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
““Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them.”
In the 21st century, when we think about children, we tend to focus on their subjective qualities; they are cute and cuddly, and at times we mistakenly think they are perfect and the center of the universe. Such contemporary views of children actually hinder our ability to grasp what Jesus meant when he said, “Let the children come to me.”
It is the objective characteristics of children that are truly at the heart of Jesus’ illustration. Children do not vote. They do not have driver’s licenses. Adults don’t often ask them to make decisions regarding significant events in their own lives or in the lives of their families. In their infancy, they are entirely dependent on someone else. Put bluntly, little children are small and helpless, without much apparent outward claim or merit.
Isn’t it a wonder, then, that children are so warmly received by Jesus? But while it’s certainly wondrous, it shouldn’t surprise us when we consider how often God uses the meek and lowly in mighty ways. We cannot hope to enter heaven because of our own merit or self-worth. Instead, the kingdom of God belongs to people who are needy, lonely, and helpless, who have no claim or merit on their own—people just like children.
As we come to terms with what it means to be like a child, we start to see that our entrance into the kingdom can only come after we’ve accepted our own helpless, dependent state. We come to Christ not with hands full of our own abilities or achievements but with empty hands, ready to receive. And remarkably, the gospel tells us that we must look to God Himself, who took on flesh as a helpless babe. It’s only fitting, then, that entry into His kingdom would be enjoyed by those who follow His humble example.
Jesus’ embrace of the children in these verses both flattens our pride and picks us up in our weakness. Perhaps you regard your work as commendable or your position as noteworthy, and you find yourself desiring to be a benefactor and not a beneficiary. Or maybe you know that others think very little of you (or you think little of yourself), and you are surprised that God would want to give you anything, let alone be looking forward to spending eternity with you. No matter what your character or your circumstances are, come to Jesus each day in childlike trust, aware of your weakness and helplessness. This, and only this, is the way into His kingdom and the way to enjoy the blessing of closeness to Him.
“Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” … So Joseph died, being 110 years old.”
That the Bible is filled with accounts of individuals’ deaths should cause each of us to confront the reality of our own eventual death. All of our days are limited. God has not chosen to inform us of the date of our demise, but the psalmist tells us that every day of our lives was written in God’s book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). Joseph lived to be 110 years old—but nevertheless, like all of us, he had to come to terms with his mortality.
Joseph understood and accepted his death. Here was no raging against the dying of the light, to use the words of the poet Dylan Thomas,[1] but rather what our Puritan forefathers would have called a “good death.” What is it that allows us to die well? A strong theology—a strong understanding of who God was and is. In the end, Joseph strengthened his faith by calling to mind evidence of God’s lifelong providential care to Him and His promises to His people. Because of his belief in God’s goodness, he could face death straight on. He wasn’t scared or selfish; he didn’t grasp at shadows or clutch at vain hopes. Instead, his words were brief and focused on his family and God. Such a response can only come from a view of the world framed by divine character and purpose.
Do we believe, as Joseph did, that God will deliver His people? Can we see evidence of this belief in our own lives? Have we looked back at God’s faithfulness and discovered that no matter what the distress or brokenness we’ve been through, we can say with the psalmist, “On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God” (Psalm 62:7)?
It is good theology, not feelings, that will sustain us in life and comfort us as we wrestle with death. When difficult days come, it is then that we cling to what we know to be true. From Joseph and his life we can learn this amazing truth: the God who knit us together has ordered all of our steps in all of our days, and He weaves our lives into the great story of His sovereign fulfillment of His promises to His people. With faith in this God, we can face death singing:
With mercy and with judgment
My web of time He wove;
And aye, the dews of sorrow
Were lustered by His love;
I’ll bless the hand that guided,
I’ll bless the heart that planned,
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s land.[2]
[1] “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” in In Country Sleep, And Other Poems (Dent, 1952)
[2] Anne R. Cousin, “The Sands of Time Are Sinking” (1857).
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…for all saints.
EPHESIANS 6:18
Do you think the Christian Church genuinely believes God’s promises that He will respond to our prayers raised to Him in true faith?
This matter of prayer really bears in on the great privileges of the common people, the children of God. No matter what our stature or status, we have the authority in the family of God to pray the prayer of faith, that prayer that can engage the heart of God and that can meet God’s conditions of spiritual life and victory.
Our consideration of the power and efficacy of prayer enters into the question of why we are a Christian congregation and what we are striving to be and do.
Are we just going around and around—like a religious merry-go-round? Are we just holding on to the painted mane of the painted horse, repeating a trip of very insignificant circles to a pleasing musical accompaniment? We are among those who believe in something more than holding religious services in the same old weekly groove. We believe that in an assembly of redeemed believers there should be marvelous answers to prayer.
We believe that God hears and actually answers our praying in the Spirit! Let it be said that one miraculous answer to prayer within a congregation will do more to lift and encourage and solidify the people of God than almost any other thing.
Answers to our prayers will lift up the hands that hang down in discouragement and strengthen the feeble spiritual knees!1
Comparisons all fail to set forth the Lord Jesus, but the spouse uses the best within her reach. By the head of Jesus we may understand his deity, “for the head of Christ is God” and then the ingot of purest gold is the best conceivable metaphor, but all too poor to describe one so precious, so pure, so dear, so glorious. Jesus is not a grain of gold, but a vast globe of it, a priceless mass of treasure such as earth and heaven cannot excel. The creatures are mere iron and clay, they all shall perish like wood, hay, and stubble, but the ever living Head of the creation of God shall shine on for ever and ever. In him is no mixture, nor smallest taint of alloy. He is for ever infinitely holy and altogether divine. The bushy locks depict his manly vigour. There is nothing effeminate in our Beloved. He is the manliest of men. Bold as a lion, laborious as an ox, swift as an eagle. Every conceivable and inconceivable beauty is to be found in him, though once he was despised and rejected of men.
“His head the finest gold;
With secret sweet perfume,
His curled locks hang all as black
As any raven’s plume.”
The glory of his head is not shorn away, he is eternally crowned with peerless majesty. The black hair indicates youthful freshness, for Jesus has the dew of his youth upon him. Others grow languid with age, but he is for ever a Priest as was Melchizedek; others come and go, but he abides as God upon his throne, world without end. We will behold him to-night and adore him. Angels are gazing upon him—his redeemed must not turn away their eyes from him. Where else is there such a Beloved? O for an hour’s fellowship with him! Away, ye intruding cares! Jesus draws me, and I run after him.1
AND in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians (or Christian Jews who had lived in foreign parts) against the Hebrews (or Palestine Jews), because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. (Perhaps, being strangers, they were not well known, and so were overlooked; we have no reason to believe that the neglect was intentional. Mistakes will occur, and if not rectified they may create ill-will and division.)
2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. (Others can do such work; ministers have enough to do to mind their own business.)
3, 4 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. (Prayer and preaching make up the entire life of a minister; by prayer he receives the word from God, and by preaching he communicates it to his people. Other church officers should take care that the minister’s mind is not burdened with temporal anxieties.)
5, 6 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch: Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
7, 8 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
9, 10 ¶ Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.
11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.
