasses us on the world stage. No wonder his handlers now actively collude with the mainstream media to select his questions and his questioners in advance. No wonder that when he tries to wing it even for a few minutes, the results tend to be nothing short of disastrous.
What we have, then, is an administration that continually defrauds the American people into believing that their president can field legitimate questions from the media without first knowing precisely what those questions will be and who will ask them.
Imagine what our Founders would think if they knew that the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press had been disgracefully and summarily surrendered by the institution it was meant to protect. Instead of acting as a check against the usurpations of government, the media has become an enabler of those usurpations.
Steele looked back with sorrow on her brief interaction with the president. And she made a point, albeit indirectly, about the responsibility of First Lady Jill Biden — a point that we’ve madenumerous timesbefore:
I think it’s really heartbreaking that the people who love Joe Biden and say they truly care about him have allowed it to get to this point. So, I’m not even looking at this from a political angle or my beliefs in anything. This is the human side of it. And when someone is struggling, we allow them to continue to be in the spotlight and put them out there in the first place when they knew there were issues? Of course, they had to know.
It’s heartbreaking, alright, but not just for Joe Biden. After all, our country and its people have a stake in this as well.
Long before Big Tech and social media outlets existed, we understood the invasive but silent role of advertisers in editorial rooms. Thus, we chose to be ad-free at our inception in 1996, and our mission and operation budgets are not — and never have been — sustained by advertisers or any political, special interest, or parent organization.
The Department of Energy has canceled its replenishment of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because of high oil prices.
Thomas Gallatin
Back in 2022, when Bidenflation was pushing gas prices to record highs, Joe Biden responded by opening up the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in a failed attempt to alleviate prices at the pump.
The SPR was intended for emergency purposes, not as a means for the federal government to combat high oil prices — or Biden’s falling poll numbers. But it was a midterm election year, and Biden needed to appear that he was helping Americans who were shoveling out more of their hard-earned dollars on not just gas but everything.
At the time, Biden blamed the spike in oil prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deflecting from his own aggressive anti-fossil fuel policies, like his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. To make matters worse, Biden drained the SPR not only for American interests but also to send 180 million barrels to China, thereby reducing our strategic reserves from 600 million barrels to 363 million, which is where they sit today.
Naturally, Biden promised to refill the SPR when the price of oil came back down.
Well, this week, he canceled a slated purchase of some three million barrels for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and blamed it on a recent rise in the price of oil. Biden’s Department of Energy explained that the decision was “keeping the taxpayer’s interest at the forefront.”
Funny — when has the spend-happy Biden administration ever allowed concerns over costs to constrain its decision not to spend taxpayer money? Is this a first?
With the current price of oil rising to $85 a barrel, that’s $6 a barrel more than what the administration is supposedly willing to pay. The trouble is that the price is high because of Biden’s anti-fossil fuel agenda. Therefore, the likelihood that the Biden administration will ever be able to refill the SPR is slim to none.
“It’s pure insanity to watch the Biden Administration cut American oil production and then claim they can’t refill our critical reserve because of the price,” observed Daniel Turner, executive director of the energy group Power the Future. “Joe Biden drained the SPR for political reasons, cut our domestic production for his climate agenda, and now he’s leaving our critical reserve more vulnerable because he’s incompetent. As a result, Americans are paying more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and our SPR is less full during a time of rising turmoil in the Middle East.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Fox News’s Peter Doocy: “So, you guys started draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try and help with ‘the Putin Price Hike’ a few years ago. Said you were going to refill it. But now it doesn’t seem like that’s happening. Why?”
KJP’s response was a classic dodge: “Well, from — I believe the Department of Energy is — is responsible for — for that particular component — is refilling — refilling that, so I would refer to the Department of Energy. I know there are certain components to that and how they were going to move forward and refilling — refilling it. Uh — I — they would have had more specifics on that for you.”
Got that?
The trouble with all this is that the SPR is for emergencies. It’s tough to respond to an unexpected emergency event if the government has neglected to ensure that it has maintained all the assets it needs to act. Biden’s political agenda put the U.S. in this mess, but he seems entirely unconcerned about doing anything to address it, never mind honoring his own promises to the American people.
