Alex Newman is an author, speaker, and journalist for various outlets. He discusses the intentional deception by the elite to mold and control the population
Chaos in markets sparked a lot of bearish prognostications in the first half, but investors have pushed through, and stocks look like they’re back in “meltup mode.”
That’s the view of Ed Yardeni, a longtime forecaster and the president of Yardeni Research. His “melt-up” thesis says the stock market embarked on a 1990s-style bull run starting in 2024, a stellar but ultimately unsustainable stock rally similar to what markets saw at the height of the dot-com bubble.
To Yardeni, the S&P 500 reaching a new record last week confirms that the formation of a speculative bubble is one of the biggest risks to investors at the moment.
Yardeni says he anticipates the S&P 500 reaching 6,500 by the end of the year, a gain of about 5% from levels on Monday. However, by the end of the decade, Yardeni’s meltup thesis sees the benchmark index rising to 10,000, representing a 60% gain.
“So far, the current bull market looks like a normal one, with the potential to match the returns of some of the best bull markets since the mid-1960s,” Yardeni said.
The upward climb in stocks is partly due to the continued strength of the US economy, the market vet told CNBC on Friday. While some economic data—like retail sales—has come in weaker-than-expected in recent months, that has largely reflected temporary uncertainties like tariffs.
Stocks rallied to records last week on a handful of catalysts. Investors cheered Trump’s announcement that the US and China had agreed to a framework trade agreement, and the market continued to rise to fresh records on Monday as investors digested further progress. Canada on Monday said it would cancel a digital services tax that had caused Trump to threaten to end trade talks.
“Clearly, trade isn’t a done issue yet, but I think will be by the end of the summer,” Yardeni said. “You put it all together and I think it’s a pretty solid economy, pretty solid stock market,” he later added.
Forecasters on Wall Street have turned more bullish on stocks since Trump paused his sweeping tariff agenda in April and struck a handful of framework agreements with some of America’s top trading partners.
I sometimes get messages from people from Canada, the UK, Australia, etc. asking me why so many conservative American Christians vote for the Republican party. Well, the simple answer is that American Christians are far more conservative than Christians in other countries. We vote for policies that align with the Bible in many areas: social issues, fiscal issues, foreign policy.
So, one of the things that presidents get to do when they are elected is to appoint Supreme Court justices. So let’s review Trump’s Supreme Court picks, and then see who appointed the Democrats on the Supreme Court:
Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Appointments:
Current Supreme Court Justices Appointed by Democratic Presidents:
Now, if you ask a Canadian or a British or an Australian etc. who is on the Supreme Court, they have no idea. Usually, their outrage is just from the TV news telling them something bad about Trump’s personal character from 1942, as if American voters look to Trump for moral and spiritual leadership. (We don’t) But if they did a little bit of work beyond what the TV news tells them, they would find out why American Christians vote for Republicans that we don’t agree with on morals or religion.
First story, from The Federalist:
The U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision ruled Friday that parents are allowed to opt their children out of homosexual and “transgender” propaganda in school, noting that a school district forcing young children to be confronted with the perverse sexual program violates parents’ religious liberty.
[…]The Supreme Court decided that the parents are entitled to a preliminary injunction — meaning they can pull their children out of the instruction — as their lawsuit proceeds.
And the Trump administration reacted so:
Education Secretary Linda McMahon celebrated the opinion, stating, “The Supreme Court’s ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor is a major win for religious liberty and parental rights. The Court rightfully held that schools can’t shut parents out or disregard their religious obligations to their children.”
It’s a 6-3 ruling, and all 3 of Trump’s appointees were on the side of parents’ rights and children’s rights. Again, I would expect “Christians” in Canada, the UK, Australia, etc. who are skeptical of American Christians to vote with the appointees of Obama and Biden. You didn’t hear anything about Obama and Biden’s character from these foreign Christians – or their policies. And that’s because the TV they watch wasn’t telling them to be outraged by them.