12, 13 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. (His holy and glad heart beamed forth in his countenance, a flash of coming glory lit up his face, and even his foes were forced to see it; yet neither this sight nor his eloquent address could touch their cruel hearts, for they thirsted for his blood, and would have it.)
Acts 7:54–60
WHEN they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55, 56 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. (Jesus was seen standing to receive the martyr’s soul. What a vision! It removed the bitterness of death.)
57, 58 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Asleep amid the falling stones! He slept not till he had left the church the legacy of his prayers. Augustine says, “If Stephen had not thus prayed, the church had not received that young man named Saul.” We have no other description of martyrdom in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit foreseeing that the church would have an abundance of such records in after times.1
Lamentations 3:1 — A little bit of “technical analysis” is in order. Lamentations 1, 2, and 4 are a Hebrew Acrostic – each verse starts with a different Hebrew letter (Aleph/A, Beit/B, Gimel, Daleth, He, etc.), so each chapter is 22 verses long since there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
Lamentations 3 is 66 verses – the first 3 verses all start with Aleph, the next three verses start with Beit, the next three verses start with Gimel. Remember that Hebrew is written from right to left. In other words, this is clearly poetic writing and not narrative (I did this, then he did that). Narratives can explain battles, but poetry can explain pain.
Lamentations 3:21-23 — Three chapters in and it seems there is no hope. Ah, but there is – there’s always hope in the Lord’s mercy, compassion, and faithfulness! Great is Thy Faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:24 — I saw a statistic on the internet the other day. One in three people who touch alcohol end up becoming drunk. One in 300,000,000 win the lottery, and we think that the next time it could be me! Hope is not “wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’” as a pop singer sang. Biblical hope is “confidence in a future event.”
Hope is the theme of the mid-section of Lamentations 3:
“my hope is perished” (vs. 18)
“have I hope” (vs. 21)
“will I hope in him” (vs. 24)
“man should … hope” (vs. 26)
“there may be hope” (vs. 29)
Our confidence is that grief is followed by compassion (Lamentations 3:32). Anger is followed by favor (Psalm 30:5). We must, however, acknowledge our sins, accept the punishment (Lamentations 3:39), and radically adjust our ways (Lamentations 3:40).
Lamentations 3:53 — Jeremiah isn’t speaking in hyperbole. He actually knew what a dungeon was like (Jeremiah 38:6).
Lamentations 3:54 — Near drowning is a horrifying experience. Vic Eliason shared how his brother saved him from drowning as a young boy, and Vic never forgot the experience. Let’s look at biblical references to near drowning:
Jeremiah – “waters flowed over mine head (Lamentations 3:54)
Jonah – “waters compassed me about, even to the soul” (Jonah 2:5)
Psalmist – “the waters are come in unto my soul” (Psalm 69:1)
Lamentations 3:66 — Jeremiah gave to God his right to vengeance. Like David, Jeremiah knew he was a sinful man, but God has mercy and will forgive. Even though we grievously offend our God, He still answers prayers such as David’s prayer that God would turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness (2 Samuel 15:31).
Hebrews 1:3 — Who is this Son? The Agent of Creation (Hebrews 1:2), the Brightness of His glory, the Image of His person, the One Who upholds all things. “Upholding” is the same idea as “by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). He holds the universe together! Oh, and He’s so much better than the angels (Hebrews 1:4). This is not the mere brother of Lucifer. This is not the mere spirit creature named Michael. This is not a mere good teacher. Enjoy reading about the greatness of our Savior – the only Son of God!
Hebrews 1:14 — Angels are ministers to the heirs of salvation. Who are the heirs? We are (Galatians 3:29, Romans 8:17, Titus 3:7, 1 Peter 3:7)! Yes, angels are serving us!
Psalm 102:2 — When life is easy we don’t need to call upon God. And if we do accidentally say grace over a meal, we don’t need a speedy answer. We don’t need to bother the Almighty with our insignificant needs. But He wants to hear from His children! He has made us heirs of salvation. Fanny Crosby developed this theme – reminding us of our “Blessed Assurance!”
Proverbs 26:22 — Sometimes it’s better not to know.
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.
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.John 13:1
This fact is essentially a promise; for what our Lord was He is, and what He was to those with whom He lived on earth, He will be to all His beloved so long as the moon endureth.
“Having loved”: here was the wonder! That He should ever have loved men at all is the marvel. What was there in His poor disciples that He should love them? What is there in me?
But when He has once begun to love, it is His nature to continue to do so. Love made the saints “his own”—what a choice title! He purchased them with blood, and they became His treasure. Being His own, He will not lose them. Being His beloved, He will not cease to love them. My soul, He will not cease to love thee!
The text is well as it stands: “to the end.” Even till His death the ruling passion of love to His own reigned in His sacred bosom. It means also to the uttermost. He could not love them more: He gave Himself for them. Some read it, to perfection. Truly He lavished upon them a perfect love, in which there was no flaw nor failure, no unwisdom, no unfaithfulness.
Such is the love of Jesus to each one of His people. Let us sing to our Well-beloved a song.
Description:Walking on the sea, Jesus intended to pass by His disciples in their boat. Why did He seek to do this? In this sermon, R.C. Sproul continues his series in the gospel of Mark to show how this moment displays the glory of the Son of God.
How much prophetic material did God put in the Bible? How many times does the Bible mention Christ’s Second Coming? Where does the Bible teach the doctrine of the Rapture? Where is Imminence (that Christ could return any moment) taught in Scripture?
During his “My Take,” Monday, “Varney & Co.” host Stuart Varney discussed why most voters view the U.S. economy as largely a negative, even though its performing well in many ways and is growing faster than Europe and Japan.
STUART VARNEY: The pundits are puzzled. They can’t understand why people think the economy is so bad.
They think it’s doing really well and in many ways they are right. We are growing faster than Europe or Japan.
Unemployment is a low 4%. American companies dominate the most important industries.
The so-called Magnificent Seven Big Tech companies are worth more than the stock markets of Britain, Canada, Germany and Japan combined. That is success.
The influential “Economist” magazine has this headline, “America’s glorious economy should help Kamala Harris.”
“Glorious” is a strong word. So why are so many voters convinced the economy is anything but “glorious?”
Did you watch President Trump’s star-studded rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City last night? It was the most unique political rally in the history of US politics- mixing celebrity, with brilliant business moguls, with brilliant policies designed to make America great again.
It was bold, creative and exciting. It was icing on the cake, at the same time as Trump is pulling away in swing states. Just yesterday it was announced that Trump leads in the RealClearPolitics poll of all polls for the first time in his entire political career. Even CNN’s political analyst is reporting Trump may actually win the popular vote- which of course translates to an electoral landslide.
This all happening because President Trump is the hardest working man in the history of US politics.
President Trump is 78 years old and he’s running circles around Kamala. Trump travels to 4 or more rallies and events per day, crisscrossing the nation, while Kamala hides in DC.
Trump travels to places where Americans are suffering- like the mountains of North Carolina and East Palestine, Ohio (the scene of a terrible train derailment), while Kamala attends glamorous parties with her rich, liberal, elitist friends.
Trump accepts interviews and debates with vicious media that hates him, with interviewers and moderators out to get him. Kamala only leaves DC to conduct interviews with friendly hosts and podcasters who throw her softball questions.