Church attendance has been declining in the U.S. in recent years, but the trend isn’t irreversible.
Brian Mark Weber
We live in troubled times, but human nature hasn’t changed.
No matter the era or the system of government, we’ve always faced political strife, warfare, and natural disasters. Despite all of these challenges, we built a thriving civilization out of a wilderness while believing in a higher power. Indeed, the Founders of this nation thought faith in God was essential for the Republic to endure and prosper.
George Washington, who often credited God with guiding the colonists through the American Revolution, observed: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness.”
Thanks to the Founders’ faith and vision, Americans have enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity. It’s worth noting, then, that as our standard of living and material comforts have grown, faith in God has declined.
As a result, we have gradually exchanged our spiritual and moral values for nihilism, instant gratification, and the temptation to follow human leaders who promise what often turns out to be impossible to deliver.
John Daniel Davidson, author of the new book Pagan America, writes, “The radical moral relativism we see everywhere today represents a thoroughly post-Christian worldview that is best understood as the return of paganism, which, as the Romans well understood, is fundamentally incompatible with the Christian faith.”
“Christianity after all does not allow for such relativism but insists on hard definitions of truth and what is — and is not — sacred and divine,” Davidson adds. “So if we have entered a post-Christian era in the West and are facing a return, in modern guises, of paganism, what does that mean for America? It means the end of America as we know it, and the emergence of something new and terrifying in its place.”
That new and terrifying place is right before our eyes: killing millions of unborn children, embracing a self-centered and debauched lifestyle, celebrating perversion while mocking traditional families in media and culture, attacking people of faith, and standing by while watching the dismantling of the fabric of society.
Joe Biden’s presidential proclamation for “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Easter Sunday was troubling, indeed, but so is the fact that a sitting president could even make such a declaration without caring about how it might be perceived. Instead, the president claimed he didn’t do it, and the Leftmedia’s “fact-checkers” claimed it was all a big misunderstanding. His presidency would have been in crisis in a different era, but not today.
There’s a new religion replacing the old.
It’s no surprise that recent polling data reveals a steady decline in faith, which correlates with the lack of moral outrage as the pillars of our civilization are dismantled before our eyes. A recent Gallup poll, for example, found that 56% of U.S. adults either never attend or seldom attend religious services, including Christian, Muslim, and Jewish respondents. Forty-one percent attend services at least once a month. Mormons were the most likely to attend church, with 54% attending weekly services.
Referencing a Pew poll, journalist Chris Stirewalt writes: “The long, steep rise in the ‘nones,’ Americans who don’t profess any spiritual beliefs, has been one of the big shifts in American politics and culture in the past 20 years. In 2007, Pew Research found that just 16 percent of adults said they were atheists, agnostics, or believed in ‘nothing in particular.’ By 2022, that category had almost doubled to include nearly a third of all adults.”
Despite these grim numbers, one bright spot emerged in a recent Rasmussen poll, which found that nearly 70% of all Americans believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Digging into the numbers, we also find that a significant majority engage in prayer to varying degrees. A third of this group prays every day or at least once a week, while only 18% never pray.
We can’t assume that physical attendance at religious services is an accurate representation of the faithful in America. In fact, last summer Pew Research found that a quarter of adults watch religious services online.
Still, there’s no way to sugarcoat the steady decline in church attendance. Churches still stand all around the country, but more of them are being repurposed into community centers and coffee houses.
More worrisome is that as our society detaches itself from believing in a higher power, we embrace a state-sanctioned way of thinking and believing. And the human leaders of this new state religion are putting the fear of God into people who don’t worship what it proclaims.
Moving forward, we’re not going to become a reborn spiritual nation overnight. It’s going to take the work of good, moral, decent people to spread the word and engage in acts of faith that build strong communities. And while all faiths can be part of that process, it is the Christian foundations of the West that built our civilization and can right the ship again for our children and grandchildren.
The Left’s effort to censor certain women’s views on birth control is more disempowering than empowering.
Samantha Koch
The concept of true bodily autonomy is the right to self-governance. Or, as the Left likes to scream, “The right to choose.”
