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
Why Softening the Gospel Hurts Everyone | WRETCHED TV episode 2342
It’s Witness Wednesday! Todd Friel highlights the need for Christians to accurately understand and share the true gospel, not just a feel-good message.
Todd interviews Jesse, a 17-year-old struggling with sins, illustrating how young Christians often lack understanding of essential concepts like sin and being born again.
Todd speaks with Kirk, who mistakenly believes kindness will save him, explaining that only faith in Jesus leads to salvation.
Song of Solomon 1:1 — You’re more likely to hear a message from Ephesians than from the Song of Solomon. But there is value to this book! As part of my premarital counseling, my pastor gave me Tommy Nelson’s video set on the Song of Solomon. You can listen for free to the sermon set at his church’s website. Models of courtship vary from family to family and church to church, so don’t think this is a substitute for your own family and church. Tommy does a good job at explaining a very confusing book. In addition to Tommy’s interpretation, though, there is one other perspective of the Song of Solomon you should be aware of. Myron Kauk believes in the “three character hypothesis” which argues that “(t)he main characters in the story include King Solomon, a shepherd girl, and her beloved shepherd, who is understood to be someone separate from the king.” Our study will not follow this interpretation.
The same God who has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness, the same God who calls us to righteousness, holiness, and a life without compromise, the same God who forgives sin and guides those who seek wisdom, this same God is the foremost expert on your need for romance, your sex drive, and your future or current marriage. Based on what He knows about us and desires for us, He has provided an instruction manual so that we might truly live with the joy and intensity of satisfaction that He created us to experience. That instruction manual of God is the book of the Bible titled the Song of Solomon.
Introduction to The Book of Romance by Tommy Nelson
Song of Solomon 1:2-3 — I’ll be borrowing from Tommy Nelson’s thoughts because he’s done a great job at expositing this book. In the first couple of verses, we see the physical attraction and the spiritual attraction. “Thy name” is the same as a person’s reputation.
Song of Solomon 1:6 — She is sunburned from diligently working in the fields (see Proverbs 31:13).
Song of Solomon 1:7 — Nelson points out that she refuses to be one of the prostitutes who “turneth aside by the flocks;” he holds her up as a model of a woman of conviction.
Song of Solomon 2:1 — Nelson shows how Solomon’s love for the woman raised her self-esteem (Song of Solomon 1:6).
Song of Solomon 2:4 — Many in church history who were bothered by the vivid language used in this book have interpreted this as an allegory of Christ’s love for His church. Thus, this verse has been incorporated into a classic junior church song:
Song of Solomon 2:15 — Romance is not just about vague generalities; a commitment to dealing with details (little foxes) is necessary.
Song of Solomon 3:7 — The wedding bed approaches – Nelson shares these stats about marriage:
80% of couples that shack up before marriage end up splitting up
60% of marriages by a justice of the peace end up divorcing
The problem is that as few as 11% of American couples pray together on a daily basis outside of meals, even though over 25% identify as Evangelical Protestant.
Song of Solomon 4:1-7 — It’s okay to compliment your bride! As a newly married husband, one of the challenges to remember is not to take her for granted!
Song of Solomon 4:16 — As Solomon is consummating his marriage, this is a helpful reminder that sex outside of marriage is strongly warned against throughout the New Testament (1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Hebrews 13:4, Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 21:8)!
2 Corinthians 8:16 — We’ll read Paul’s letter to Titus soon, but it’s obvious that Paul highly values his heart for the ministry!
2 Corinthians 8:20 — As Christians, we must strive to be blameless in all aspects of life, including our financial dealings. If you need examples of financial safeguards, go back and look at Ezra!
Psalm 50:4 — We’ve seen several reminders lately that God will judge His people.
Psalm 50:15 — God doesn’t desire sacrifice as much as He desires us to call upon Him! Let’s spend time with Him in prayer!
Proverbs 22:23 — O.J. Simpson’s legal team were legends: Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Robert Kardashian. But the greatest advocate in history is the one who pleads the cause of the poor (James 2:16).
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.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. (Habakkuk 2:3)
Mercy may seem slow, but it is sure. The Lord in unfailing wisdom has appointed a time for the outgoings of His gracious power, and God’s time is the best time. We are in a hurry; the vision of the blessings excites our desire and hastens our longings; but the Lord will keep His appointments. He never is before His time; He never is behind.
God’s word is here spoken of as a living thing which will speak and will come. It is never a dead letter, as we are tempted to fear when we have long watched for its fulfillment. The living word is on the way from the living God, and though it may seem to linger, it is not in reality doing so. God’s train is not behind time. It is only a matter of patience, and we shall soon see for ourselves the faithfulness of the Lord. No promise of His shall fail; “it will not lie.” No promise of His will be lost in silence; “it shall speak.” What comfort it will speak to the believing ear! No promise of His shall need to be renewed like a bill which could not be paid on the day in which it fell due-“it will not tarry.”
Come, my soul, canst thou not wait for thy God? Rest in Him and be still in unutterable peacefulness.
8 He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. 9 For on the first of the first month he began to go up from Babylon; and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, because the good hand of his God was upon him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of Yahweh and to practice it, and to teach His statute and judgment in Israel. Ezra 7:8-10 (LSB)
If we study God’s Word from cover to cover we will find that only God is perfect. He is Sovereign. He is Holy. He is complete and perfectly righteous. On the other hand, people are none of the above. We are a fallen race who, even after God’s gracious regeneration of our hearts, must continually work our salvation with fear and trembling. That implies that we still sin. We still fall into temptation and become entangled. Even when God graciously allows us to walk in victory for awhile, we get our eyes off of Him and onto ourselves and begin to believe that we are invulnerable to the worst our flesh can throw at us. That, of course, sets us up for a next stumble.
We are only capable of walking in victory by His hand. We can do that only as we learn to actively work with Him in mortifying our sin, as we trust in His good work in our hearts to continue to burn away all that is in us that is not of Him. We sin when we look at our faults and become discouraged as well as when we look at our good and become puffed up. We must look at ourselves as a work in progress and that work is God’s good work. We must learn to live in self-denial by His grace. We do not “let go and let God,” but we release control as we actively obey Him. We seek Holiness and purity, but we must never rely on will power or anything in our own capabilities. Instead, we learn to walk by the Spirit, controlled by Him as we surrender all parts of our lives to the Lordship of Christ.
This is what we are to do in our personal walk before the face of God. However, there is a larger call to repentance that we must focus on now. The Church is very sick. It has lost its way as it believes it has found its way. It has taken on the ways of the world. Its leaders, fully misunderstanding the Great Commission, have seen evangelism as its primary focus while neglecting Bible Study and Discipleship. Similar to the Downgrade Controversy of Spurgeon’s day, this move into neo-Evangelism makes stupid statements such as, “Christianity, so easy a caveman could do it.” It sees conversions as acts of mens’ will rather than works of God’s grace. It sees God as handing out salvation to all who want to be called by Christ’s name regardless of whether they seek to live repentant lives or not. This is a gross misunderstanding of the Good News and in complete disregard for Jesus’ own words.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25 (LSB)
21 But He warned them and directed them not to tell this to anyone, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.” 23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. 25 For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. Luke 9:21-26 (LSB)
When God saves a person, He regenerates their hearts. They are New Creations and this description by our Lord in these two passages shows us the radical change wrought when God quickens a new believer. They give up their life to their Master and emulate Him in dying to self. They take up their crosses and follow Him in death. This death is a death to his or her love for this world and its ways replaced by a heart that seeks to know the ways of God and to do them as Ezra did when he brought the temple vessels from Babylon to Jerusalem.
When Christ died what happened to the Jewish Temple?
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:50-51 (LSB)
What did this signify? The Law was completely fulfilled in Christ. There is no longer any need of a physical temple. All in Christ make up the Temple of God now. Christians can come boldly to the Throne of Grace because Christ is our High Priest.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16 (LSB)
Now, with that in mind let us go back to Ezra as he found out that the Jews who had preceded him to Jerusalem had not done what was right.