Trump boldly holds rallies in the deepest blue places- New Jersey, the Bronx, Southern California and now Madison Square Garden, in the heart of liberal New York City.
Meanwhile Kamala turned down the Al Smith dinner for Catholic charity- featuring a night of fun and comedy. The last candidate to do that was Walter Mondale- who lost in a 49-state landslide.
Trump just sat down for a 3-hour interview with Joe Rogan. Trump fears no one. Kamala turned down the same interview- throwing away the opportunity to reach 20+ million voters.
It’s all because of DEI and DLI.
Kamala has never worked hard in her life, for anything. Everything was handed to her- either because she slept her way to the top with powerful, much older men, or because of the color of her skin.
Let’s look at Kamala’s lifetime of accomplishments…
She got her first jobs in politics- making six figure salaries by serving on two California commissions- by sleeping with Willie Brown, the most powerful politician in California at the time. She literally traded sex for the jobs.
No wonder she’s so supportive of sex workers.
Then she became DA of San Francisco, the most radical leftist city in America. How’d she land that job? First, by sleeping with Willie Brown- the kingmaker of San Francisco. Secondly, by having the perfect credentials on her resume in a radical DEI-obsessed city like San Fran- she was a minority woman of color.
Then she became Attorney General of DEI-obsessed California. What were her qualifications? She was a minority woman of color.
Then Kamala become US Senator of DEI-obsessed California. What were her qualifications? She was a minority woman of color.
Then she became Vice President of the United States after never receiving one primary vote in her own presidential run. Why would Joe Biden pick such an unpopular loser? Because the DEI-obsessed Democrat Party needed a minority woman of color to balance the ticket.
Then she was handed the Democrat presidential nomination over more likeable, more electable candidates- again without ever receiving one Democrat primary vote.
How could this happen? The DEI-obsessed Democrat Party was scared to death to pass over a Vice President who was a minority woman of color.
Even her books and policies have been handed to her. She simply steals from others- without doing any of the hard work herself…
Her book was plagiarized from several other authors, and even one section was stolen directly from Wikipedia.
Her entire policy page at her presidential campaign web site was plagiarized directly from Joe Biden’s campaign web site. She literally just “cut and pasted” without having to ever come up with any policies herself.
Add it up: Kamala’s whole life has been based on DEI and sleeping her way to the top.
But it has NEVER been based on hard work…or being smart…or competent…or earning her success.
Now you understand why Kamala is so lazy that she hides in DC, while Trump is out working, and hustling, and fighting relentlessly.
Now you understand why Kamala has refused to put in the time to study policies…why she has no understanding of issues…why she has no understanding of what to say in interviews…why she hasn’t even bothered to come up with a good answer for “what would you do differently than Joe Biden?”
She has never had to out-work, out-hustle, or fight relentlessly for anything in her life. She either had it handed to her in return for sleeping with a powerful man, or she had it handed to her because of the color of her skin.
Now she is up against the hardest working man in the history of politics. No one can out work, out hustle, or out fight President Donald J. Trump.
And Kamala is in shock. She is getting rolled. For once, no one wants what she is selling.
First, because she’s not in San Francisco anymore.
Secondly, because to win the White House you need to earn it. No one hands you the White House. The American people expect you to work hard for the job. They expect you to show you really want it.
That’s why America is about to hand a gigantic victory to President Trump. And hand a complete repudiation to Kamala and the Democrat Party.
It’s bad enough to be DEI. But Kamala is also DLI: “Dumb, Lazy and Incompetent.” With a stress on LAZY.
And that’s something American voters cannot accept.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Watch Wayne’s new TV Show, “The ROOT Reaction” weeknights at 10 PM ET/7 PM Pacific on Real America’s Voice TV, and Wayne’s weekend “America’s Top Ten Countdown” on Saturdays at Noon ET/9 AM PT on Real America’s Voice TV. Watch at RealAmericasVoice.com, or at Rumble, Roku, Pluto, Apple, Dish TV Ch 219, or go to RootforAmerica.com to watch.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Politics
WaPo won’t endorse a candidate: The Washington Post is going back to its roots; at least, that’s the excuse the paper gives for deciding not to endorse a presidential candidate this election cycle. For the first time since 1972, the Post will not endorse either candidate, which means the Leftmedia outlet will not endorse the Democrat candidate, which it has faithfully practiced since endorsing Jimmy Carter in 1976. The decision certainly did not sit well with the paper’s editorial board, who were said to be uniformly “shocked.” Editor-at-large Robert Kagan, an ardent anti-Trumper, was so incensed that he resigned in a huff. The Post’s former executive editor, Martin Baron, blamed the decision on the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, asserting, “History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.” Because, of course, it could never be that Kamala Harris is simply a terrible candidate.
Washington Post publisher says he killed Kamala Harris endorsement, not Jeff Bezos (NY Post)
Los Angeles Times owner’s daughter claims paper didn’t endorse Harris over her stance on war in Gaza (Just the News)
Humor: “She is as cool as a bratwurst”: The Babylon Bee editorial board endorses Kamala Harris for president (Babylon Bee)
We’ve disappointed Michelle Obama once again: Men, we hate to break it to you, but Michelle Obama is “a little angry” and “a little frustrated” with us. So much so, she says, “I lay awake at night, wondering what in the world is going on.” The former first lady was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday to stump for Kamala Harris, whose campaign has ground to a halt in recent weeks. “The question,” Michelle continued, “isn’t whether Kamala is ready for this moment because by every measure [sic], she has demonstrated that she’s ready [sic]. The real — the real question is, as a country, are we ready for this moment?” If by “Are we ready?” she means, Are we ready for more crime, more inflation, more war, more counting by race, and more onerous government regulation? then the answer is probably going to disappoint her. Nonetheless, she couldn’t resist scolding us: “So fellas, before you cast your vote, ask yourselves: What side of history do you want to be on?” Maybe her petulance, condescension, and lecturing are all by design. Maybe they’re meant to make Kamala look less grating and cringeworthy by comparison.
Vance squares off with CNN’s Tapper on “fascism” smears: CNN’s Jake Tapper tried to ambush JD Vance yesterday on Donald Trump’s “fascism.” It didn’t go well. Vance refused to be bullied and flatly rejected Tapper’s out-of-context quotes about, for example, Trump’s plan to “use the military to go after the enemy within, which is the American people.” As the Washington Examiner reports, “The interview comes as former Trump administration officials are sounding the alarm over Trump’s alleged authoritarian tendencies and while Trump himself continues to create controversy with increasingly inflammatory rhetoric while campaigning.” Of course, those “former Trump administration officials” are “former” for a reason, and when Donald Trump is asked about anything he’d do differently from his first term, he goes right to this topic: hiring the right personnel. If Trump wins on November 5, you can be sure he won’t be bringing aboard any left-leaning globalists and disgraceful fabulists like James Mattis and John Kelly.