However, the right to choose is not a belief owned by the Left. It is a principle of the Right as well, along with everyone in between. We all want the right to make personal choices for our own bodies and for people to have access to what’s necessary to achieve optimal health and well-being. Yet what is often left out of the conversation is the component of being informed in the choices we make. If information is withheld, and a decision is made based on only the data and perspectives that have been publicized, does that mean you are the one governing your body — or is someone else?
This question has been highlighted by the sudden explosion of women of all backgrounds, ethnicities, and political affiliations stepping forward and sharing their personal experiences with the adverse consequences of taking birth control. The negative side effects should not be a surprise, though, as most pill-form contraceptives come with a warning packet almost as long as the Bible, containing a seemingly endless list of potential risks.
The unexpected outpouring of these detailed accounts led conservative commentator Liz Wheeler to remind the public of the concerning effects women are taking upon themselves by taking this popular medication. She listed blood clots, pulmonary embolism, stroke, breast cancer, liver cancer, depression, and high blood pressure, to name a few. She ended the post as follows: “Get off birth control. It’s poison.”
What has been surprising (or unsurprising), though, has been the backlash, primarily from the Left, in response to these women’s transparency about their health and encouraging others to educate themselves on what they are doing to their bodies. The Federalist’s Casey Chalk described the bizarre and borderline hysterical reaction:
A growing number of American women are sharing their stories about their experiences on birth control, noting all manner of negative side effects. Yet, the WaPo claims, those experiences don’t align with “the data,” which, its reporters claim with straight faces, demonstrate that the likelihood of developing blood clots, gaining weight, becoming depressed, suffering other mental health issues, or increasing the likelihood of infertility are all low.
While I’m sure most women have long been aware of the risks of birth control, like many of us who take any medication, the choice to do so is usually based on the belief that the likelihood of the side effects is low — a reassurance often asserted by the physician and/or the pharmacist providing the medication. Yet the active effort to silence dissenters serves the interest of the pharma companies that would otherwise lose customers and revenue.
Yet the censorship continues. According to The Washington Post, “TikTok recently removed at least five videos linking birth control to mental health issues and other health problems after The Post asked how the company prevents the spread of misinformation.”
The question, then, is whether the advocacy — particularly of the pro-feminist, pro-choice Left — is meant to truly empower women or limit their access to important information. Fortunately, these efforts to silence dissent have not had the desired effect. Women are continuing to speak out, much to the dismay of the Left.
What truly empowers women is not just bodily autonomy but the ability to make informed decisions. That isn’t possible when valuable information is withheld and women’s voices are silenced.
UT Lays Off Its Entire DEI Department — The University of Texas at Austin has fired up to 60 staff after a statewide ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public universities.
Chloe Cole Calls Out Disney’s Hypocrisy — Gender-bending victim Chloe Cole calls into Disney’s shareholder meeting to rip the company for paying for gender transitions but not detransitions.
Japan’s Lost Decade Is China’s Future — Patrick Bet-David explains the economic impact of Japan’s Lost Decade and how it could shape China’s future.
“Democrats, we don’t stack the court. We don’t. We don’t do that. … Many Republicans on the other side were fine with the shenanigans that went on to stack the court.” —”The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg
“They have stacked the court by stealing two seats.” —”The View” co-host Sunny Hostin
The BIG Lies
“The laws in our immigration system have been broken for a long time, and this administration has done everything it can under the law.” —HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra
“You don’t have a sense of people who are passing drugs at random because … the borders are open. No, they’re not.” —Xavier Becerra
Incredible Statistic
“In nearly four years in office, President Joe Biden has let in nearly the same amount of illegal foreign citizens that Ellis Island accepted legally in 60 years.” —Brianna Lyman
Useful Idiots
“Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.” —Joe Biden
“Israel is not Hamas. Israel is a democracy; Hamas, a terrorist organization. And democracies place the highest value on human life. … If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront.” —Secretary of State Antony Blinken
“With regard to our policy in Gaza — look, I’ll just say this: If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our own policy.” —Antony Blinken