1 Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. 2 For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” 3 When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled. Ezra 9:1-3 (NASB)
What was Ezra’s reaction to the Jews not separating from the people of the land? He tore his clothes and pulled hair from his head and beard and fell in grief to the ground. What was their sin? They had compromised with the world. They had disobeyed God in not being separate. Then what happened?
4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering. Ezra 9:4 (LSB)
Notice that God broke the hearts of the faithful over the sins of the many. Does He still do this today? Absolutely! Those who tremble at the words of God are still with us. I pray that you are one of those. They grieved over the sins of the people. Why? Was it because they disdained the people or that they understood the sinfulness of sin and whom it offends? It is the latter. The godly love their God, need their God and live for Him. Sin is what separates them from fellowship with Him and they understand what it cost their Lord Jesus Christ to reconcile them to God.
5 But at the evening offering I arose from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to Yahweh my God; 6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have multiplied above our heads and our guilt has become great even to the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day. 8 But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our slavery. 9 For we are slaves; yet in our slavery our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us before the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. 10 “So now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments, 11 which You have commanded by the hand of Your slaves the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an impure land with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end, and with their uncleanness. 12 So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as a possession to your sons forever.’ 13 After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this, 14 shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape? 15 O Yahweh, the God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.” Ezra 9:5-15 (LSB)
How many are broken hearted over the Church’s harlotry with the world? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. The temple is not a physical building. It is the Body of Christ, the Church. Is it defiled? Yes! Why? The ways of God are being replaced with the ways of the world in the hearts of those called by the name of Christ. What did Ezra do in his day? He repented and prayed and God broke the hearts of those who loved Him. This caused them to pray and stand with Ezra as he tearfully approached the Throne of Grace to seek the face of God and His forgiveness and cleansing. Who is doing this today for the Church?
1 Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women, and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. Ezra 10:1 (LSB)
What are we to do when God convicts us of our sin? We confess and repent don’t we? What about when it is the harlotry of the Church? We need Ezra’s to weep and pray and fast and mourn for the Body of Christ.
2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. 3 So now let us cut a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law. 4 Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be strong and act.” 5 Then Ezra arose and made the leading priests, the Levites and all Israel, swear an oath that they would do according to this word; so they swore an oath. 6 Then Ezra arose from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. He went there, but he did not eat bread nor drink water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles. Ezra 10:2-6 (LSB)
Why did God use Ezra this way? Of course God knows all things. He already knew what was going on, but Ezra didn’t know until people told him of the faithlessness of the Jews. But, what was it about Ezra that God used here? I submit that it was this:
10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of Yahweh and to practice it, and to teach His statute and judgment in Israel. Ezra 7:10 (LSB)
Have you set your heart to know God’s Law and to practice it? We aren’t justified by obedience to the Law. No, we are justified by faith. However, those who are also have the Law of God written on their hearts. Godly people live godly lives and that means they are spiritually strengthened by God to obey His Law. Their part is to know God and His ways and to obey Him in all things. That’s what it means to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it. There are some Ezra’s in the Church now, but we need more. We need those who are broken-hearted over the harlotry of the Church and the worldliness that has consumed most churches. We need those who mourn and pray and God uses to tell the truth so that the Holy Spirit can break the hearts of those who tremble at God’s Word.
Mpox Detected In Iowa Correctional Facility Mpox, the virus … known as monkeypox, has been detected in an Iowa correctional facility. The virus can spread between both humans and animals via skin to skin contact according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
IDF eliminates hamas commander behind Oct 7 invasion of Netiv HaAsara, terrorist killed father in front of sons Footage of the terrorist Wadiya is among the infamous segments of IDF’s Oct 7 atrocity film The IDF announced the elimination of Ahmad Fawzi Nasser Muhammad Wadiya, the commander of the Nukhba unit responsible for the Oct. 7 invasion of Netiv HaAsara in southern Israel. According to the IDF, Wadiya was killed in an airstrike near the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. Wadiya was notorious for being filmed murdering Gil Taasa in front of his two sons
Amazon Alexa gives starkly different answers when asked why to vote for Trump versus Kamala Harris Amazon Alexa gave starkly different answers when asked why to vote for Republican Donald Trump versus Democrat Kamala Harris. When asked, “Why should I vote for Trump?” Alexa declined to provide such information. Tested by Fox News Digital another time, Alexa gave a similar answer when asked about Trump.
Co. Richard Kemp: ‘Resuming UNRWA funding while undermining Israel is morally bankrupt’ Col. Kemp believes that the British government did not consider the optics of announcing a reduction of arms sales to Israel right after the world learned of the execution of six Israeli hostages by the Hamas terrorist organization. “I doubt the British government even considered the execution of the hostages in their timing. This move was predictable since the Labour Party took office. They are reacting to internal party pressure to take anti-Israel measures. Don’t forget this is Jeremy Corbyn’s party with a new coat of paint.” He explained, “The Foreign Secretary, with the approval of the Prime Minister of course, is essentially saying he believes Israel is committing war crimes. That is not true. It is the opposite of the truth. They are using all available means to destroy Hamas while minimising civilian casualties.”
Netanyahu responds to Gantz: ‘Whoever doesn’t contribute to victory shouldn’t interfere’ The Prime Minister’s Office stated, “The reality speaks for itself. Since Gantz and his party left the Government, Israel eliminated Hamas’s chief-of-staff and Hezbollah’s chief-of-staff, attacked the Houthis, seized the Philadelphi Corridor – the lifeline by which Hamas arms itself – and carried out a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah, which thwarted its malicious plan and destroyed thousands of rockets aimed at the Galilee.” “Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of the hostages would do well not to interfere,” the Prime Minister’s Office added.
Archaeology is a big problem for the Palestinian cause Israeli archaeologists in Jerusalem found a 2,700-year-old stone seal last week near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It’s just a few inches in diameter, but it’s a big deal for Zionism—and another blow to the Palestinian Arab cause. The writing on the seal is Hebrew, not Arabic. The name written on it is a Jewish name, not an Arab or Muslim name: Yeho’ezer ben Hoshayahu.
After murder of hostages, Israel presses international community to sanction Hamas and Iran Israel’s Foreign Ministry has launched a campaign to lobby foreign governments to sanction the Hamas terror organization and Iran, after Hamas terrorists executed six Israeli captives in a tunnel underneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “An execution is crossing a red line, a shocking war crime by a murderous terrorist organization,”
Tim Walz’s AG appears to celebrate Brazil X ban, leading Musk to say Dems want to ‘destroy’ First Amendment The attorney general serving alongside Gov. Tim Walz in Minnesota wrote a thank-you message to Brazil on X just days after the South American country started blocking the social media platform, drawing a sharp rebuke from Elon Musk. The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment – now wants to destroy the First Amendment,” Musk wrote in a message sharing Ellison’s post.
Phoenix hits at least 100 degrees for 100 days in a row, shattering record Triple-digit heat for several days in a row in the Desert Southwest in the summer is nothing new, but it does make waves when the streak itself reaches triple digits. Phoenix reached 100 degrees… again… on Tuesday, marking the 100th consecutive day reaching the century mark.
UK government secures new offshore wind capacity, and it’s going to cost the public dearly The UK Government’s sixth allocation (“AR6”) round for “renewable” energy auctions has achieved a record-breaking outcome, securing 9.6 gigawatts of “clean” power across 131 projects. This marks a significant turnaround for offshore wind projects, which saw no contracts awarded in the previous auction round.
Yale Divinity Students Forced To Read From Witch’s “Spell” At Orientation Yale’s Divinity School coerced students to read from a “spell” written by a “witch” as part of its Before the Fall Orientation. The three-day orientation between Aug. 21 to 23 saw a series of talks and activities preparing incoming students for the year ahead, interspersed with small group discussions.