Rigging the election in VA: A federal judge on Friday ordered Virginia to reinstate roughly 1,600 noncitizens to the state’s voter rolls after they had been removed in accordance with the commonwealth’s law. Federal Judge Patricia Giles based her decision on a federal law that bans states from removing individuals from voter rolls within 90 days of an election. “This is a stunning ruling by a federal judge who is ordering Virginia to reinstate individuals who have self-identified as noncitizens back on the voter rolls,” Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin said in response to the decision. To make matters worse, Virginia’s previous Democrat governors have engaged in the very same action to clean up voter rolls within 90 days of an election and have not faced repudiation from the Justice Department. Youngkin has vowed to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hopefully, he succeeds in getting these noncitizens removed from the voter rolls, as undermining election integrity — as this judge has done — is ridiculous and entirely non-democratic.
Trump endorsed by Arab Americans: At a rally in Novi, Michigan, on Saturday, Donald Trump noted a meeting he had with leaders from Arab American and Muslim American groups. Several of these leaders then came on stage and endorsed Trump for president, including imams from the Arab American Bar Association, who stated, “We as Muslims stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war. We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine.” Trump then observed, “Muslim and Arab voters could turn this election.” Whether or not Michigan’s sizable Muslim community turns out in significant numbers for Trump remains to be seen; however, it appears that fewer of them will turn out for Kamala Harris. The apparent sentiment of many in Michigan’s Muslim community is that the Democrat Party has failed them. Therefore, they will either not vote or vote for a third party.
Louisiana Dem switches to GOP, runs for House seat: One of the subtle indicators of where the political momentum resides can be found in who’s switching parties. One such switcheroo occurred recently in Louisiana, where, as Fox News reports, “Louisiana House candidate Elbert Guillory released an advertisement explaining his decision to switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party, arguing it is the GOP that has the history of championing the rights of the Black community.” Guillory is himself black, and he’s clearly had enough of the Democrats’ patronization. As he put it in a campaign ad, “It was the right decision, not only for me but for all my brothers and sisters in the Black community. The Democratic Party has created the illusion that their agenda and their policies are what’s best for Black people. Somehow, it’s been forgotten that the Republican Party was founded in 1842 as an abolitionist movement.”
Security
Israel’s counterstrike on Iran: The world continues to burn under the Biden-Harris regime, with Israel making good on its promise to retaliate against Iran for its recent missile strikes on the Jewish state. The counterstrike took place Friday, and it was the largest-ever such action by Israel against Iran. Initial accounts say the strikes were a success. Said Richard Goldberg, a former White House National Security Council member and Iran expert: “We should understand that Tehran is naked right now, the ayatollah has no clothes. Israel destroyed Iran’s strategic air defense capabilities and set back its missile and drone production extensively.” As the Associated Press reports, “Satellite images show damage from Israeli attack at 2 secretive Iranian military bases,” adding that the strikes “damaged facilities at a secretive military base southeast of the Iranian capital that experts in the past have linked to Tehran’s onetime nuclear weapons program and at another base tied to its ballistic missile program.” The next move will be up to Iran, but we suspect it’ll be nothing more than a face-saver.
Iranian supreme leader now “seriously ill” (Daily Wire)
DHS to probe Chinese telco hacks that targeted Trump, Vance (Politico)
Drug dealers use fake online pharmacies and search engine loopholes to sell on Google (Washington Examiner)
Culture
Rewriting Israel on Wikipedia: Over the last few years, a group of some 40 veteran anti-Israel editors have been working to rewrite Wikipedia’s history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. These editors have effectively erased the notion that Israel is the historic land of the Jews, as well as working to paint Hamas as not an anti-Semitic terrorist organization. For example, they removed a reference to Hamas’s 1988 charter wherein the group explicitly calls for the killing of Jews and the elimination of Israel. All told, the group has made over 850,000 edits to over 10,500 articles related to the topic of Israel and “Palestine.” It’s a massive propaganda effort passed off as a legitimate historical record.
Nevada women’s volleyball forfeits match after players refuse to compete against biological male (National Review)
Misc.
More than 155,000 left the Great Lakes State for somewhere better last year (The Midwesterner)
Governor supersizes California’s film and TV tax credits to get Hollywood back to work (Deadline)
If Donald Trump is blowing a Nazi dog whistle, why is it that the only people who can hear it are left-wingers? Asking for a friend.
As I have explained now twice in recent days, fascism and Nazism are left-wing ideologies — they are national socialism. Trump completely missed his chance in his first term to be a fascist dictator, of course, but leftists are undeterred in seeing nothing but a Nazi.
Fresh off a three-hour podcast with Joe Rogan on Friday, the former president held a six-hour, star-studded, packed-house rally at Madison Square Garden (capacity 19,500) in New York City on Sunday. Again, all leftists could see and hear were Nazis. That says much more about them than it does anyone who attended that rally.
We know Democrats are in full-blown panic mode because they’ve gone whole hog invoking Godwin’s Law. Yes, they’ve dubbed every single Republican presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater (with the exception of George H.W. Bush) a Nazi. Still, in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign, Democrats are making “Trump is Hitler” the centerpiece of their closing argument. John Kelly did it. Kamala Harris did it. Most major Leftmedia outlets have done it. And Hillary Clinton couldn’t miss her opportunity.
Three days before the rally, Clinton claimed that Trump was “actually reenacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939,” at which “neo-Nazis, fascists, in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany.” She warned similar things when she lost to Trump in 2016, and she seems to think it’s a good strategy to help Harris now. Then again, that prompts a question: What does Hillary intend with her “help”? Let’s just say I don’t think she’d mind if she wasn’t the only woman who lost to Trump.
Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, got the Nazi memo. “Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” he said at a campaign stop in Nevada. “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid-1930s at Madison Square Garden.”
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump got the same memo. His subheadline: “The Trump campaign’s rally in New York mirrored one in the 1930s that was openly supportive of Adolf Hitler.” Part of his “evidence” is that Trump’s rally came on the sixth anniversary of the shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue. I’m not making that up.
He’d be just as credible arguing that people holding their arms out with their phones were the same as the 1939 crowd saying, “Heil Hitler!”
MSNBCDNC went even further, juxtaposing footage from Trump’s rally with old video from 1939 when, the anchor said, “supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden.”
As for that rally, if Trump’s intent was to put on a Nazi rally at MSG, he failed miserably. People of every tribe and color were in the audience. Mary Millben — a black woman — sang the national anthem. Vivek Ramaswamy and Tulsi Gabbard, both Hindus (of color!), were featured speakers. More pointedly, Jews showed up wearing MAGA yamakas, and there was an Israeli flag being flown in the audience. Holocaust survivor Jerry Wartski also made an appearance. Last week, the 94-year-old utterly rejected Harris’s “Trump is Hitler” nonsense, saying, “I know more about Hitler than Kamala will ever know in a thousand lifetimes.”
Not your run-of-the-mill Aryan get-together.
In fact, the only swastikas present were brought by Democrats protesting outside the arena.
“I’m thrilled to be back in the city I love,” Trump began. “And I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”
“NO!” roared the crowd.
“I’m here today with a message of hope for all Americans,” he said. He talked about the GOP’s big tent. “We’re building the biggest, broadest coalition … including union workers and Border Patrol … police and firefighters… The Republican Party has become the party of inclusion.” That doesn’t sound like racial and ethnic purification to me.
“I will prevent World War III from happening,” he added, which doesn’t sound much like the guy who started World War II.