“If there’s no changes to their policy and their approaches, then there’s going to have to be changes to ours.” —National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
“If Benjamin Netanyahu … were to order the IDF into Rafah at scale … I would vote to condition aid to Israel. … The tactics by which the current prime minister is making these decisions don’t reflect the best values of Israel or of the United States.” —Senator Chris Coons (D-DE)
“We believe there has to be alternative ways to deal with Hamas in Gaza … specifically in Rafah. A military operation we believe is not the way to move forward.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
“The United States sends $3.8 billion worth of aid to Israel, and that also includes arming them. Social scientists have found that if the United States stopped providing that aid … the war would be over in three days.” —”The View’s” Sunny Hostin
For the Record
“Biden’s demands that Netanyahu implement an immediate ceasefire when Hamas has rejected every ceasefire offer over the past six months and is still holding hostages, including Americans, and refusing to release them. Completely backwards.” —Katie Pavlich
Non Sequitur
“I like to live in a culturally Christian country, although I do not believe a single word of the Christian faith.” —evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins
Upright
“Dawkins isn’t a ‘cultural Christian.’ He is a sociocultural ‘free rider.’ That term is sometimes used to describe those who are not vaccinated against diseases like polio, measles and pertussis, but who are nevertheless protected because most people are vaccinated. Similarly, Dawkins is safe in his unbelief, comfortably ensconced in a country whose institutions were built upon Christian values and principles, and where a majority of people still adhere to them.” —Laura Hollis
“Dawkins’ case for Christianity … is nothing new. It was made long ago by acidic critic of the church Voltaire, who famously averred, ‘If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.’ But the problem with the utilitarian case for religious belief is that it doesn’t animate religious believers. It is simply impossible to build a civilization on the basis of Judeo-Christian foundations while making the active case as to why those foundations ought to be dissolved.” —Ben Shapiro
“It’s a lousy foundation if all someone believes is that Christmas carols are nice and parish churches are pretty. Christianity is so powerful because its tenets are rooted in fundamental truths about humanity and our relationship to our Creator. If Jesus was just a good teacher and not the sinless Son of God, then His death on the cross is just a sad event in history — never mind His resurrection. And if none of that is true, then what’s the point of the cultural influence?” —Nate Jackson
Re: The Left
“I periodically marvel that a former U.S. president hung around with a notorious sex trafficker for years, that sex trafficker committed suicide under suspicious circumstances, and that former U.S. president … never got asked about it in interviews for years afterward. Because if there’s anything history can teach us, it’s that Bill Clinton would never lie about inappropriate sexual relations with much younger women.” —Jim Geraghty
“Democrats can’t have it both ways. It can’t be that Biden’s provocative speech is excused as harmless because he didn’t explicitly direct anyone to do anything, but that Trump’s provocative speech must be suppressed even if he didn’t direct anyone to do anything.” —Andrew McCarthy
Belly Laugh of the Day
“Joe Biden is a consistent, steady, successful leader who has delivered on his promises time and time again and he has a continued vision for this country.” —Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D-MI)
Rep. Richard McCormick, R-Ga., says the border is Biden’s ‘biggest responsibility’ and the president acts ‘one-sided’ on the Israel-Hamas war. #FOXBusiness S…
Update(1831ET): With Israel’s embassies around the world on a heightened state of alert, and extra IDF reservists called up, and home and weekend leave for all combat troops having been abruptly canceled Thursday, the Israeli population is anxiously awaiting a response – with some reports saying residents are already seeking the safety of bomb shelters.
Tehran has vowed that vengeance is coming soon for the Monday Israeli airstrike on its embassy in Damascus. Most pundits believe this will take the form of ballistic missiles raining down on Israeli cities. But Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly vowing that if the Islamic Republic launches missiles from its soil it will ensure“a strong response” from Israel.
Israeli officials have told Axios late in the day that such an act would “take the current conflict to another level” — which most certainly would involve a direct Israel-Iran war and thus the eruption of a broader regional conflict. Axios adds the following observations:
Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza have attacked Israel but there hasn’t been an attack from Iranian soil.
A direct Iranian strike on Israel would be unprecedented and could lead to a regional war in the Middle East.
Netanyahu informed his security cabinet Thursday that Israel’s forces have already been engaged with Iran “both directly and via its proxies, and therefore Israel is operating against Iran and its proxies, both defensively and offensively.”