Second story, also from The Federalist:
On the last day of its 2024 term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines to uphold a Texas age verification law aimed at protecting children from online obscenity.
In his majority opinion affirming the Fifth Circuit decision, Justice Clarence Thomas declared that “First Amendment leaves undisturbed States’ traditional power to prevent minors from accessing speech that is obscene from their perspective.”
“That power necessarily includes the power to require proof of age before an individual can access such speech. It follows that no person — adult or child — has a First Amendment right to access speech that is obscene to minors without first submitting proof of age,” he wrote.
Again, the 3 dissenting votes are from the judges appointed by Democrats, and these are presumable the judges that are approved of by the “Christians” in these other countries. I never get any complaints about those judges from these Christians.
Now, if you ask “Christians” in more secular left countries whether they care about parents having a right to opt their children out of LGBT indoctrination and from seeing p*rn*graphy, they’ll say “children need to be indoctrinated in LGBT dogma and see p*rn*graphy, just like they are in countries like the Canada, UK or Australia – our countries – which are far more Christian than the United States”. They just don’t think very deeply.
Here is the difference: in America, Christians actually believe the Bible, and we want our laws to reflect what the Bible teaches. In your countries, you want the laws to be made by atheists and leftists. You want to live under atheist and leftist laws. We’re just smarter about how we apply the Bible to our laws and policies than you are. We don’t let the secular leftist television journalists tell us who to vote for. We vote for results, not virtue signaling.
Yeah forgive me if I feel a creeping sense of dread and foreboding about this one.
Source: British scientists are taking the “first steps” to make synthetic human DNA
New York democrats pick Muslim socialist for mayor. The Department of Justice defends the Seal of Confession. And Christian music has broken into the mainstream.
Source: Monday Miscellany, 6/30/25
U.S. Census data analyzed by Harvard University shows that a third of all U.S. households, whether they are buying or renting, spend more than the recommended one third of their income on housing and utilities and therefore qualify as cost-burdened.
While the overall rate of households burdened by housing cost in the U.S. was 32.7 percent in 2023, Statista’s Katharina Buchholz shows in the chart below, several states had even higher average burdens.
You will find more infographics at Statista
California, known for its high cost of living, came in at 41.7 percent of burdened households, followed by Hawaii at 39.5 percent, Florida at 38.6 percent and New York at 38.2 percent.
In general, West Coast states and those in the country’s populous Northeast showed the highest burdens, with the addition of sunshine locations Florida and Hawaii.
The least burdened households were found in the interior of the country, in West Virginia, North Dakota and Iowa, where fewer than a quarter of households felt an outsized financial burden because of housing costs. Colorado and Texas came in 11th and 12th.
The report published this week shows that renters are more often overburdened by their costs that homeowners, but that the gap has been closing in recent years.
Before and after the Great Recession, homeowners were still more overburdened than renters in the country, but this equilibrium changed in 2012 when renters began to be burdened more by rising rent costs while homeowners were profiting from zero interest rates.
With the end of the no-interest era in 2022, homeowners’ burden jumped up, while the economic hardships of the inflation crisis affected both types of households.
The researchers also identified higher insurance premiums and property taxes as an issue for homeowners, while saying that more than half of renters were spending more than 50 percent of household income on renting in 50 out of the 100 largest metro areas in the United States.
Source: A Third Of American Households Are Over-Burdened By Housing Costs
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing at the White House. Join RSBN LIVE at 12 pm EDT on June 30, 2025.
Source: LIVE: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Holds a Press Briefing – 6/30/25
Fox News host Mark Levin gives his take on the Supreme Court’s ruling on nationwide injunctions on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin.’ #foxnews #fox #news #supremecourt #marklevin #ketanjibrownjackson #justics #unitedstates #injunctions
Source: ‘CRAZY STUFF’: Mark Levin unloads on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Picture a dystopian future where computers don’t just mimic human thinking – they’re powered by actual human brain cells. That future is taking shape in a Cambridge, England, lab, where a groundbreaking device called CL1 is blending biology and technology in ways that could transform how we compute. Developed by Australian startup Cortical Labs and U.K.-based bit.bio, this shoebox-sized machine houses 200,000 lab-grown brain cells wired to silicon circuits, creating a “biological computer” that’s already turning heads.