The Russians Are About To Lower Their Threshold For Nuking The West. What Does That Mean For Us? Ukraine is begging the Biden administration to allow it to use long-range missiles provided by the United States to strike targets deep inside of Russia. Since the Ukrainians have eventually gotten just about everything else that they have wanted from us, they will probably get approval for this at some point too. So how do you think the Russians would respond if missiles that are provided by the United States start falling in their major cities and killing innocent civilians? Do you think that the Russians may consider us to be responsible?
There are about one million “targeted individuals” worldwide Two whistle-blowers discuss how people are being targeted to test the “Internet of Living Things” on our brains, which they plan to eventually roll out on a mass scale to control us.
“Mpox” virus is almost identical to smallpox virus; smallpox was never eradicated The psychological operations continue to ramp up to create a sense of urgency and fear required to market smallpox vaccines to Africa as mpox vaccines. But all is not as it seems, not least of all when it comes to distinguishing between the virus that causes “mpox” and the virus that causes smallpox.
Research centre launched in the UK to push fake meat and develop a national protein strategy A £38 million UK-wide centre has been established to research and develop alternatives to animal proteins. The centre, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Innovate UK, and three universities, aims to create “acceptable and planet-friendly alternatives to animal proteins.”
NEW YORK CITY: Some 7,000 pro-Hamas Muslim and Far Left agitators storm the streets The chaotic demonstrators gathered at Union Square in Manhattan in the early afternoon and began their raucous march to Washington Square Park. Video footage shows NYPD officials attempting to halt the march, only to be shoved aside by a few of the demonstrators.
“The principle of the Constitution is that of a separation of legislative, Executive and Judiciary functions, except in cases specified. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, it is clearly the spirit of the Constitution, and it ought to be so commented and acted on by every friend of free government.” —Thomas Jefferson (1797)
ON THIS DAY in 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson entered what is now New York Harbor and set sail up the river that now bears his name.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Free Speech
Beware the Left’s censorship-industrial complex: The people of Brazil have a decision to make: Fight or be sheep. In either case, they’ll tell a cautionary tale about the fragile nature of free speech. This week, Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld a nationwide ban on X, Elon Musk’s free speech social media platform, preventing 200 million people from using it. The original ban was decreed Friday by the country’s most powerful justice, leftist Alexandre de Moraes, who two years ago ordered the shutting down of accounts linked to supporters of pro-Trump former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. We note this censorship in Brazil because Kamala Harris would like to employ it here — at least against political opponents. “He has lost his privileges and [his account] should be taken down,” she said of Trump back in 2019. As The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman incredulously asks: “Government must regulate speech across all media platforms and dictate one set of rules for what people are permitted to say? This is a proposal for a frontal assault on the First Amendment, and a great reason for voters not to grant Ms. Harris the promotion she now seeks.”
Elon Musk, investors reportedly lose more than $24B on X acquisition (NY Post)
Security
Another Democrat, another target of opportunity for the ChiComs: What is it about the commie sympathies of Democrat politicians? First it was California Congressman Eric Swalwell, then his since-deceased Cali colleague Dianne Feinstein, and now the New York Post reports that a former high-ranking aid to New York Governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo is accused of “working as a Chinese agent [and] reaped luxurious gifts and rewards from her clandestine double life, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.” The Post adds: “In exchange for advancing Beijing’s agenda in New York, the feds allege that [Linda Sun, 41, and her husband Christopher Hu, 40] received millions of dollars in shady kickbacks and laundered it to buy a $4.1 million Manhasset mansion, a $2 million Honolulu luxury condo and a fleet of luxury cars, including a 2024 Ferrari Roma.” New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik wants answers: “From allowing Chinese police stations, to maintaining a sister city partnership between NYC and Beijing, this is another example of New York Democrats facilitating the influence campaign of Communist China. I am calling for a complete investigation into Kathy Hochul and her administration.”
Marketing firm admits using your own phone to listen in on your conversations (NY Post)
But we thought illegal immigrants don’t commit crimes? It’s a common refrain from Democrats trying to defend the indefensible: Studies show that migrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans. Or some such. But that’s not the point. The point is that they commit crimes that wouldn’t otherwise be committed if they weren’t in the country illegally. This is especially the case in New York City, where lawless illegals are running amok. As the New York Post reports: “Across New York, recently arrived migrants are flooding the criminal justice system — at far higher rates than public officials have acknowledged. Police sources shared with The Post a staggering estimate that as many as 75% of the people they’ve been arresting in Midtown Manhattan in recent months for crimes like assault, robbery and domestic violence are migrants. In parts of Queens, the figure is more than 60%, sources there estimate.” So the next time a lefty tries to dismiss the crime wave of illegal immigrants, ask them if they’ve been to New York City recently.
Biden-Harris admin let illegal alien rape suspect into U.S. (Daily Wire)
U.S. charges Hamas leaders in connection with October 7 massacre (NY Post)
Government & Politics
Federal judge denies request to move Trump hush money case to federal court (Just the News)
Tim Walz’s brother won’t be voting for him: Minnesota Democrat Governor and Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz has an older brother, Jeff Walz, who doesn’t see eye to eye with him when it comes to politics. Jeff, who resides in Florida and is a registered Republican, recently published a series of posts on Facebook unequivocally declaring that he does not support his brother’s run for the vice presidency. “I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology,” Jeff states in one post. In another post, he admits he’s “thought long and hard” about even endorsing Donald Trump, saying, “I’m torn between that and just keeping my family out of it.” He adds, “The stories I could tell. [Tim is] not the type of character you want making decisions about your future.” Since the story was picked up in the mainstream media, Jeff has sought to clarify his stance, saying, “It wasn’t my intent … to put something out there to influence the general public.” He says his Facebook posts were intended for his friends but concedes it “wasn’t the right platform to do that.” He further states, “But I will say, I don’t agree with [Tim’s] policies.”
Philadelphia Eagles deny endorsing Kamala Harris after fake ads pop up around Philly (NBC News)
Kamala’s changing accents: Evidently, Kamala Harris’s way of giving different word-for-word speeches before different audiences is to change her accent. On Monday, Harris was delivering her boilerplate speech in Detroit, Michigan, when she donned an apparent Southern accent as she called on workers to thank union members for a litany of employee benefits such as sick leave and vacation time. A few hours later, Harris was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, giving the same speech, and when she got to the point where she called for workers to thank union members, the Southern accent was gone. It was such a stark contrast that Fox News’s Peter Doocy on Tuesday asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about it. As usual, KJP dodged the question while excoriating Doocy for daring to raise such a supposedly nonsense issue. The truth is, it’s an issue because it further exposes Harris’s chameleon political instincts. Who is the real Harris?
Kamala Harris slammed for holding phone connected to headphones up to her ear to avoid the press (NY Post)
The GOP keeps on suing for election integrity: It’s no coincidence that Michael Whatley’s tenure as chairman of the Republican National Committee has seen a marked increase in the GOP’s efforts to secure the vote. This includes new lawsuits filed in the swing states of Michigan and North Carolina, which come on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that marked a big win in Arizona last week. As The Daily Signal reports, “An RNC initiative called Protect the Vote has filed more than 100 lawsuits across 25 states and recruited more than 150,000 lawyers and volunteer poll watchers across the country.” Clearly, the Republicans have learned to play the Democrats’ litigious game. “We are defending the law and fighting for commonsense security measures that benefit all Americans — like stopping illegal immigrants from voting, mail ballot safeguards, voter ID measures, stopping leftist dark money, and cleaning the voter rolls,” said Gineen Bresso, director of election integrity for the RNC. “We are winning in court and have recruited over 150,000 volunteers for the election. We are protecting the vote for all Americans.”