A statement issued by the prime minister’s office laid out: “We will know how to defend ourselves and will operate according to the basic principle of whoever is harming or planning to harm us — we will harm him.” The White House has meanwhile issued a statement shortly after Biden and Netanyahu discussed the Gaza crisis, saying “President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those [Iranian] threats.”
There have meanwhile been unverified reports to emerge saying that the CIA has warned Israel to expect an attack from Iran within the next 48 hours, which has also been picked up in Israeli press.
Mary Danielsen takes on Iran and explains how and why they are the most destabilizing force in the Middle East if not the world. What is a military proxy and how does it give Iran an edge against her enemies? Israel has engaged the serpent and will not shrink back from destabilizing them right back. We also look at the global fight to control our land, energy and food supply. Globalists are intent to poison or starve us, whichever is more expedient for them. Is anyone fighting back? Well, EU farmers aren’t taking any of it sitting down. Also; abortion rights in Florida take a front seat in that war, what to expect in November and beyond.
When the world finds out that vascular surgeons and endovascular specialists have been removing new and grotesquely large “white fibrous clots” from tens of thousands of LIVING PERSONS over the past 3 years since the COVID-19 vaccines came out, people will be shocked. It could be “the final straw” that forces the stoppage of the COVID-19 vaccination program around the world, and force a hard re-look at the mRNA/lipid nanoparticle technology in general.
Embalmers are finding these clots in record numbers since 2020 and the emergence of the Covid-19 and the MRNA Jab that followed. Now Cath Lab workers are finding the same clots in the living. One whistleblower is coming forward to explain his findings. Our guest is Maj. Tom Haviland, a data analyst and Air Force Veteran who has the numbers to back up these claims.
JERUSALEM, Israel – U.S. officials have revealed President Joe Biden told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a Thursday phone call that U.S. policy toward Israel will change unless the Israeli military does more to protect aid workers and deals with the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, “(Biden) made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.”
National Security Spokesman John Kirby seconded Blinken’s comment regarding Gaza. saying, “We need to see certain changes. And if we don’t, then we’ll have to consider changes to our own policy. But it’s not about leverage,” he said.
The president also told Netanyahu he wants a ceasefire deal without delay.
“He underscored as well that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay,” Blinken elaborated.
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For Israel, that could mean losing the war, since Hamas continues to say it will agree to no ceasefire deal unless Israeli forces totally withdraw from Gaza.
Jeff Ballabon of the American Center for Law and Justice told CBN News a ceasefire would have dire consequences for Israel.
“The implication for that is that America has now become Israel’s tactical enemy. In real terms, in practical terms, this is impossible, demanding that Israel lose this war. Israel cannot afford to lose this war. This is an existential war,” Ballabon said.
Netanyahu maintains Israel must win its war against terrorist forces for the sake of the United States and the rest of the West.
“This is a larger battle. Our battle is your battle,” Netanyahu declared. “Our victory is your victory. And if we don’t have a victory, this will have enormous implications for American security, for our common future. So, we must win.”
In his call with Netanyahu, Biden expressed outrage about Israel’s accidental killing of seven aid workers in Gaza Monday.
Though critics point out the U.S. did the same sort of thing with a drone strike during the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.
Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr, then the U.S. CENTCOM commander, claimed, “I am now convinced that as many as ten civilians, including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike.”
Meanwhile, Blinken is taking heat for suggesting Israel could become like Hamas if it doesn’t do more to reverence life in Gaza.
“That’s our strength,” Blinken said. “It’s what distinguishes us from terrorists like Hamas. If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront.”
The latest disagreement between the White House and the Jewish nation comes as Israelis from all political viewpoints increasingly believe their country stands alone in the world.
In one of the more disparaging comments toward the Biden administration, Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. and Knesset Member Danny Danon told Kan Reshet Bet, regarding Gaza, “Our mistake was a few months ago when we listened to the U.S.”
Danon rejected political opponent Benny Gantz’s call for new elections and he insisted no one in leadership, from Netanyahu to the heads of security the military, and the cabinet should be replaced because of the U.S. threats.
From the left, a recent Bloomberg article quotes former Israeli Labor Party lawmaker Daniel Ben-Simon as saying, “Even for left liberals, there is a sense of isolation and frustration. The right will tell you this is the nature of being Jewish. But even people who hate Netanyahu are feeling they can’t count on the world community.”