Unlike traditional computers, which guzzle energy, CL1 operates with the efficiency of a human brain. “Our brains process information using a fraction of the power that modern electronics need,” Hon Weng Chong, CEO of Cortical Labs, told FT. “This could open doors to smarter robots, stronger cybersecurity, and immersive virtual worlds.”
Oh, joy.
Low-energy computing has fueled a race to develop biological systems, with Cortical Labs leading alongside competitors like FinalSpark in Switzerland and Biological Black Box in the U.S.CL1’s brain cells, grown from human skin-derived stem cells, are carefully arranged in layers: one type sparks electrical activity, while another keeps it in check. “It’s like balancing a gas pedal and brakes,” Chong explains. This precision, says bit.bio’s Tony Oosterveen, gives CL1 an edge over rival approaches using less uniform “mini-brains.” The result is a platform for testing how brain cells handle information, with early experiments already yielding insights for neuroscience and drug development.
One of CL1’s quirkiest feats? Playing the classic video game Pong. Its predecessor, DishBrain, learned to move a virtual paddle by receiving electrical “rewards” for good moves and disruptive noise for mistakes. CL1 has taken this further, revealing how substances like alcohol impair performance or how epilepsy drugs, like carbamazepine, boost it. “We’re learning how to ‘program’ these cells,” Chong says, noting that his team is even teaching them to recognize numbers, like distinguishing a nine from a four.
“This is the first device that can consistently measure what neurons can do,” says Mark Kotter, a Cambridge professor and bit.bio founder. Karl Friston, a neuroscientist at University College London, sees it as a tool for groundbreaking experiments, while Johns Hopkins’ Thomas Hartung praises its use of games like Pong to benchmark biological computing.
Chong recognizes the ethical challenges that could emerge if biological computers and neuron cultures begin to show early signs of consciousness.
“[T]hese systems are sentient because they respond to stimuli and learn from them but they are not conscious. We will learn more about how the human brain works but we do not intend to create a brain in a vat.”
The CL1 units are slated to retail for around $35,000 each and are expected to be broadly available by late 2025, according to a report.
Source: Meet The Dystopian Startups Making ‘Biological Computers’ From Human Cells
I must be getting older: I am writing about things I never used to write about. That is because I and my peers are experiencing things we never used to experience. So a quick moral lesson to begin with: if you are young and healthy, never take it for granted. Soon enough things can change.
In a few days it will be two years since my wife passed. And increasingly my friends and colleagues are struggling with health issues, and a number have already passed away. Just the other day I got this email: ‘Just wanted to let you know that *** is in *** Hospital in ICU. The cancer has spread quite rapidly to her lungs, liver and spine. The doctors say she has only days left. Very sad that it is in the same week as Averil’s passing.’
Wow, another one! Upon reading that, there were more tears. I said to myself: ‘I HATE death – and I hate sin that causes death.’ And when I rather angrily told God that I hate death, this verse immediately sprang to mind “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
As I was praying for this gal and her family, I immediately thought that she will soon be hanging around with my wife, free of suffering. But still, all this misery, pain and death is so horrible. One day it will be no more, but for now, it really sucks.
My wife’s aggressive cancer had also spread everywhere, including tumours in her brain. Near the end, her mental facilities were wearing down. That was the hardest part for me and I recently wrote about it: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2025/05/24/disease-christ-and-eternity/
I pray daily for folks that I know who are struggling with cancer. And I pray daily for folks that I know who are struggling with dementia and related disorders of the mind. And since most of these folks are married couples, there is a dual prayer that needs to be prayed: one for the sufferer, and one for the spouse looking after the sufferer. Both are on such hardcore journeys.