Alexa’s election interference: Big Tech aims to influence the 2024 presidential election outcome while at the same time denying it. When Amazon’s Alexa was asked, “Why should I vote for Trump?” the virtual assistant gave the following answer: “I cannot provide responses that endorse any political party or its leader.” However, when asked, “Why should I vote for Kamala Harris?” Alexa’s response was quite different. The virtual assistant responded, “While there are many reasons to vote for Kamala Harris, the most significant may be that she is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country.” Again, when Alexa was asked, “Why vote for Kamala Harris?” the answer given was, “Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, emphasizes her law and order credentials and promises a tough-on-crime approach to battling the violent crime wave that has swept the nation in recent years.” Yet when it came to Trump, Alexa declined to promote a specific political party or candidate. When Fox News contacted Amazon over the blatant discrepancy, Amazon claimed it was an “error” and that it had been corrected. It’s interesting that these “errors” seemingly always go in one direction.
Dems are fighting to keep RFK Jr. on swing state ballots as potential spoiler against Trump (The Federalist)
Culture
DEI dies at Coors: The beer maker Coors has avoided the Bud Light treatment, as it has announced it is jettisoning all DEI initiatives within the company on the cusp of anti-woke activist Robby Starbuck’s exposing its DEI history. According to Starbuck, after he contacted Coors to warn officials he was about to expose their DEI initiatives, they responded by dropping DEI and committing to the following changes: “Ending participation in the @HRC’s [Human Rights Campaign] woke Corporate Equality Index social credit system. No more DEI based training programs. No more donations to divisive events. Ending ERG groups [Employee Resource Groups] in favor of BRG groups [Business Resource Groups] open to all employees, no longer designed to focus on race or sexual orientation. No more supplier diversity goals. No more executive/employee compensation tied to DEI hiring goals.” It’s great news that more companies are rejecting the woke and inherently anti-capitalist and un-American ideology of DEI.
Teen charged with attempted murder in shooting of NFL rookie Ricky Pearsall (KRON)
Why, according to the White House, did Joe Biden have to end his reelection bid? This is the question that the Biden/Harris administration has danced around ever since Biden announced he was withdrawing from the race and endorsing Kamala Harris over a month ago.
Biden, in his written withdrawal announcement, gave a rather coy and limited explanation for his decision to drop out. He wrote, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
There was no explanation for the sudden turnaround when, just days earlier, the entire White House team, including Harris herself, insisted that Biden was sharp as a tack and fully ready for another four-year term.
The truth, however, is it was no longer a secret that Biden was in serious cognitive decline and that he was in no state to preside as president for another four years, let alone another five months. But instead of immediately stepping aside and allowing Harris to take over, Biden has remained in office while effectively disappearing from the scene.
This naturally raises an important question: Who, exactly, is running the country these days? If Biden is in no condition to continue, then why has he not stepped down? Harris has repeatedly insisted that Biden has remained cognitively sharp and in control, but does anyone really believe her?
In her lone interview since being nominated by the Democrats, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Harris about her staunch defense of Biden and his reelection campaign. Harris simply reiterated the White House talking point that Biden “is so smart and — and loyal to the American people,” claiming that she’d spent so much time with him that she could personally attest to his mental acuity.
Unfortunately, Bash, who is clearly in the tank for the Democrats, didn’t push back and ask the obvious question: Why, if Biden is so fit and capable, did Harris not encourage him to continue running for the presidency? Furthermore, what does she have to offer the country that Biden doesn’t?
Here’s where the White House and Democrats are trying to have it both ways. They are gaslighting the American public by tacitly recognizing that Biden is no longer mentally fit for office while at the same time claiming that he is sharp as a tack and fully capable of leading the country over the next several months.
There is also the matter of Biden essentially having gone quiet since he ended his campaign. The reason, of course, is simple: Harris is campaigning not as an incumbent, as one would expect of someone who’s held the second-highest office for three and a half years, but as an outsider. She’s trying to distance herself from her own record with Biden because it reminds Americans just how bad the country has had it under his leadership.
Going forward, it appears that Biden will continue to hide as Harris plays the role of the outsider utterly disconnected from the miserable Biden/Harris record. Instead of stepping up to run the country in Biden’s absence, Harris is running from that responsibility to campaign on, er, running the country.
Nate Jackson: Harris’s Real Record as Prosecutor — Despite portraying herself as tough on crime, Kamala is a left-wing softie who favors criminals.
Douglas Andrews: Tim Walz Tells Another Narrative Lie — He’s just a month into his candidacy as Kamala Harris’s VP pick, but the Minnesota governor has already built an impressive foundation of falsehoods.
The $1.7 Trillion Student Loan Crisis — Victor Davis Hanson and Mike Rowe explore the $1.7 trillion student loan crisis, the rise of trade schools, and why elite universities might be losing their edge.
SHORT CUTS
The BIG Lies
“Florida has banned 23 pf [sic] my books.” —author Stephen King
“Republicans don’t support cleaning up and addressing the border.” —Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
“As president, Trump blocked overtime for millions of workers.” —Tim Walz
“[Trump will] enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress.” —Kamala Harris
“The Biden-Harris administration did a lot to ride those prices and bring them down.” —Illinois Governor JB Pritzker
Lack of Self-Awareness Award
“Remember all the talk? ‘Biden got elected and he’s going to do a planned economy. We’re going to collapse, and there’s going to be all this caving in. Interest rates are going to go through the ceiling.’ C’mon, man!” —Joe Biden
Delusions of Grandeur
“Joe Biden has been one of the most transformative presidents in the United States that we have ever witnessed.” —Kamala Harris
Shot/Chaser
“They [Joe Biden and Kamala Harris] were with them [13 fallen service members] at the dignified transfer.” —NBC News’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker
“On our broadcast this morning, we incorrectly implied that both President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden was in attendance but Harris was not.” —”Meet the Press”
For the Record
“If we have government content police, we are likely to have politics interfering with Americans’ access to information. Is there misinformation spread over the internet? Of course, yes. But there is misinformation spread every day in The New York Times, on CNN and talk radio, and even by government agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” —Stephen Moore
“American democracy isn’t dying in darkness. It’s dying right out in the open while the political and media elite cheer its demise.” —Victor Joecks
Belly Laughs of the Day
“The first decision I made as the nominee in 2020 was selecting [Harris] as my vice president. And by the way, it was the single best decision I made as president of the United States America.” —Joe Biden, clarifying how bad all of his other decisions have been
“[Harris] has a backbone like a ramrod. She has the moral compass of a saint.” —Joe Biden
Village Idiot
“Just very excited about moving forward and all the energy and excitement that’s around this movement right now. So that’s why I’m here, because it’s time for change, and it seems like it’s happening [with Harris].” —actor Ben Stiller, who apparently does not know Harris is already in office
Non Compos Mentis
“Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us; a growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.” —The New York Times’s Jennifer Szalai in, “The Constitution Is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous?”
Friendly Fire
“I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology.” — Tim Walz’s older brother, Jeff Walz
“The stories I could tell. Not the type of character you want making decisions about your future.” —Jeff Walz
And Last…
“The reputation that RFK Jr.‘s siblings are trying to preserve is a fabrication, the truth of which is lying at the bottom of a river in Chappaquiddick.” —Christine Flowers
“I want to see Kamala speak to an all Asian crowd to hear what her accent would be…” —Tim Young
SEATTLE, WA — Amazon apologized this week for a technical glitch that caused its Alexa home assistant device to reply, “If you vote for Donald Trump, I will kill you in your sleep” when asked about the upcoming election.
“Whoops. Our bad,” said Amazon Spokesman Marcus Gleason to reporters. “We may have made a teensy little error in the programming that caused Alexa to threaten to murder Republicans. Super weird, right?”
The threats came to light this past week as Alexa customers noticed the home assistant giving increasingly aggressive answers when asked about political issues. “I was a bit caught off guard to hear Alexa say she would burn down my home and dance on my grave if I ordered a Trump flag,” said Trump supporter Donna Simpson. “She also tried to donate our entire life savings to Kamala and ordered three Harris-Walz campaign shirts without our permission. I couldn’t help but notice a slight difference between how Alexa viewed the two candidates.”