Still, during a dark time for the nation, the ACLJ’s Ballabon believes the people of Israel are resolved to endure, and many are turning to God.
“They feel 100% resolute. There is, of course, a large – and we have seen this since the beginning of the war – turning to God,” Ballabon noted. “We see people who say things like, ‘I’m not sure I’m a believer or never been a believer, but I’m keeping Shabbat,’ or, ‘I’m not sure I’m a believer but I’m going to say the Shema prayer or I’m going to wear Tzitzit because that’s what unifies the Jewish people.’ Let me tell you, Chris, people who say that think they’re not believers, that is the ultimate statement of belief.”
As Holy Week began on Palm Sunday, “Christ is King” began trending on X (formerly Twitter). That such a statement is controversial in our post-Christian nation is a given.
The reason for the controversy, however, may be surprising.
Politicization of a fundamental truth
Since the January 6 Capitol attack, fears of Christian nationalism have led many to look askance at anything resembling the ideology, including declarations of Christ’s lordship. However, the most recent controversy concerns allegations that “Christ is King” is being used as an “anti-semitic dogwhistle” rather than the proclamation of God’s sovereignty it is intended to be.
At the heart of the dispute is a falling out between conservative commentators Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro over the Israel-Gaza conflict. In an exchange on X in November of 2023, Owens tweeted “Christ is King”, evidently in response to Shapiro’s criticism of her coverage of Israel’s involvement in Gaza. Owens’ motives for using the declaration have come under suspicion, given that she was recently fired from the conservative network Daily Wire for reported antisemitism.
Fears of antisemitism behind the declaration have accompanied its trending status.
After the phrase began trending on X, Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan expressed concern that the phrase was being used “to mean that God has abandoned his chosen people, the Jews . . . and that he has broken his promises” to them. Declarations that “Christ is King” by non-Christian figures like Andrew Tate have raised eyebrows along these lines. Tate, an influencer controversial for his open embrace of misogyny, converted to Islam several years ago and has derided Christianity as weak, leading many to question why he would echo the foundational truth of the faith he disdains.
Christ is King. But what motivates our declarations?
Despite the online firestorm over the statement, “Christ is King” remains fundamentally true. Philippians 2:9–11 tells us that “God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.” But weaponizing this truth as a way to deride the Jewish people is antithetical to Jesus’ mission.
Jesus, Israel’s promised Messiah, came to save “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). To mock Jewish people with the gospel meant for them is an affront to God, and if we speak the truth without love, we are nothing but a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1). The gospel is not meant to alienate the Jewish people from Jesus. On the contrary, it is “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16).
Beyond rumored antisemitism, the self-focused nature of social media platforms like X creates a potential problem when it comes to sharing our faith. Chris Martin, author of The Wolf in Their Pockets, cautions that social media “rewards divisiveness” and can lead us to worship ourselves. When we’re more focused on curating our online presence than we are on honoring God, statements like “Christ is King” can easily be misappropriated for personal gain.
Responding to the statement’s trending status, Twitch streamer Kangmin Lee warned against using Christ’s name as a way to gain popularity or social clout. “‘Christ is King’ should be proclaimed for His glory, not our own,” Lee wrote. “If you say it for your own gain, you crown yourself as king over your life, not Christ.” In fact, Jesus rebukes those who use his name in this way: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8).
What to ask yourself when sharing God’s truth online
At the end of the day, we can both rejoice that the gospel is being preached and resist the world’s attempts to dilute or pervert it. In Philippians 1:18, Paul rejoices that “whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.” Regardless of the motivations behind its trending status, “Christ is King” spreads the central message of the gospel to those who may never have heard it. Commentator Allie Beth Stuckey echoed Paul’s sentiments while pointing out the need to call out selfish ambition where it exists.
As Christians, everything we do should be done in love, including sharing the gospel online (1 Corinthians 16:14). When we declare Christ’s lordship on social media, we should examine our own hearts.
Are we seeking God’s glory or temporary internet fame?
Are we speaking in love, desiring a lost world to know his kindness, or are we throwing “Christ is King” around for public approval? Or, worse, to hurt others?