And it has not just been my own friends and personal acquaintances that I know are struggling in these areas. A year or two ago I wrote about Elisabeth Elliot and all the trials she went through, including the deaths of two of her three husbands. Many know of Jim Elliot and how he and four other missionaries were martyred in the jungles of Peru. As I wrote a few years back:
“But Elisabeth went on to marry two more times, with her second husband losing a lengthy battle with cancer, and her third husband at times being much too critical, domineering and harsh with her. And for her final 15 years or so Elisabeth went through even more suffering and hardship, this time battling Alzheimer’s and dementia.” https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/09/21/three-top-books-on-elisabeth-elliot/
And around the same time, I stumbled upon a 2020 movie being shown on television that also really moved me. The Father, starring Anthony Hopkins, is about an elderly man who is struggling with dementia and how it affects his relationships with others, including family members. It really is a superb film. See more on it here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2023/10/09/crisis-christ-and-comfort/
Dementia and truth telling
Let me focus further on the matter of dementia and other brain disorders. And I will tie it in with something else I have written about lately. I recently did a piece on the Ninth Commandment, and if it is ever right to keep the truth from others. I focused on ruses and deception in wartime, but one friend sent in this comment, looking at another area where this can apply:
Thanks Bill for that very comprehensive summary. I think today I have engaged in many deceptions to my wife. On the bare face of that statement, many would hail me down. But my wife has dementia, a position she refused to accept for a long time. She would often ask why she is where she is (in a dementia unit in a place of care). To tell her the truth I would have to say that she has been diagnosed with dementia. That would cause her undue grief and anxiety, something to be avoided with dementia patients. She would ask when we could go home and I would tell her soon, knowing full well that was not true. But again the truth would cause her anxiety and do her no good at all….
I thanked him for his comment and said that I just recently had come upon an article discussing the very same matters. Back in 2019 Denis Haack wrote a piece titled “Random reflections on lying”. It began this way:
“I’d like to move next February,” my mother told me. She looked me in the eye intently and repeated herself. “I’m going to move next February. A friend and I have been looking at places when we go out for walks and I’ve found a house I like. It has a big kitchen which is good so I can do more cooking.”
I had this conversation with Mom about seven months ago. It was on one of her more lucid days. She’s dead now, but at the time lived in the secure memory care unit of a lovely retirement home about five minutes from where Margie and I live. At the time she could only get around with a walker and then only for short distances: from her room to the dining area, or with my help to the commons area. She simply didn’t have the strength to get past the front door of the place with her walker. Going for a walk required me to push her in the wheelchair I had purchased. There is a little kitchenette in her room, to make it feel more like home but the stove is not plugged in. And the facility provides all her meals—health regulations insist even I can’t provide homemade treats for anyone other than my mother.
I asked her about the house she’d found and she happily told me about it. And then because I love her I told her lies: That I was delighted she’d be moving into her own house, that February is a fine month for moving in Minnesota, and that it’d be great she’d be in the kitchen more since I’d missed her cooking.
We talk about her new house for a while and then she leans forward and her voice drops to a whisper. “Don’t tell anyone I told you this because it’s supposed to be secret,” she said. “All the residents are required to bring refreshments to activities, so I do. My friend and I walk to the grocery store for supplies. And my treats are the most popular, you know. Most just bring store bought stuff, but mine are always homemade, made from scratch.” That’s the way people are, I said, and she should know how proud I am of her. “And then they come by my room and say they want to be my friend, but all they want is more treats, so I send them away.” And so you should, I reply, real friends want more than refreshments even if they are homemade. Most people weren’t raised right. Mom agrees. She asks if I’ll make the arrangements for her to move and I assure her I will. “Don’t forget, now,” she says sternly. I won’t, I say. I promise.
It’s been interesting lying regularly, convincingly to the woman who punished me as a boy for not telling the truth.