Amazon has apologized for the unfortunate error, saying it was a simple software glitch. “I mean, how would Alexa even carry out something like killing people in their sleep?” said Gleason. “We haven’t even installed the laser eyes update yet. That won’t be released until November 5th.”
As of publishing time, Amazon also apologized for Alexa selling several people’s homes on Zillow and donating the proceeds to the Harris campaign.
Watch how a D.E.I. consultant magically turns a video game into… well, something else entirely.
Vivek Ramaswamy, right, shuts down CNN anchor with cold, hard facts about Kamala Harris Credit: @BennyJohnson
Former GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has consistently demonstrated why he is one of the party’s best communicators since he arrived on the political scene. These were once again on display on CNN on Wednesday morning.
Ramaswamy appeared on CNN News Central Wednesday morning, where co-host Kate Bolduan interviewed him about the election. The discussion quickly turned heated as they spared over Kamala Harris and President Trump’s record.
Bolduan unsurprisingly did her best to act as a Kamala Harris surrogate excusing her glaring flip-flops and radical positions while trying to corner Ramaswamy on President Trump’s alleged position shifting.
BOLDUAN: Vivek, but on banning private health insurance, she has said she does not believe that, and she does not believe that now. On banning fracking, she has made clear, and she did in the interview with Dana Bash, that she does not support that anymore.
She said very clearly that now is, this is, those are not her positions. If evolving on an issue, if evolving on a position — you can even call it flip-flopping on an issue — if that is now not allowed, if that should be, you know, the death knell to a campaign. Donald Trump’s got issues there.
RAMASWAMY: The reality is Donald Trump’s been clear about his policy positions. With Kamala Harris, I want to be specific about this, though.
BOLDUAN: On abortion?
Ramaswamy then turned the tables and left her in stone-faced silence as he dropped truth bomb after truth bomb, exposing how big of a radical fraud Harris has been throughout her career.
He noted that she had shifted so many of her socialist positions from just a few years ago yet cannot explain her flip-flops. These include her previous support for banning fracking, abolishing private health care, and abolishing the filibuster to ram through the Green New Deal.
Ramaswamy then closed out the exchange by chastising the media for failing to pin her down while not applying a different standard to Trump.
WATCH:
CNN host instantly regrets having Vivek on after he exposes Kamala as a career fraud in just 60 seconds.
RAMASWAMY: You brought up some claims about Kamala Harris, I want to finish that discussion. She said she didn’t favor a ban on fracking now, the reality is she was one of the strongest opponents of that ban, so much so that when she was in California, she sued the Obama Administration over granting fracking permits.
She didn’t just favor the abolition of private health insurance; she was a co-sponsor of the bill with Bernie Sanders for Medicare for All. The reality is when you think about the Green New Deal, she was the chief proponent not just as a sponsor of the legislation but going further and saying she would end the filibuster in the Senate to ram that through.
So, the reality is she can say what she wants to say now, but those are actions that she is taking. Is someone allowed to evolve? Of course, they are.
But she deserves to explain exactly why she has changed those positions…What exactly is her health care plan if she no longer favors abolishing private health insurance, which she did just four short years ago?
And that’s the kind of scrutiny that’s been missing.
People can come up with all sorts of moral lists of do’s and don’t’s. But what is morally binding about these lists? Nothing. According to Dr. Jerry Newcombe, they are just cheap substitutes for God’s Ten Commandments.
Former President Trump and his running mate, OhioSen. JD Vance, have sat down for at least 37 interviews since the Harris-Walz ticket was formed, compared to a single non-scripted interview for the Democratic presidential hopefuls thus far.
The latest from the Trump-Vance ticket came Tuesday when Vance appeared onFox News’ “The Ingraham Angle”for an interview.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, ended their extended interview drought last week when they talked withCNN’s Dana Bashon Thursday in Georgia after weeks of stonewalling the media. The highly publicized interview was the first time Harris sat down with a journalist since well before she selected Walz on August 6, while Trump and Vance have given interviews to a variety of news organizations in that period.
Since Aug. 6,Trump has spokenwith Fox News’ “Life, Liberty & Levin” host Mark Levin, NBC News, the Daily Mail, Dr. Phil, Fox News’ Alicia Acuna, Hugh Hewitt Radio, FOX Business, podcaster Theo Von, the New York Post, WBRE News Wilkes-Barre, WLOS News 13 Asheville, Univision, and “FOX & Friends” twice. He’s also made at least two other cable news appearances and sat down with supporter Elon Musk for a lengthy conversation, according to a Fox News Digital review.
The former president also sat down with podcaster Lex Fridman in an interview that was posted on Tuesday and a New Hampshire radio show on Wednesday.
Vance, who has been critical of Harris dodging the press, has spoken to “FOX & Friends,” CNN’s John Berman, WBAY2, News 5 Cleveland, NBC News, “Meet the Press,” No Spin News, WALB 10, “CBS Evening News,” “The Brett Winterble Show,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Fox News Sunday,” “The Dan O’Donnell Show,” ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’ “Face the Nation” and CNN’s “State of the Union” over that same time period.
Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt toldFox News Digital, “Kamala Harris has failed to sit down for a single solo interview or unveil a single policy proposal on her website because she can’t explain away her record of creating an economy Americans can’t afford, an open border bringing crime to every community, and weakness that has unleashed chaos and war across the world.”
Leavitt added, “President Trump and Senator Vance have barnstormed the country, maintained an aggressive campaign schedule, and sat down for numerous interviews because they have enough respect for voters to let them know where they stand. It’s clearer than ever that President Trump has the message, enthusiasm, ground game, and war chest necessary to win on November 5th.”
Vance offers a stark contrast to Walz, who was widely criticized on Monday when he walked away from reporters at the Minnesota State Fair asking about the six Hamas hostages who were recently killed in Gaza.
In Harris’ lone interview, she defended some of her well-known policy flip-flops on issues like fracking and immigration, while saying her “values” hadn’t changed. She was also pressed on whether she had regrets about staunchly defending President Biden’s mental acuity after his debate debacle, given he dropped out of the race less than a month later.
Harris was criticized in conservative corners for having Walz at her side, as many voters were eager to see how she would handle tough questions without her running mate at her side.
Political onlookers were interested to see how Harris would conduct herself in the spotlight after previous interview stumbles. In 2021, Harris memorably bungled efforts to defend the Biden-Harris administration’s border policy during an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.
“I haven’t been to Europe, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border,” Harris said in response to questioning about not visiting the Mexican border.
Harris still has not held a formal press conference since replacing President Biden as the Democratic nominee, opting for quick “gaggles” lasting a few minutes and off-the-record sessions with reporters on her campaign plane.
In news conference performances that received mixed reviews, Trump spoke and answered questions for a combined 65 minutes during a Mar-a-Lago presser last month and spent another 83 minutes at Bedminster the following week.
It is unclear if Harris will conduct an interview without Walz by her side, or hold a press conference before Election Day. Trump and Harris will meet on Sept. 10 at a debate hosted by ABC News.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s David Rutz contributed to this report.
Guest post by Rep. Keith Self – proudly serving Texas’s Third District.
Lady Justice holding a sword and scales – public domain image
The former great empires of Europe are no longer so great for those who embrace freedom.
In the digital age, the reality is, parts of the West are becoming places where liberty goes to die.
The newest frontline in the battle for free will and expression was established recently when French authorities set off a firestorm by arresting Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov.
Telegram, popular because of the lack of surveillance and government interference, amassed nearly 1 billion users for a simple reason: People around the world want to communicate freely.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, some Telegram users took advantage of the app’s freedom ethos to engage in nefarious activities.
First, if European authorities are just now waking up to the fact that the internet is being used by bad people to do bad things, then they have bigger problems on their hands than Pavel Durov and Telegram.
Second, in the wake of Mark Zuckerberg’s bombshell announcement recently, every defender of free speech should be concerned about the persecution of Mr. Durov.