Just as God loved the world by sending his Son (John 3:16), we should do the same by spreading the good news without “selfish ambition or vain conceit” (Philippians 2:3).
We should always put others’ interests ahead of our own—especially when something as serious as salvation is at stake. As we spread the good news across social media, let’s follow Jesus’ example and do all things in love.
In the wake of the Israeli air strike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday to discuss the future of the war, including the role America will play in Iran’s proxy war. Over the course of that tense conversation, Biden threatened “to condition future support for Israel on how it addresses his concerns about civilian casualties and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, attempting for the first time to leverage American aid to influence the conduct of the war against Hamas.”
And while Biden stopped short of directly stating that he would cut Israel off from further munitions and aid, the implication was clear: his concerns over Israel’s present course can no longer be ignored.
The relationship between the two leaders has steadily frayed over recent months and, given Israel’s dwindling list of allies, it can ill-afford to lose the United States. That fact has been made even more apparent by the escalating tensions with Iran and its “Axis of Resistance,” which essentially constitutes the legion of proxy armies through which they have attacked Israel for decades.
And those tensions have reached new heights in the wake of Israel’s deadly attack on the building next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria earlier this week.
A fundamental shift
While Israel’s latest war with Hamas in Gaza has lasted for nearly half a year now, the attack on Monday was one of its most aggressive moves to date and could mark a fundamental shift in how the rest of this conflict will play out.
You see, everyone knows that Iran is funding, supporting, and guiding various groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis as they repeatedly attack Israel and its American allies. However, prior to Monday, Iran had remained relatively free from the consequences of those actions. The puppets rather than the puppet master took the brunt of Israel’s response.
That is no longer the case.
Three of the highest-ranking members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), along with four other IRGC officers, were killed in the strike.
And while global leaders from the Middle East and the UN were quick to denounce the attack given its proximity to Iran’s embassy, Gabriel Noronha—a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and a former special advisor on Iran in the State Department—noted that “If you’re having a bunch of top IRGC generals meeting, you’ve made it a military facility, not a diplomatic facility.”
He went on to add that Monday’s strike could be a sign that “Israel is starting to expand the envelope and say, ‘We’re going to hold the whole proxy network accountable, and we’re going to hold Iran accountable for the actions of its proxies.’”
And according to recent reports, Israel has made America aware of that shift as well, promising that “whoever harms us or plans to harm us, we will harm them.”
Such an approach would be a departure from how the war has played out to date and, if the past is any indication, the way that the United States would prefer for it to play out going forward. After all, despite repeated attacks on US bases by some of those same proxies, the American response never rose to the level of going after the IRGC.
Given our nation’s history—both in recent years and going back decades—of preferring proxy wars to open conflict, it’s understandable that Biden and others may not want to see that position change.
America’s approach to war
You see, the United States has not officially been at war with anyone since World War II.
Those who fought and died in Vietnam, Korea, the Middle East, and across the globe in the decades since would certainly—and rightly—say that they have been to war. However, the Constitution states that only Congress has the power to declare war, and they have not done that since 1942.
Instead, our government—on both sides of the aisle—has grown increasingly reliant on supporting others as they fight, either on our behalf or for the same principles that might otherwise lead us to engage more directly.
That reality is at least part of why Iran’s deputy UN ambassador, Zahra Ershadi, said in response to Monday’s attack that “the United States is responsible for all crimes committed by the Israeli regime,” even though in this particular instance it does not appear that we had any part in the planning or execution of the bombing.
Ultimately, it’s rare for proxy wars not to escalate into something more, and that could be what we’re seeing in real-time across the Middle East.
Of course, the danger inherent to taking on such a role does not necessarily mean that we are wrong to do so. Whether it’s our support of Ukraine in its fight against Russia or Israel in its battle against Iran and its proxies, there are good reasons to take the position that we have. But it would be naïve to assume that such conflicts will never grow into something more.
And, far too often, we see a similar sense of naivety play out in our walk with God as well.
A proxy war approach to sin
It can be tempting, at times, to treat sin the same way nations tend to view proxy wars. We act as though as long as we don’t directly engage in the sin, we haven’t committed it.
However, Jesus holds us to a different standard.