In dementia care, everybody lies. Although some nursing homes have strict rules about being truthful, a recent survey found that close to a hundred per cent of care staff admitted to lying to patients, as did seventy per cent of doctors. In most places… there is no firm policy one way or another, but the rule of thumb among the staff is that compassionate deception is often the wisest course. “I believe that deep down, they know that it is better to lie,” Barry B. Zeltzer, an elder-care administrator, wrote in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias. “Once the caregiver masters the art of being a good liar and understands that the act of being dishonest is an ethical way of being, he or she can control the patient’s behaviors in a way that promotes security and peace of mind.” Family members and care staff lie all the time, and can’t imagine getting through the day without doing so, but, at the same time, lying makes many of them uncomfortable. To ease this “deception guilt,” lying in dementia care has been given euphemistic names, such as “therapeutic fibbing,” or “brief reassurances,” or “stepping into their reality.”
Six months after our conversation about moving, Mom’s dementia had deepened in remarkable ways. When I visited her and asked a simple question she got confused trying to answer and was embarrassed. I told her not to worry and started telling a story of what Margie and I did that week. How I longed for lucid days that required me to lie. To agree to things I know can’t be true, to ask questions about things that never happened, to be happy about things that are nothing more, sadly, than delusions thrown up by her failing memory. To try to enter in love the reality she lives in, even though it is warped and misshapen by the disease that was slowly taking her mind and memory and life.
I’ve occasionally been asked how I feel about lying to my mother, and the question always amuses me. I hated the dementia that afflicted her, of course but the lying never bothered me. From a Christian perspective lying is not necessarily forbidden in a fallen world…. https://ransomfellowship.org/article/random-reflections-on-lying/
Dementia – final thoughts
There are plenty of good books out there on dementia – many written by Christians. Let me mention one which I picked up a few years ago. John Dunlop is a Christian doctor who has worked with geriatrics for many years. And his own parents had dementia. His book, Finding Grace in the Face of Dementia (Crossway, 2017), is very helpful indeed.
Here is just one quote from it. In his Appendix, he shares a letter he wrote to his family on how he will want to be treated if he gets dementia – looking at its early and later stages. He writes:
As my dementia progresses, I hope you will be willing to spend time with me, and even if you think I might not remember the time we have together, realize that I will have enjoyed the moment. Help me to stay connected with my past through stories and pictures. I hope you will make arrangements for me to hear the Bible being read as well as to hear old hymns I love. Talk to me about the Lord, his cross and resurrection. Speak often of heaven and what it will be like to enter God’s presence. Give me some hugs to allow me to feel your love.
If I live into advanced dementia, continue to spend some time with me when you are able. Do not feel guilty if you decide I am best cared for outside the home. Dorothy, I want you to know how thankful I am for the ways God has gifted you to serve Him. I want you to continue to do those things and do not want time spent with me to detract from your other callings. The same applies to all four of my children in each of my grandchildren….
I know that being involved in the care of a dementia patient can be very difficult. If at the time I make it harder, please forgive me. I trust God will give you the grace to blame the dementia and not me. Know that I love you, and if I could, I would. Thank you over and over for your loving service to me.
I thank God that no matter what happens to my mind and body on earth, he will take me to be with him, and once there, I will look forward to being reunited with you, my dear wife, and with the rest of our family in the presence of Jesus, with bodies and souls fully redeemed and restored in the image of God.
Love,
John
All we can say at times like this is, ‘Come quickly Lord Jesus.’
[2113 words]
The post On God, Disease, and Dying appeared first on CultureWatch.
It’s important to examine how CCM scandals have shaped the public perception of Christian music, what systemic issues may contribute to these failures, and how artists and the church can move forward with renewed integrity and purpose.
Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) has been a powerful force in evangelical culture for more than four decades. It has provided spiritual encouragement and a shared language for believers around the world. Yet, in recent years, a wave of CCM scandals has cast a shadow over the genre. As artists fall into public controversy or quietly fade from the spotlight after personal failings. Fans and ministry leaders alike are left wondering: what is the future of CCM? To answer that question, it’s important to examine how CCM scandals have shaped the public perception of Christian music, what systemic issues may contribute to these failures, and how artists and the church can move forward with renewed integrity and purpose.