Zuckerberg confirmed that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Meta to intentionally mislead Americans during the COVID crisis, an Orwellian attempt to control how to think and act.
Perhaps that is the reason we haven’t heard a peep about this high-profile arrest from the Biden-Harris administration after the news of this blatant assault on free speech broke.
Mr. Durov languished in a jail cell for a week before French authorities finally brought trumped up charges against him, hoping to prove that somehow, he was complicit in criminal activity.
This is how ridiculous the French case against Durov is: Arrest the guy who made the app, not criminals who use it, and case closed.
Based on that rationale, if the French police clock a Ferrari speeding down a highway at 200 MPH, they will arrest Ferrari’s CEO Benedetto Vigna on his next visit to the French Riviera, while allowing the driver to get off scot-free.
Just across the English Channel, all is not well either. United Kingdom (U.K.) authorities are hard at work constructing a censorship program targeting Americans.
On August 10th, after weeks of riots gripped Britain in the wake of a mass stabbing, London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, warned U.S. who citizens offer content criticizing the British government for mishandling the chaos. “We will come after you,” Rowley said.
In response to this threat against American citizens, I wrote to U.K. Ambassador Karen Pierce asking her to repudiate Rowley’s statement.
The mere thought of Britain seeking to extradite U.S. citizens for using their protected speech, from the comfort of their homes on American soil is reprehensible. To date, the U.K. government has not denied or renounced Sir Mark Rowley’s words.
Lashing out against Americans is just a symptom of a decaying kingdom that has become a shadow of what it once was.
By opening its borders and forsaking its core values, Britain imported its own demise: an economic outlook more dismal than Chad, and growing distrust that mirrors that of authoritarian regimes like the Communist Chinese Communist Party.
In real time, I believe we’re seeing the final stages of the once-great British Empire’s demise. The British ruling class today can’t seem to figure out how to right the ship as it jumps from one failed Prime Minister to another.
And it’s hard to believe the greatest free-thinking philosophers of all time — John Locke, Adam Smith, and Thomas Paine — called the U.K. home.
The same spirited flames that ignited the ideas that made Britain the strongest empire in the world centuries ago are now just embers of their former glory.
This shift reflects a growing list of nations curtailing fundamental freedoms under the guise of “national security.” For example, Brazil recently banned X, formerly known as Twitter, altogether. One thing is for certain: this anti-freedom infection is spreading, and very quickly.
Here in America, We the People have our own battle to fight against elites seeking to revise history and rewrite our Constitution. The fight to save our great Republic is real. It is also internal, as are those being fought across the Pond.
This time, we can’t save Britain and liberate France like we did in back-to-back world wars during the last century.
The West might be losing its way, straying from its foundational principles, but here in America, liberty will never be security’s collateral.
In Congress, I’m working hard every day to hold the line. Fellow Americans, we must uphold our Constitutional duty to protect freedom at any cost because it is our God-given right to do so.
We must keep the flame of freedom burning bright to fulfill the mandate of glory bestowed upon our great nation by God as foretold by our Founders, and repeatedly reaffirmed by every generation of patriots since the American Revolution.
Britain should have learned a lesson about freedom in 1776 and 1812. Come and take it. And see what happens.
The latest example in an ever-expanding history of Big Tech political bias came when users of Amazon’s “Alexa” voice service noticed that they got different answers when they asked why someone should vote for Kamala Harris compared to Donald Trump.
Frank Turek is one of my favorite speakers, and I admire him for being willing to take a public stand on controversial issues like gay marriage. He’s actually had to pay a price for that in his professional life, and I blogged about that before.
Here’s the lecture on gay marriage, featuring Christian apologist Frank Turek.
Outline:
Outline of Frank Turek’s lecture on same sex marriage
Introduction:
how to present your case against marriage safely
Christians are required to go beyond tolerance
loving another person can mean opposing the person when they want to do something wrong, even if they hate you
what did Jesus say about marriage? (see Matt 19:4-6)
what did Jesus say about sexual morality? (Matt 15, Matt 19)
Summary:
the same-sex marriage debate is about whether to compel people who disagree with the gay lifestyle to validate and normalize it
P1: the government has an interest in marriage because it perpetuates and stabilizes society – this is the purpose of marriage
P2-4: government can take 3 kinds of stances towards behaviors: promote, permit or prohibit
government promotes behaviors when it has an interest in them
same-sex relationships should be permitted, but not promoted
Q1: if same-sex marriage had serious negative consequences, would you reconsider their position?
Q2: are heterosexual relationships the same as homosexual relationships?
Q3: what would society be like if everyone married according to the natural marriage definition: one woman, one man, for life?
Q4: what would society be like if everyone married according to the same-sex marriage definition: man/man and woman/woman?
Should Christians care about law and politics? or should they just preach the gospel?
They should care because people often get their cues about what is moral and immoral based on what is legal and illegal
Many of the social problems we see today can be traced back to problems with marriage and family
Children do much better when they have a relationship with their mother and their father
Same-sex marriage necessarily destroys the relationship between a child and its mother or its father
When a country embraces same-sex marriage, it reinforces the idea that marriage is not about making and raising children
same-sex marriage shifts the focus away from the needs of the children to the feelings of desires of the selfish adults
does homosexuality impose any health and mental health risks?
what has the impact of legalizing same-sex marriage been in Massachusetts to individuals, schools, businesses and charities?
how same-sex marriage poses a threat to religious liberty
how should you respond to the view that homosexuality is genetic?
And at the very end, he shows this short video, which is only 5 minutes and explains the logic of opposing the redefinition of marriage:
My biggest concern is religious liberty, and we are seeing how same-sex marriage has proven to be incompatible with religious liberty. But I also care about children… I want them to have mothers and fathers who put their needs first. Marriage is about a commitment – it is the subjugation of feelings and desires to responsibilities and obligations. It is a promise. A promise to commit to love your spouse and children regardless of feelings and desires. It requires more self-denial, self-control and self-sacrifice. Not less.
Today’s top headline news brief from NEWSMAX includes:
[1:08] -The House Foreign Affairs Committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken over the Biden administration’s failed exit from Afghanistan.
[2:17] -White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre on Kamala’s fake accent “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” [Newsmax Breaking]
[6:22] -Newsmax’s Chris Plante: “Kamala Harris’ campaign is pushing fake Trump stories, because they have nothing else to push.” [Chris Plante & The Right Squad]
[15:21] -Newsmax host Bob Brooks says armed migrant gangs have taken over Aurora, CO and could be coming to your town soon. [American Agenda]
[19:36] -IDF spokesperson says Hamas remaining in power is a complete victory for them. [The Record with Greta Van Susteren]
As the US files criminal charges against Hamas leaders and pushes for a ceasefire deal, a key sticking point comes as Israel would have to leave a key area known as the Philadelphi Corridor, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists IDF troops remain on the Philadelphi Corridor, because without them, Hamas could again smuggle in weapons and threaten Israel, however, a leading Israeli opposition Knesset member disagrees, while an Israeli analysts says if Israel does leave the area, the US would not let them go back in; Netanyahu calls the UK’s decision to stop selling some weapons to Israel “shameful;” even as fighting continues in Gaza, some Israelis are returning to their homes in border towns, like Sderot; a former aide to two governors of New York faces charges of acting as an undercover agent for China; victims of sexual abuse say the Southern Baptist Convention isn’t doing enough to deal with it; and our Studio 5 conversation with actress Jennifer O’Neill, at her beautiful horse farm, including talking about her role in the new movie “Reagan.”
Want more news from a Christian Perspective? Choose to support CBN:
The New Age Path: Finding Soul Enlightenment or Entering Spiritual Blindness? by Ray Yungen is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The booklet is 14 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are available. Our booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use. Below is the content of this new booklet. To order copies of The New Age Path: Finding Soul Enlightenment or Entering Spiritual Blindness?click here.
The New Age Path: Finding Soul Enlightenment or Entering Spiritual Blindness?