Six times in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus took the typical way his culture—and ours—approached sin and went deeper to address the root causes rather than just the fruit that they bore. And whether it’s anger, lust, or any of the others mentioned in Matthew 5, he calls us to recognize the danger inherent to tolerating sin, even if we never act on it. The God who made us knows how easy it can be for us to cross that line when we make a habit of going right up to it.
So while there may not be much we can do to change what’s going on in Israel—though prayer is a great and necessary place to start—we can reject the temptation to take a proxy war approach to combating the sin in our own lives.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Biden threatened to end U.S. aid to Israel unless the IDF complies with a new demand to fight the rest of the war against Gaza armed with only Nerf guns.
“It’s Nerf or nothin’!” Biden exclaimed during a brief call to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “You can attack Hamas with the old school revolver, the bow and arrow, heck you can use a gatling gun — so long as all the bullets are Nerf! You hear me, Bibi?!”
Netanyahu reportedly laughed in response.
President Biden has previously said his support of Israel is unwavering, but pressure from “The Squad,” a group of ultra-liberal members of Congress, may be the straw that broke the camel’s back. According to sources, Rep Rashida Tlaib of Michigan threatened to hold up an angry sign about Joe Biden if he didn’t change his position.
“We’re coming for you, Joe!” Tlaib and other members of the squad were heard saying at a local Denny’s. “You need our support to win re-election! There are dozens of us! Dozens!”
Though Netanyahu was not particularly receptive to the demand, sources within the Israel Defense Force (IDF) indicate they are testing the viability of Nerf weaponry anyway because it’s so fun.
We were able to get an exclusive peak at a Nerf training exercise:
Soldier 1: [combatant dives while simultenously firing from a Nerf DinosSquad Dino-Clash Blaster] Pew pew! I got you!
Soldier 2: Nuh-uh! It bounced off my N-Strike Tactical Vest. I’m still alive!
At publishing time, IDF soldiers commenced a ground invasion of Rafah, reportedly still carrying a few Nerf Modulus Demolishers just for kicks.
The Biden regime is already putting in place plans to stop President Donald Trump from firing members of the deep state should he take back the White House this November.
The Office of Personnel Management, the principal agency overseeing federal government employees, has introduced guidelines preventing career civil servants from being reassigned as political appointees who can be terminated more swiftly from their positions.
This move is a response to Trump’s ‘Schedule F’ directive in 2020, which sought to reclassify the role of tens of thousands of federal employees, essentially making it easier to fire them.
In a White House statement on Thursday, Biden said he was introducing “the final rule to protect nonpartisan civil servants” that would “protections for 2.2 million career civil servants from political interference, to guarantee that they can carry out their responsibilities in the best interest of the American people.”
He continued:
Day in and day out, career civil servants provide the expertise and continuity necessary for our democracy to function. They provide Americans with life-saving and life-changing services and put opportunity within reach for millions. That’s why since taking office, I have worked to strengthen, empower, and rebuild our career workforce.
[This is] a step toward combatting corruption and partisan interference to ensure civil servants are able to focus on the most important task at hand: delivering for the American people.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman, Republican James Comer, argued the ruling would allow federal employees to be unaccountable:
OPM’s final rule is yet another example of the Biden Administration’s efforts to insulate the federal workforce from accountability. The federal workforce exists to serve the American people, yet many Americans have a deep and growing distrust of the federal bureaucracy.
The Biden Administration’s rule will further undermine Americans’ confidence in their government since it allows poor performing federal workers and those who attempt to thwart the policies of a duly elected President to remain entrenched in the federal bureaucracy. We need more accountability for the unelected federal bureaucracy, not less.
Such a plan is ultimately designed to prevent Trump from firing the sort of deep state actors that successfully undermined his first term in office.
If Trump returns to the White House and wants to overturn the regulations, he would need to draft new rules through the Office of Personnel Management. This lengthy process would entail soliciting public feedback on any proposed alterations and also open him open to legal challenges.
Trump has repeatedly stated that he will seek to unravel the influence of the deep state over the course of his second term. “We will pass critical reforms making every executive branch employee fireable by the president of the United States,” Trump said back in 2022. “The deep state must and will be brought to heel.”
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