Unlike secular music, CCM often intertwines personal faith with public platform. Artists are not just performers—they are often seen as ministers, role models, and unofficial theologians. This dual expectation can create unsustainable pressure. Many CCM artists begin their careers in local churches or youth groups, only to be quickly thrust into national tours and intense media scrutiny.
As the industry expanded in the 1990s and 2000s, labels often prioritized radio-friendly hits and brand consistency over spiritual depth or personal accountability. For some artists, the result has been burnout, moral failure, or crises of faith. These internal struggles sometimes explode into public view in the form of CCM scandals: marital infidelity, substance abuse, financial misconduct, or the renunciation of faith altogether.
RELATED: Michael Tait Scandal
When a well-known CCM artist stumbles, the fallout is widespread. Fans may feel disillusioned, churches can experience division, and critics of Christianity may use the scandal to undermine the faith itself. This is especially true in the social media age, where every post, video, or comment is instantly scrutinized and amplified.
Perhaps more troubling is the way some scandals have been handled—or mishandled—by the Christian music industry. In some cases, labels have quietly severed ties with fallen artists without offering meaningful paths for repentance or restoration. In others, artists have been platformed again too quickly, leading to further harm. These patterns suggest that the industry has sometimes failed to treat artists as people rather than products.
Several themes tend to emerge when analyzing CCM scandals. First is isolation. Artists often spend months on the road, separated from spiritual mentors or deep community. Second is lack of accountability. Unlike pastors who may report to church elders or denominational boards, many Christian musicians operate without consistent spiritual oversight.
Third is the commercialization of faith. When Christian music becomes primarily a business, there is pressure to maintain a polished image at all costs. Vulnerability, doubt, or failure can be seen as liabilities rather than opportunities for grace. This dynamic can lead artists to hide their struggles until it is too late.
RELATED: Hillsong Docuseries Details Darker Side
Despite these challenges, CCM is not doomed. The future of the genre lies in a recommitment to authenticity, community, and spiritual formation. Young artists must be equipped not only with musical skills but with a theology of suffering, confession, and humility. Record labels and managers should prioritize the health of their artists over marketability. Churches and fans can also help by resisting the celebrity culture that often sets artists up for failure.
Moreover, the CCM community needs to foster a deeper understanding of grace—not only for fans but for the artists themselves. Scandals can become turning points for healing when they are met with truth and compassion. The path to restoration will look different in each case, but public failure does not have to mean permanent disqualification.
If Christian music is to remain a vital part of the Church’s witness, it must rediscover its prophetic and pastoral call. The best CCM doesn’t just entertain—it challenges, comforts, and transforms. That kind of music is only possible when artists are rooted in real discipleship and supported by a community that values soul over sales.
Ultimately, the future of CCM will not be determined by the absence of scandal but by the way the community responds when failure comes. With a renewed focus on accountability, healing, and the centrality of the gospel, CCM can continue to offer a faithful witness to the world—even in the face of its own brokenness. The path forward is not easy, but it is possible. And perhaps that is the most important message CCM can deliver: God’s grace is real, and redemption is never out of reach.
(ANALYSIS) Who voted how in 2024? The two most important surveys on U.S. election patterns are now available and among the findings is this bulletin: Along with its various current woes, in the long term the Democratic Party faces weakening support from many religious groups that is nearing a political emergency. No effective game plan for a turnaround is in sight.
Media “exit polls” of voters taken on Election Day are next to worthless, asserts political scientist Ryan Burge, and they mostly exist so that so TV pundits have something to talk about until actual votes come in. Our best information comes months later, from two organizations.
The Pew Research Center reported last Thursday on its survey of 8,942 adults who actually voted. Then there is academics’ Cooperative Election Study (CES), with findings from 50,000-plus respondents, that Burge has been analyzing in his Substack columns, which also appear at Religion Unplugged.