“I will restore free speech,” Trump declared, which isn’t exactly reminiscent of the totalitarian Nazi speech suppressors. Modern Democrats are the ones acting like censoring fascists.
I suppose you could stretch it and say that one particular phrase has a German national socialist ring to it: “We have to defeat … the enemy from within.” But there’s a big difference. Ethnic Jews were not, in fact, working to destroy Germany from inside or out. Adolf Hitler was creating a villain to aid in his rise. Trump is identifying very real nefarious characters who actually are working to undermine America, and it is they, not him, who are obsessed with race.
Speaking of race, leftists hear a racial dog whistle about immigration. In fact, most of Bump’s case in The Washington Post, and where most left-wingers hear “Nazi” rhetoric, has to do with immigration. Yet they are the ones conflating legal and illegal immigration and making the issue one of race rather than the Rule of Law.
When Trump says “migrant,” he is clearly referring to the people who cross our border illegally. He is not talking about legal immigration. When he says, “I am hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer,” he is talking about punishing horrific criminal behavior. He is not referring to anyone’s race or ethnicity.
Those crimes, by the way, would not have happened if the illegals who perpetrated them were not here.
In any case, the MSG rally is yet another indicator of the energy present on Trump’s side. My only caution would be not to mistake depth of support for breadth.
Are Republicans — or, more specifically, Trump fans — perfect? No, they’re regular people. Regular people who want the coastal elites of the Democrat Party to stop wrecking the country they love. That certainly doesn’t make generally conservative patriotic Americans the equivalent of race-obsessed national socialists of the 1930s German Left.
The final word? “I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here,” thundered Hulk Hogan. “I don’t see no stinkin’ domestic terrorists in here. The only thing I see in here are a bunch of hard-working men and women that are real Americans, brother.”
Douglas Andrews: Americans Overwhelmingly Want Voter ID — A new Gallup poll shows that the issue is supported by huge majorities across the political spectrum.
Donald Trump on Joe Rogan — What we witnessed with this interview is three hours of Donald Trump speaking lucidly, knowledgeably, and relentlessly.
Veep Thoughts With Kamala Harris (Vol. 28) — Harris launched her campaign with “joyful” “vibes.” She has decided to end it with a shrill warning about how Donald Trump is literally Adolf Hitler.
Kamala Gets Heckled During Church Speech — Kamala Harris lost her mind during her “sermon” at a black church where people in the crowd started to interrupt and heckle her.
33 Reasons to Vote for Trump — Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has been very outspoken on U.S. politics and DEI, gives his reasons to vote for Donald Trump.
Bribes for Babies — The population bomb will destroy humanity through overpopulation! That didn’t happen. What is happening is that too few babies are being born.
Poisoning the Climate Soup — A look at some of the scientific malfeasance and fraud behind U.S. government temperature maps and graphs.
SHORT CUTS
The BIG Lies
“If you look at Joe Biden’s popularity record, you know when he was most popular? It’s after we passed the American Rescue Plan. We saved child care. We saved hospitals. We saved colleges, so I don’t apologize.” —Senator Bernie Sanders
“If you want to ask my view and many economists, the reason that we saw a spike in inflation, which is now going down, was … because of corporate greed. Record-breaking profits on the part of [the] food industry, other corporations charging us off-the-wall prices. I think that had a lot to do with inflation.” —Bernie Sanders
Friendly Fire
“Kamala’s big, I think, challenge here to win over the undecided voters is to convince them that she’s not part of what they suspect she might be, sort of a stealth version of the worst excesses of the Left.” —liberal political pundit Bill Maher
For the Record
“[Harris] says she doesn’t want ‘concessions’ regarding ‘fundamental freedom’ over ‘your own body.’ What about forcing a doctor to use his body to perform a procedure he finds objectionable and abhorrent? In a sense, that makes him a slave, which is somewhat ironic given that the dehumanization so key to defending slavery is akin to the way pro-abortion zealots dehumanize the unborn.” —Nate Jackson
Political Futures
“It defies common sense for Americans to reelect the vice president from the administration responsible for so much misery. At some level, Democrats surely know this.” —Josh Hammer
“The upward turn of fortune for Trump that has Democrats in a panic is not because he was shot or because he suddenly transformed himself into Mitt Romney 2.0 or Mister Rogers. It’s because the whole country has been getting a better look at Kamala — and has seen what a goofy, unprepared, fourth-rate candidate she is.” —Michael Reagan
Reality Check
“When you look at the swing-state polls, Trump is definitely polling at a better ballot share than he’s ever polled in the three elections that he’s been running. I think that means there’s not a whole lot of shy Trump voters left. It’s possible that Trump’s support is being underrepresented, but the fact that his ballot share is higher shows that it’s not the same [extent] of underrepresentation [as in previous years].” —Republican pollster Brent Buchanan
“No matter how the Electoral College shakes out, there’s a decent chance that, next month, more Americans will cast a ballot for Kamala Harris than anyone else in U.S. history.” —Jim Geraghty
And Last…
“Spend some time trying to decipher Harris’ swirling, platitude-ridden, incoherent rhetoric and you will only be further convinced that we live in an idiocracy.” —David Harsanyi
“I know what it would be like if we let [Harris] in. And that ain’t good. Miserable track record. Appalling track record. No policies to speak of. And she’s got the IQ of a fence post.” —filmmaker Mel Gibson
A joint worship service brought together Christians across denominations in Seoul, South Korea, on Reformation Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. | Courtesy Joint Worship Organizing Committee
SEOUL, South Korea — In the afternoon of Reformation Sunday, some 2.1 million Christians gathered for a joint worship service to “unite for repentance, revival and restoration of holiness in our society.”
According to organizers, an estimated 1.1 million joined onsite despite the bad weather with another 1 million joining online (although police estimated a lower figure for the in-person gathering). The unprecedented joint worship service brought together Korean churches across denominations as they affirmed traditional marriage and family and prayed for their nation.
The initial trigger for the event was an anti-discrimination law that Korean Christian leaders fear will pave the way to gay marriage and ultimately open the country up to trans ideology that would harm families and restrict the freedoms of churches to live out their faith. They point to Western countries, such as the U.K. and Canada, as warning signs of what might be to come unless believers stand up at this time.
Church members holding picket signs fill city hall square in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 27, 2024. | Christian Today Korea/Song Kyung-ho
“Through this worship service that we offer today in spirit and truth, I hope that families and churches will live and that the Korean church and the world church will experience a new revival,” the Rev. Jung-Hyun Oh, senior pastor of Sarang Church, told attendants, according to reporting by Christian Daily Korea.
The Rev. Oh of Sarang Church (right) spoke to attendants of the joint worship service in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 27, 2024. | Courtesy Joint Worship Organizing Committee
Three sermons preached during the afternoon highlighted the importance of the Church not remaining silent, so they could safeguard families and children, with one pastor praying to God, “Please accept our repentance and protect our families.”
The event also featured speakers from the U.K. and Germany who urged Koreans Christians not to follow the same path as what they have seen in their own countries and instead be a beacon for churches around the world and shine the light of God’s truth.