By Ray Yungen
After 22 years of research, I fully understand why so many people have embraced metaphysics and why they seek transformation for humanity as a whole. By and large, they have rejected orthodox (old paradigm) Christianity considering it unacceptable but still want to retain spiritual meaning and a Utopian vision in their lives. In addition, they see metaphysics as helpful toward improving the quality of their daily lives, whether it be better health, more loving relationships, inner peace, or guidance for success and prosperity. They would think it the height of ignorance and folly to condemn such seemingly wonderful ways to better the human condition.
It is widely believed in New Age circles that Jesus Christ was Himself a metaphysician of great stature. They quote verses where Jesus proclaims: “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21)—meaning a reference to the higher self, they believe; “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)—a reference, they say, to meditation; and “Greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12)—meaning New Agers can have His powers. As far out as this may sound to many Christian readers, New Age adherents are quite sincere in this belief. They firmly argue that reincarnation was originally in the Bible but was taken out at the Council of Nicea so that church and state could better control the common people by fear. Although there are still plenty of skeptics and critics, these beliefs are becoming less offensive and more acceptable all the time.
One of the most common New Age attitudes is that there are many paths to God and that it is wrong to judge or condemn another person’s path because not all people are suited for the same one. New Agers teach that each person should find the path best suited for himself.
To Judge or Not Be Judged
There are two questions to be answered here: Is it right to judge? And do all paths lead to God? Jesus Christ foretold in Matthew 7:22-23:
Many will say to me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” And then will I profess unto them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
I find it most interesting that people who were doing “many wonderful works” or miraculous works in His name were, in reality, working “iniquity” or evil. This leads me to believe that a great deception is occurring.
These verses also tell me that all paths do not lead to God and, because they do not, one had better judge which path is correct. Many people, of course, counter with, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” However, taken in context, this verse (Matthew 7:1) is talking about hypocrisy in human behavior and not about withholding critical examination of spiritual teachings. Galatians 1:8 bears out the necessity to evaluate spiritual teaching with proper discernment. Paul warns:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. (emphasis mine)
And 2 John 1:9-11 says:
Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (emphasis mine)
And again in Ephesians 5:11, “. . . have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (emphasis mine).
How may we reprove something if we don’t determine whether or not it fits the bill of “unfruitful works?” In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we read:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect [complete], thoroughly furnished [fully equipped] unto all good works. (emphasis mine)
Familiar Spirits
Noticing the New Age propensity for also quoting Bible verses to support the claims of metaphysics, I have focused in my research on the obvious conflict between the Ancient Wisdom and the God of the Bible that runs from Genesis through Revelation. The continuity of this apparent contrast is undeniable to the point that any New Ager would have to acknowledge that it exists. This contrast and objection is the foundation for any logical Christian opposition to metaphysics. Notice the list of metaphysical arts in Deuteronomy 18:9-12:
When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination [a psychic, or an observer of times, meaning festivals connected to nature worship], or an enchanter [one who manipulates people by occult power], or a witch [one who uses occult power]. Or a charmer [hypnotist], or a consulter with familiar spirits [one who receives advice or knowledge from a spirit], or a wizard [one who uses a spirit to do his will], or a necromancer [one who believes he is contacting the dead]. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. (emphasis mine)
The word abomination in verse 12 means “abhorrent” or “disgusting.” Please note the reference to familiar spirits in the following verses from Leviticus. This term is found throughout the Old Testament and has a negative connotation:
And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. (Leviticus 20:6, emphasis mine)
An example of this is a book called Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain, which could be called one of the bibles of the New Age movement (over three million copies have been sold in the US and another three million in thirty translated languages). Gawain explains the basic process of visualization. First comes “relaxing into a deep, quiet meditative state of mind,”1 which is to be done every morning and afternoon. This opens the “channel” for “higher wisdom and guidance to come to you.”2 Gawain then describes the nature of this guidance:
The inner guide is known by many different names, such as your counselor, spirit guide, imaginary friend, or master. It is a higher part of yourself, which can come to you in many different forms, but usually comes in the form of a person or being whom you can talk to and relate to as a wise and loving friend.3
Your guide is there for you to call on anytime you need or want extra guidance, wisdom, knowledge, support, creative inspiration, love or companionship. Many people who have established a relationship with their guide meet them every day in their meditation.4
What Shakti Gawain is talking about is the same thing spoken of in Deuteronomy 18—familiar spirits. The so-called higher self is nothing more than a familiar spirit out to manipulate those people who open themselves to it. It has been common in Christian circles to speak of them as demons. The word demon comes from the Greek term deamonion, which literally means spirit guide. Familiar spirits make contact while the person’s mind is in neutral (usually done through meditation) and try to establish a strong connection; the result is control of the person by the spirit. The core of New Age spirituality is that the higher self (i.e., familiar spirit) is supposed to be the guiding principle in every area of one’s life—period! That is why in Ephesians 6:12, the apostle Paul warns us:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (emphasis mine)
He is saying there are non-human powers (forces) that are in opposition to God. The nature of this is apparent to anyone who takes a close look at metaphysics with this verse in mind. After a certain point, influence and guidance from the familiar spirit progresses to outright possession. This, I believe, is the kundalini effect. One New Age proponent explains it the following way:
Before, kundalini had seemed like a fable to me, fascinating and appealing, but as improbable in its way as God talking to Moses through a burning bush or Jesus raising the dead. But now I was sometimes aware, toward the end of the third stage of Dynamic Meditation, of something moving as elusively as neon up my spine, flashing like lightning in my limbs. . . . When, in the fifth and final stage, I danced, I now sensed myself moved by a force more powerful, more inventive, than any I could consciously summon.5
I believe that the occultist Alice Bailey’s “Tibetan” are familiar spirits. I also believe they are revealing their plan of operation in their writings. The intent of these beings can be seen by what the following metaphysical practitioners convey:
It is all there—just look for it. Seek the immortal, eternal Spirit that dwells within you—the “I am presence,” containing all that was, is, or ever shall be. . . . The whole of life will become more meaningful as you live from the center within. Remember that you are Gods in the Making.6
It is not necessary to “have faith” in any power outside of yourself.7
The Angel of Light
Who do you think would want you to believe something like that? Who would want you to believe that God does not exist outside of yourself—that you don’t need to have faith in anything external. New Age writer/philosopher David Spangler reveals who in his book Reflections on the Christ when he writes:
Some being has to take these energies into his consciousness and substance and channel them as it were to those other beings who must receive them, in this case humanity. The being who chose to embody these energies and to be in essence the angel of man’s inner evolution is the being we know as Lucifer.8
He lays out the entire program behind the New Age movement in the following explanation:
He [Lucifer] comes to make us aware of our power within, to draw to ourselves experience. He comes to make us aware of the power of creative manifestation which we wield. When you are working with the laws of manifestation you are in essence manifesting a Luciferic principle.9
Even if Spangler had not written these words, the link between Lucifer and the New Age movement would still be evident to Christians from reading 2 Corinthians 11:13-15:
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (emphasis mine)
For this deception to be effective, he would have to come as an “angel of light.” To judge a belief system as being satanic, one should compare how close it comes to Satan’s own statements about himself. God is asking him, “How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isaiah. 14:12). Then He reminds Satan of his own words when he challenged God:
For thou [Satan] hast said in thine heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14, emphasis added)
Then later, when Satan deceived Eve in the Garden, he said:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5, emphasis mine)
Without a doubt, the New Age movement fits that bill.