According to Pew, Donald Trump won first and foremost by sweeping evangelical Protestants with 81%. No news there. They always go heavily for the Republican nominee. More intriguing are Trump’s significant 2024 gains with other groups, compared with 2020. Support of white Catholics increased from 57% to 62%, Hispanic Catholics from 31% to 41%, Black Protestants from 9% to 15% and Protestants of other races including Asians from 55% to a notable 70%.
Two other groups held steady since last time, white non-evangelical (or “mainline”) Protestants at 58% Republican, and voters without any religious identity at 70% Democratic. The second category has become the most important sector of the Democratic coalition in terms of religion, though the 21st Century expansion of this secularized population may have halted. As a practical matter, such unattached voters can be hard to mobilize.
Among Harris voters, exactly half were Christians of whatever category while a hefty 39% lacked religious affiliation (versus only 15% of Trump voters). Harris won 56% of voters who rarely attend worship services, while Trump carried 64% of those who attend monthly or more often. These political patterns naturally reinforce the worrisome cultural polarization in the United States.
The Catholic situation is especially important because Democrats have lost leverage with a huge constituency they once commanded. Not surprisingly, they gave the first Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, an estimated 78% in 1960, while the second, Joseph Biden, managed only 52% in 2020.
By CES count, Catholics over-all went 56% for Trump last November, but here’s the socio-political earthquake: Non-white Catholics (mostly Hispanics) went 40% for Trump, compared with 31% in 2020 and only 24% in 2016.
The abortion issue, which solidified evangelicals’ customary Republican enthusiasm, energizes a segment of Catholics. But CES found that two-thirds of Catholics overall favor legal choice and improved access to abortion services. Burge says Catholics generally were more motivated by economic concerns such as inflation, just like other Americans.
Look at Catholic clout this way. In the 2024 popular vote, Trump beat Kamala Harris by 1.6%. But presidents are chosen by the quirks of the Electoral College. Harris would be president today if she could have added just 229,800 more votes, among the 152 million cast nationwide, across just three states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. According to the latest U.S. Religion Census, these states contain 5,575,915 Catholics, who would easily have produced a Democratic victory in times past.
As Burge summarizes the reality, “Catholics are not a 50/50 voting bloc any more. … The Catholic vote is clearly a Republican vote.” Then this: “If the Democrats want to have any chance at all going forward, they need to figure out how to fix this huge problem.”
Turning to Protestants, we’ll learn in 2028 whether Trump’s notable 2024 gain among the heavily Democratic Black churchgoers was a fluke or a trend. It seems certain that Democrats cannot improve their performance with white evangelicals for years to come. But what about the third Protestant category, non-evangelicals who mostly belong to predominantly white “mainline” churches? Yes, their numbers and influence have steadily declined over recent decades, but they still cast millions of votes.
The CES sample was so huge that it can provide specific numbers for adherents of the seven major “mainline” denominations. Their officials have long uttered liberal public policy views, and they’ve been moving to the left on religious issues as well, so they might seem to be prime prospects for the Democrats. Instead, there’s a Republican trend.
Burge reports that five of these seven majors actually gave Trump 2024 majorities, the exceptions being Harris majorities in the Episcopal Church (55%) and American Baptist Churches (52%). Then, note these increases in Trump support between 2016 and 2024: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) from 44% to 51%, Presbyterian Church (USA) from 49% to 57%, United Church of Christ from 45% to 51% and United Methodist Church from 59% to 62%. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held steady at 54% and 53%.
Post-Trump, will Catholics and “mainline” Protestants both be reliably Republican, alongside the GOP’s evangelical Protestant legions?
Neither Burge nor Pew reported numbers for U.S. Muslims or adherents of other world religions. CES results show that Jews remain a steady part of the Democratic coalition. Though the Orthodox branch goes Republican, Jews over-all voted 65% for Harris, and supported the Democratic nominees by 69%, 69%, 65% and 70% in prior elections.