“Who would have thought that Britain would forget God? But it has,” said Andrea Williams, a lawyer from Wilberforce Academy in the U.K. “They have removed Jesus Christ from public life. People don’t know who Jesus is. They have legislated the right to kill the unborn, gay marriage. Street preachers are jailed, and those who give out Bibles or pray at work are punished. While all this has happened, the churches of Britain have been asleep.”
As an expression of their unity and commitment, churches that participated in the event issued a joint declaration “to renew the Republic of Korea.”
The statement highlights the crisis of values and expresses repentance over the churches’ failure to fulfill their their role up to now. Among others, the declaration then affirms the protection of the family, everyone’s right to “freedom of religion, speech, thought, and expression,” and the church’s role as salt and light in society. It concludes by calling on the government, the Constitutional Court, the National Assembly and the Ministry of Education to refrain from enacting laws allowing gay marriage or promoting homosexuality and gender ideology through textbooks in schools.
(The declaration’s full text in Korean is available here.)
As the event came to a conclusion, the organizing committee said, “Those gathered pledged to fulfill the church’s social role and reaffirmed their solidarity as a faith community. This service will remain as an important moment for the Korean church to reflect on its social responsibility and the essence of faith, and as a milestone that suggests the direction and role the Church should take.”
A day to raise awareness in society, unite the Korean Church
In an exclusive interview with Christian Daily International in the lead up to the event, chair of the organizing committee, the Rev. Hyun-bo So, senior pastor of Segero Church in Busan, explained what motivated them to mobilize churches for the event.
“We do not hate homosexuals. We are not trying to tell them what to do and what not to do,” he emphasized at the time. “But if these laws regarding gay marriage get passed in Korea, then the Christian Church cannot stand up for what they believe in, and they cannot say the things that they want to say.”
He pointed to Canada and other countries where stories had been coming out of minors being led to believe they are trans and undergoing experimental, body deforming procedures with parents not allowed to be involved in the conversation.
“Sometimes it’s the case that a 13-year-old will want to change their sex, but the parents cannot say anything about it. The students will get the hormone shots through the school and the parents will not be involved in the process,” he said, adding that Korean churches are opposed to excluding the parents from their children’s lives and education.
The Rev. Hyun-bo Son preaches at Segero Church in Busan, Korea, where he serves as senior pastor. | Christian Daily International
He also laments how minors are young and naïve and can easily be misled about the risks and lifelong consequences of such treatments. He specifically points to a case “where a 13-year-old went through a sex change with the transition, and she thought that her breast would grow back.”
It is the prospect of facing such a future that led him to mobilize Korean churches to oppose a recent change in the laws related to gay couples in order to prevent the country from going down this path.
Asked to elaborate on the legal developments, Rev. Son explained that “July 18th was a big day in Korea’s courts because they accepted that a gay couple can have health insurance benefits. From an international standpoint, after such a law is passed or after such an acceptance is seen in the courts, it usually took about two years or so until gay marriage was legalized.”
He said he saw the event as a chance for the Christian Church to raise awareness among the wider society about the harm that the passing of these laws will bring to Korea. He said he is convinced that more than 90% of the people would be against young children at age 9 or 10 getting irreversible cross-sex hormones for a gender transition. But a major issue is that “regular people do not know the depths of what the law is calling for.”
He hoped the event would provide “a good chance for churches to come together, pray together and have discussions together about how to help homosexuals,” including those in the churches who struggle with same-sex attraction.
Pointing to the challenges within the Korean Church, Rev. Son also said, “I believe that this event will be a very good time for everyone to come together and unite.”
Christian Daily International provides biblical, factual and personal news, stories and perspectives from every region, focusing on religious freedom, holistic mission and other issues relevant for the global Church today.
This week’s Kazan Declaration suggests that the BRICS – in its expanded composition– is ready to open a new chapter in its history.
Never before have such voluminous documents been adopted as a result of the group’s summits.
Moreover, the Kazan Declaration will be the subject of great interest in the world’s political and academic circles, as well as the object of criticism by opponents of BRICS.
For the first time, the group’s unified vision of the current state of the international system is set out in detail.
The Declaration is a voluminous document containing 134 paragraphs, some of which are quite long. The statement adopted at the previous summit in Johannesburg in August 2023, contained only 94 paragraphs, and a document, adopted in Beijing in July 2022 had 75. Thus, year by year the outcome has become increasingly detailed and, as it is now customary to say, substantive, reflecting the gradual increase in the intensity of the group’s engagement and the broadening of the substantive scope of its multilateral cooperation.
The Kazan Declaration consists of a preamble and four sections dealing with:
(1) strengthening multilateralism,
(2) global and regional security,
(3) financial and economic cooperation, and
(4) humanitarian exchanges.
This division seems reasonable and in line with the priorities of the Russian chairmanship announced a year ago.
For the first time in BRICS’ history, the Declaration sets out in detail the group’s shared vision of the current state of the international system, the common or overlapping approaches to the fundamental global problems of our time and to acute regional crises, and the contours of a desirable and achievable world order as the members of the group currently see it. While the document does not provide specific timetables for individual tasks or roadmaps for specific areas of work, it does cover a number of key objectives that the group should or could pursue over the next few years. It is clear that the document is the product not only of the Summit itself, but also of a great deal of hard work by an army of experts, officials and diplomats at various levels in multilateral formats over the past few months.
The multilateral negotiation of the final text of a document of such length and importance is in itself a non-trivial task, especially as the text had to be negotiated not in the old format of the five BRICS members, but with the involvement of new members who had no previous experience of such work. One can only guess at the amount of work that went into the 43 pages of the final document.
Reading through the text of the declaration, it is easy to see that there is a clear balance between the security and development agendas. This balance suggests that the group has deliberately chosen to maintain its very broad mandate and will not focus its future activities on one thing – for example, promoting trade among the group’s members, as some experts have suggested.
Rather than adopting a narrow, thematic approach, BRICS intends to position itself as a multitasking laboratory of global governance, where new algorithms of multilateral cooperation and innovative models for solving the world’s major economic and political problems can be tested, including trade, finance and strategic stability. The group’s political ‘investment portfolio’ is thus more than diversified, and this diversification increases the chances of success for at least some of its many initiatives. This ‘issue-based’ approach to cooperation should help to overcome departmental divisions and to avoid the excessive bureaucracy inherent in many international organizations.
On development issues, the BRICS predictably faces a difficult choice between trying to achieve reforms of the existing, largely Western-oriented international economic and monetary institutions and trying to create effective alternatives to these institutions under their own common umbrella.
Judging from the text of the declaration, the intention is to maximize both opportunities: it calls for fundamental institutional changes in ‘old’ multilateral structures such as the IMF or the IBRD, while at the same time stating the BRICS’ intention to further promote non-Western institutional alternatives to these predominantly Western structures, such as the New Development Bank (NDB) and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). On the one hand, the document strongly supports the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a universal mechanism for the development of international economic relations, but does not limit its support to the WTO alone, and also calls for further trade liberalization within the BRICS grouping itself.