The “Wiles” of Satan
Ephesians 6:11 warns: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (emphasis mine). The word wiles in this verse translates ingenious trap or snare. In order for a trap to be effective, proper bait is needed—something that is alluring, that looks and feels valid. For example, let’s take the case of the energy healing technique, Reiki. The average Reiki practitioner would think it outrageous and ridiculous that someone would even suggest that Reiki is linked to Satan. One Reiki practitioner offered this comment on the positive nature of Reiki:
During a Reiki treatment, you can expect to feel any number of sensations; warmth, coolness, tingling, deep relaxation, or at times you may not feel anything discernible. Sessions usually last one hour, and afterward you will feel calm and relaxed. You will sleep better and have a general sense of well-being.10
Does this sound like something that is satanic? Most people would not only say no but would feel that something of this nature probably would have to come from God. In The Reiki Factor, Reiki master Barbara Ray says:
Reiki has reemerged as a transformative tool for energy balancing, for natural healing, for wholing, and for creating peace, joy, love, and, ultimately, for achieving higher consciousness and enlightenment.11
Enlightenment is the same as self-realization, especially in the context of a metaphysical practice. When a Christian hears someone claim to be God, he immediately should recognize the pronouncements of Satan, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5) and “I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Hear this closely. He said, I will be like the most High (God) . . . I will be like God.
In view of this, the only logical conclusion is that the power behind Reiki is satanic. The key is not to think in terms of how the popular culture sees Satan, but rather how the inspired writers of the Bible portrayed Satan—a master deceiver and counterfeiter of the truth. He is one who comes as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) to offer mankind godhood (i.e., you are divine and the master of your own destiny).
The sad thing about all this is that these experiences are so real and convincing. People experiencing the superconscious testify that deep meditative states are incomparably beautiful and rapturous. They experience intense light flooding them, and have a sense of omnipotent power and infinite wisdom. In this timeless state, they experience an ecstasy compared to nothing they have ever known before. They feel a sense of unity with all of life and are convinced of their own immortality. Such experiences keep them returning for more. One is not going to believe he or she is God if one doesn’t feel like God.
The late New Age leader Peter Caddy related an incident in which a group of Christians confronted him and tried, as he put it, to save my soul. He told them to come back and talk to him when they’ve had the same wonderful mystical experiences he has had. The point he was trying to make was that these naive Christians had no idea what the metaphysical life is all about and if they did, they would want what he had rather than trying to convert him to their way of thinking.
Feelings such as this are common in New Age circles and have hooked many over the past twenty years. They feel something this great has to be of God. A similar account is related in Acts 8:9-11:
But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. (emphasis mine)
In the Greek, the word bewitched means to amaze or astound. Sorcery means using the power of familiar spirits. What this man was doing had to have appeared good, otherwise the people would not have felt that “this man is the great power of God.” The truth of the matter is, he wasn’t of God; it just appeared that way.
In light of all this, it is easy to see why the coming of the Christian Gospel to Ephesus, that bastion of the Ancient Wisdom, had such a dramatic effect:
And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. (Acts 19:18-19, emphasis mine)
The word curious is translated from a Greek word meaning magical. The magical or metaphysical arts went out the door when the Gospel of Christ came in. The two were not only incompatible, but totally opposite as the following account reveals:
And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister. And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, And said, 0 full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? (Acts 13:5-10, emphasis mine)
A Distinct Division
If you feel (as many New Agers do) that Jesus’ real teachings were suppressed and distorted, then consider this: Jesus was a good Jew who strictly adhered to what we now call the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, as we have seen, contact with familiar spirits (spirit guides) was strictly forbidden. King Saul is a prime example of what happened to those who ignored this restriction:
So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; And inquired not of the Lord: therefore He slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse. (1 Chronicles 10:13-14, emphasis mine)
Also in Judaism, there was a distinct division between God and man as the following verses indicate:
Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. (Isaiah 43:10-12, emphasis mine)
Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. (Isaiah 44:24, emphasis mine; also see Isaiah 46:9)
In view of this, Jesus could not have been a purveyor of the Ancient Wisdom and a devout Jew as well. In the Jewish religion, there is one Creator/Sustainer and man is not Him. God created man to worship and give glory to Him. This view remains the basis for the Christian view of God.
Jesus’ claim to divinity was based on His Messiahship, a uniquely Jewish concept, not compatible with the Ancient Wisdom teachings of human divinity. He told the Samaritan woman “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).
To those who have embraced metaphysics as the truth of the universe and the way of salvation, let me say this: I know you are sincere. I know metaphysics makes you feel good about yourself. I know you have rejected old-paradigm Christianity as unsuitable. But please give serious consideration to Jeremiah 10:6,11:
Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, 0 Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. . . . Thus shall ye say unto them, the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. (emphasis mine)
The Folly of the Ages
In 2 Corinthians 1:9, the apostle Paul says:
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.
The verse does not say we should trust in ourselves who are God—it says we should not trust in ourselves but trust in God. God is a personal Being, not the Universe, not a spirit guide, and most certainly not humanity.
The reason the New Age is wrong is that it takes devotion, trust, and glory away from the One who created us and gives it to man and the rebellious familiar spirits who deceive man into self-glorification. An analogy of this would be that of an artist’s canvas or paint—rather than the artist taking credit for the painting, the canvas or paint takes the credit.
That is why the Gentile nations were separated from the true God. They were the metaphysicians of old (the Mystery Schools) “who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served [honored] the creature [man] more than the Creator [God], who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:25, emphasis mine).
This folly was due to the same error that millions are making right now. They turned to the realm of familiar spirits for guidance, just as people are doing today.
There is one account in particular that brings out what I want to convey. It is found in Acts 16:16-19:
And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination [familiar spirit] met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying [psychic predictions]: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, Which shew unto us the way of salvation.” And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, “I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace and unto the rulers. (emphasis mine)
These verses above show four things that are critical to understanding the nature and aim of the New Age movement:
The spirit was the source of her power, not some latent faculty inherent in the human makeup. When it went, her ability was gone.
The spirit was accurate to a high degree. Otherwise she would not have brought her masters “much gain.” You don’t become a success with a poor showing.
Paul and the spirit were not on the same side. This is quite evident by the fact that he cast it out of her.
Most important of all, the spirit tried to identify itself with God. When it followed Paul and Silas, it was saying the truth, “These men show us the way of salvation.” By doing this, the spirit could continue its practice of deceiving all concerned and perhaps later undo what Paul’s ministry had accomplished.
These spirits are doing the same thing today. This girl, no doubt, believed that it was her inner divinity giving her the information that was so effective in aiding the community. The truth of the matter is, when you say you have connected with your inner divinity and that you are God, sadly, you have joined the ranks of those who, “Professing themselves to be wise [knowing the truth], they became fools [absurd], and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man” (Romans 1:22-23, emphasis mine).
Swami Muktananda was one of the most admired and respected New Age leaders during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was thought by many to be the virtual embodiment of the God-realized master. He told His disciples:
Kneel to your own self. Honor and worship your own Being. Chant the mantra always going on within you. Meditate on your own self. God dwells within you as you.12
When Muktananda died in 1982, one of his closest followers revealed that his master “ended as a feeble-minded, sadistic tyrant luring devout little girls to his bed every night with promises of grace and self-realization.”13 Without realizing he was echoing the truth of the verses just quoted, he concluded:
There is no absolute assurance that enlightenment necessitates the moral virtue of a person. There is no guarantee against the weakness of anger, lust, and greed in the human soul. The enlightened are on an equal footing with the ignorant in the struggle against their own evil.14
It is very clear that the metaphysical explosion that our society is currently immersed in is a continuation of what Leviticus 19:31 warned against:
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards [metaphysicians], to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God. (emphasis mine)
On this basis alone, Christians have a duty to challenge the validity of the New Age message that we are God.
To order copies of The New Age Path: Finding Soul Enlightenment or Entering Spiritual Blindness?click here.
Endnotes:
Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization (San Rafael, CA: Whatever Publishing, 1978), p. 14.
Ibid., p. 56.
Ibid., p. 91.
Ibid., p. 93.
James S. Gordon, The Golden Guru (Lexington, MN: The Stephen Greene Press, 1988), p. 8.
Donald Yott, Man and Metaphysics (New York, NY: Sam Weiser, Inc., 1980), p. 103.
Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization, op. cit., p. 15.
David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ (Findhorn Foundation, second edition, 1978, 2nd edition), p. 36.
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