The Declaration does not explicitly criticize the trade or financial practices of any particular country or group of countries, but expresses concern about “unlawful unilateral coercive measures,” such as sanctions, which are seen as damaging to the global economy and worldwide sustainable development goals. The paper concludes that such measures inevitably undermine the UN Charter and multilateral trading systems. This emphasis is not surprising – most of the BRICS member countries are either already subject to some form of unilateral sanctions by the West, or could be at any moment. Therefore, the idea of reducing dependence on the ‘old’ international institutions runs through the entire text of the document.
Security issues remain very sensitive for most of the BRICS member countries, and the declaration devotes most of its attention to them. It is not hard to guess that, at least in some conflict situations, members of the group could easily find themselves on different sides of the barricades. Judging by the carefully calibrated text of the Declaration, those who worked to bring together the many versions of the document spent a great deal of time and effort finding appropriate language to describe many of the current crises and conflicts. The paragraph on Ukraine, for example, is very short and refers to the positions already expressed by the Group in the votes on Ukraine in the Security Council and General Assembly of the UN. It also argues that a peaceful solution should be consistent with UN principles and norms in their entirety, pays tribute to mediation efforts and calls for conflict resolution through dialogue and diplomacy.
We can assume that it was not easy to find a common denominator on the situation in Gaza, given the very different positions of, for example, Iran and the UAE on Israel. The statement on the need to respect the territorial integrity of Syria could be interpreted as an implicit criticism of the Turkish military presence in that country, which Damascus has not explicitly authorized. It was probably easier to agree on less contentious issues, such as the ongoing nation-building crisis in Haiti, which is why the paragraph on this was relatively long and detailed. The same applies to the issue of international terrorism, which appears to be quite detailed; approaches to international terrorism seem to have been shared, if not fully agreed, among the group members from the outset.
The group decided that some of the more sensitive or technically challenging issues should be further considered and explored in more detail. Such issues include, for example, the Russian proposal for BRICS Clear, a system for trading securities without the associated conversion into dollars. One can imagine that many of the proposed changes to the global financial system using blockchain technology and digital tokens backed by national currencies, which are designed to make dollar transactions far less necessary in global trade, will not be easy to promote and therefore need further study at expert level.
The same goes for proposals to modernize transport and logistics infrastructure within the BRICS grouping – given the expansion, this task looks different today than it did a year ago. On the other hand, something like a BRICS-based grain exchange may be easier to implement because the BRICS group already includes some of the world’s largest grain exporters and importers. It would be natural for the BRICS to become more actively involved in managing global energy markets – and here the group includes most of the world’s leading producers and consumers of hydrocarbons.
Overall, the declaration suggests that the enlarged BRICS group is ready to open a new chapter in its history. It is clear that BRICS is not an anti-Western alliance, and the group is not seeking to deliberately undermine or destroy Western institutions. The authors of the Declaration chose their wording very carefully, avoiding any turns of phrase that might lead the reader to believe that a sharp confrontation between the collective West and the rest of the world is inevitable.
BRICS does not even aim to ‘balance’ the West in any way. The BRICS will never be able to become a kind of G7, given the diversity of its members and the absence of a clear hegemonic leader in the group. Nevertheless, the group is capable of claiming, and is already openly doing so, a new, more prominent role in global governance and in defining the parameters of the new world order. Moreover, it intends to become one of the most influential actors in the entire global South, which has been severely underrepresented in most multilateral international institutions.
There is reason to believe that the Kazan Declaration will receive a great deal of attention in both political and academic circles around the world, and that it will receive its fair share of criticism from skeptics and opponents of BRICS.
Some will say that the declaration was too general, too ambiguous and not focused enough on specific issues. Some will be tempted to dismiss the document as just another wish-list. However, the Kazan Declaration shows not only that the enlarged BRICS can agree on a very wide range of issues, but also that the group is breaking new ground in its development. The 17th BRICS Summit will be held in Brazil next year, and the long journey from Kazan to the Latin American continent promises to be a truly exciting one.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.
The young, newly ordained Catholic priest stood in front of the church, ready to officiate his first mass. These priests were expected to have clean hearts before officiating—no sin unconfessed. No heart of stone unturned.
But as Martin Luther began to recite the introductory portion of the mass, with the bread and wine on the altar in front of him, he almost passed out. He later recounted, “I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. … Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty?”[1]
On October 31, 1517—a decade after his ordination as a priest—Luther nailed his now famous Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Of all these 95 affirmations and concerns, the main point was simple: you can’t buy God’s grace and you can’t trump the Bible. The Church missed this, and that’s a dangerous place to be. For Luther, unmitigated access to God’s revelation and God’s grace was of utmost importance.
He was frustrated because the Church had not felt the same level of reverence—terror!—when standing before God. It had begun selling indulgences, which were certificates from the Church that guaranteed to reduce the punishment of sins. As Luther saw it, money was also corrupting everyone in power. On top of that, the Church taught that the Pope could receive direct revelation from God—that he had the same power and access to God’s will as the Bible. These problems and more pushed Luther to the edge. Like any good leader, he took action. Like any good pastor, he cared for his people. He stepped out when, apparently, no one else would.
An Accidental Reformation?
It’s important to understand that Luther wanted to reform the Church, but he didn’t want to spark a divisive reformation. He wasn’t trying to start a new denomination—he was just trying to be faithful to God’s Word. As he once said, “I ask that men make no reference to my name; let them call themselves Christians not Lutherans.”[2] But his convictions were strong, and his concerns were legitimate. The gospel compelled him to ignore the dangers associated with stepping out on faith, even when the road wasn’t going to be easy. Proclaiming the truth meant more to him than the backlash he would receive for defending it. As he once said: “What is asserted without the Scriptures or proven revelation may be held as an opinion, but need not be believed.”[3]
The Church had moved dangerously into the territory of extrabiblical opinion and assertions. Luther couldn’t stand for it, because reading the Bible was the primary spark in his transformation from Catholic monk to revolutionary. So, he eventually stood before the leaders of the Church and proclaimed,
“I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.”[4]
“It is a glory which every preacher may claim, to be able to say with full confidence of heart: ‘This trust I have toward God in Christ, that what I teach and preach is truly the Word of God.’”[5]
Luther didn’t view Scripture’s authority as a piece of the Christian puzzle, or an important but not ultimate doctrine; it was the concrete slab on which the Christian house stood. For him, the preacher’s primary task was to preach God’s Word rightly because of its sheer power and unchangeable truth. So when the Pope exercised authority apart from Scripture or in contradiction to Scripture, Luther would have none of it. Scripture + anything else = truth mixed with error. Very quickly, his Reformation became a revolution.
Luther’s Bible: a Bible for Everyone
Luther understood the Bible’s power to change lives, because he himself had his life changed by it. His reading of Romans 1:17 changed the course of his life, and he was never the same. Not only that, but he loved the Word so much that he dedicated years of his life to translating the New Testament into German, his native language. When it was published in 1522, he was elated that people “might seize and taste the clear, pure Word of God itself and hold to it.”[6] Luther thought the Bible was more important than any book anyone could ever savor. The Church at the time didn’t allow massive access to the Bible. Most people only knew what the priests told them. But Luther knew that God had met him in its pages, and he longed for others to have that access.
To Luther, the Pope was more like a bad king than a good pastor. CLICK TO TWEETHe abused his power and sought to control the people. The Word of God no longer controlled the Church—its leader did. A Church with a minimized Word is not a Church at all; it’s a train without tracks, a winding mountain road without guardrails. With his translation, people could see the guardrails for themselves.
Luther’s convictions remind us that if God is the ultimate authority, then his words are good and true. He is perfect, so his Word is perfect. His commands are right, and our obedience to them is right. No pope or president or self-help book can outdo what God has to say to us. That also means that no matter what a leader does, even the Pope himself, God’s Word has the final say.
For Luther, the Bible’s truthfulness wasn’t about putting its claims into a Petri dish and seeing if it passed the test. He didn’t need a pope or a scientist or anyone else to authenticate its claims. He trusted Scripture because he trusted God. Believing in the authority of God’s Word takes action. The Word of God is alive, and it’s ready and able to change your life, if only you’ll submit to its authority the way Luther sought to.
The Reformation caused a massive split in the global Church. Protestants (literally, “the protesters”) were born. And Protestants are a people of the Bible first and foremost. It’s in the Bible that we find who God is and how he relates to his people. Following in the footsteps of Luther, Protestants believe that when Scripture speaks, God speaks.
If we believe nothing else, we should believe this: God’s Word is alive. The Bible is not some outdated, crusty book that fits better on a shelf than in our laps. No, it sits there rumbling like an earthquake, holding in the life-changing words of the God of the universe. It is applicable to your life now. Today. And tomorrow, too.
If we believe that Scripture truly is the Word of God, we will believe what it says. Like Luther, we will believe that a doctrine is true only if it’s found is in the Bible.
[1] Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York, NY: Meridian, 1995), 30.
[2] Martin Luther, “A Sincere Admonition from Martin Luther to All Christians” (1522), in Luther’s Works 45, ed. Walther I. Brandt (Philadelphia, PA: Muhlenberg Press, 1962), 70.
[3] Quoted in Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers, 2nd Edition (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2013), 81.
[4] Martin Brecht, Martin Luther, trans. James L. Schaaf (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1985), 1:460.
[5] Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses and Selected Sermons (Jersey City, NJ: Start Publishing, 2012). This edition is in digital format without page numbers.
[6] Michael Reeves, The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2009), 55.
The National Faith Advisory Board(NFAB) will host the Inaugural National FaithSummit, with remarks from President Trump, gathering over 1,000 pastors in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday, October 28, 2024, at 2:00pm ET at Worship With Wonders Church to unite in prayer, worship and action. Watch LIVE on RSBN starting at 12:00 p.m. ET.
President Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America, will deliver remarks at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday, October 28, 2024, at 6:00PM EDT. Watch LIVE on RSBN starting at 4:00 p.m. ET.
The former president wants the US to play no role in guaranteeing peace between Moscow and Kiev, according to one of his advisers
Donald Trump will leave the enforcement of any peace deal between Russia and Ukraine to European powers, one of the former US president’s advisers has told the Financial Times. The plan is one of several floated by Trump’s advisers and allies, all of which involve the US refusing to deal with the aftermath of the conflict.
Trump has promised to bring a rapid end to the ongoing conflict if he is elected president in November. However, he has offered few specifics as to how he would do this, save for pressing Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky into peace talks with US aid to Kiev as leverage.
In the absence of any concrete peace plan, a host of Trump’s current and former advisers have outlined how they think the former president could achieve this goal.
One unnamed “long-term Trump adviser” told the Financial Times on Monday that the Republican candidate could resolve the conflict with “a reimagining of the failed Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015,” under which Kiev agreed to grant some autonomy to the majority Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
This time around, the adviser said, the deal would be enforced by EU peacekeepers. “There are two things America will insist on,” he said. “We will not have any men or women in the enforcement mechanism. We’re not paying for it. Europe is paying for it.”
Reviving the Minsk agreements would likely present several major challenges. After multiple European leaders admitted that they never intended to abide by the 2014 and 2015 agreements, Moscow does not believe that the EU can play the role of honest broker, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this month.
Furthermore, Donetsk and Lugansk – along with Kherson and Zaporozhye – have since joined the Russian Federation, and any peace deal must take into account this “territorial reality,” the Kremlin has said.
Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who served in Trump’s White House, told the British newspaper that the US could “freeze the conflict” along the current front line, and negotiate a lasting settlement with Russia at a later date. Ukraine would not give up its territorial claims in the meantime, Fleitz said, explaining that this plan counts on delaying a final agreement until “Putin leaves the stage.”
However, Fleitz conceded that he does not speak for Trump and does not know the former president’s foreign policy plans.
The most detailed proposal has been put forward by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Speaking to former US Navy SEAL and podcast host Shawn Ryan last month, Vance said that the current frontline could be demilitarized and fortified, ensuring that “Russia doesn’t invade again.” In exchange, “Russia gets a guarantee of neutrality from Ukraine,” while Germany and other EU countries foot the bill for Ukraine’s reconstruction. The current American policy of “throw[ing] money at this problem, [and] hope[ing] the Ukrainians are able to achieve a military victory” is “stupid,” Vance told Ryan.
This week marked a turning point for the organization, and this will become apparent with time
By Manish Chand, Global India Centre CEO
The main take away from the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan is that all of us who gathered there this week witnessed a turning point in the history of the association. The results of the summit suggest that the group has made a very serious attempt to change the international order.
It was not easy to take this decisive step in the development of the group, as the Kazan Summit took place at a time when the gap between the West and the rest of the conflict-ridden world is wider than ever.
In this critical situation, the event presented a blueprint for reforming the international order that reflects the growing aspirations of the Global South.
For new members and partner countries, BRICS has provided an alternative platform to discuss issues such as debt relief, climate finance and sustainable development.
These are areas where the dominance of Western institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF has not delivered the expected results.
Algeria, Uganda and Nigeria will join BRICS as partner countries, reflecting widespread recognition of Africa’s growing global role. In Latin America, Bolivia and Cuba have taken steps towards more cooperation with the group. The rapprochement between BRICS and ASEAN will be facilitated by the addition of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to the list of partners. This is likely to be just the beginning. More than 30 countries want to join the organization in one form or another.
The centerpiece of the Summit was the adoption of the Kazan Declaration, an ambitious document outlining a shared vision of a fairer world order. The declaration reaffirmed a commitment to multilateralism and called for the reform of global governance.
The main aim is to make international institutions more representative of emerging and developing countries. This call for reform is particularly aimed at institutions such as the UN, the IMF and the World Bank, which have long been dominated by Western powers.
India, along with the other founding members, played a key role in drafting the Kazan Declaration. In his speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated a ‘people-centred BRICS’ and called for accelerated reforms of global governance institutions.
While the Kazan Summit marks an ambitious step towards a multipolar world order, the success of the event will depend on the extent to which the enlarged BRICS maintains cohesion and coherence, as new members and partner countries may bring their competing interests to the BRICS agenda.
The BRICS states will also have to keep a close eye on the West, which has criticized and ridiculed the expansion of the association and dismissed the Kazan forum as a meaningless show.
In this regard, the BRICS leaders will have to ensure, going forward, that the association does not become a platform for anti-Western positioning, but a forum for a non-Western alternative narrative in global politics.
This article was first published by the newspaper Kommersant and was translated and edited by the RT team.
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