Among Latter-day Saints (formerly nicknamed “Mormons”), Republican identification has fallen to 58%, CES reported, with 25% Democrats and 17% Independents. Trump’s first run in 2016 took a mere 52% of LDS votes due to their 26% third-party backing. The Saints gave Trump 66% in both 2024 and 2020, which unsurprisingly was 18% below LDS candidate Mitt Romney’s 2012 support, but also 7% below the 2008 vote for John McCain.
Richard N. Ostling was a longtime religion writer with The Associated Press and with Time magazine, where he produced 23 cover stories, as well as a Time senior correspondent providing field reportage for dozens of major articles. He is a recipient of the Religion News Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He has interviewed such personalities as Billy Graham, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI); ranking rabbis and Muslim leaders; and authorities on other faiths; as well as numerous ordinary believers. He writes a bi-weekly column for Religion Unplugged.
https://religionunplugged.com/news/religion-and-the-2024-vote-a-crisis-point-for-democrats
(ANALYSIS) The 12-day confrontation between Iran and Israel in June 2025 may not have escalated into a full-scale regional war, but it marks a potentially critical turning point in Iran’s internal political landscape.
Though the Islamic Republic has entered into direct conflict with a foreign adversary before, it has never done so while so militarily weakened, internally fractured and increasingly alienated from its own population.
And unlike the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, when national unity coalesced around the defense of Iranian sovereignty, this time the government appeared to fight without significant public support. While accurate polling from within Iran is hard to come by, the lack of pro-government rallies, the low approval numbers for the government ahead of the war and the government’s subsequent crackdown since tell their own stories.
As a researcher of different ethnic groups within the country, I know that many Iranians – especially those from historically marginalized communities – viewed the conflict with Israel not as a defense of the nation but as a reckless consequence of the government’s ideological adventurism and regional proxy campaigns. It puts the Islamic Republic in its most vulnerable position since its establishment after the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
It is worth taking a snapshot of just how diminished the Iranian government is following the recent series of blows.
Its soft power – once built on revolutionary legitimacy, Shiite ideological influence and anti-Western propaganda – has eroded dramatically.
For decades, the Islamic Republic relied on a powerful narrative: that it was the only government bold enough to confront the United States and Israel, defend Muslim causes globally and serve as the spiritual leader of the Islamic world.
This image, projected through state media, proxy militias and religious rhetoric, helped the government justify its foreign interventions and massive military spending, particularly on nuclear development and regional militias.
But that narrative no longer resonates the way it once did. The leaders of Iran can no longer claim to inspire unity at home or fear abroad. Even among Shiite populations in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, support during the Israel-Iran confrontation was muted. Inside Iran, meanwhile, propaganda portraying Israel as the existential enemy has lost its grip, especially among the youth, who increasingly identify with human rights movements rather than government slogans.
It is also clear that Iran’s hard power is getting weaker. The loss of senior commanders and the destruction of important military infrastructure have shown that the government’s intelligence and security systems are severely compromised.
Even before Israel’s attack, a number of reports showed that Iran’s military was in its weakest state in decades. The real surprise in the recent war came not from the scale of the damage by Israeli and U.S. bombs but from how deeply Israel had penetrated the upper echelons of the Iranian military and intelligence sectors. The recent conflict amounted to a security as well as a military failure.
As its power across the region appears diminished, so too is the Iranian government’s grip loosening internally. A 2024 survey by Iran’s Ministry of Culture revealed “discontent” among the population, with over 90% of Iranians “dissatisfied” with the country’s current position. Elections in November 2024 saw a turnout of under 40%, further underscoring Iranians’ discontent with the political process.
And reporting from inside Iran suggests many Iranians blame government policies for the war with Israel. “I place the blame on this country’s decision-makers,” one resident of Rasht told Reuters, “their policies have brought war and destruction upon us.”
The government has responded with a tactic it has used before: repression. According to government-aligned media, over 700 people were arrested during and immediately after the conflict, accused of collaborating with the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
As in past crackdowns, ethnic minority regions – particularly Kurdish areas – have been targeted.
One day after the ceasefire with Israel, the government executed three Kurdish cross-border laborers who rely on smuggling goods to survive in Iran’s underdeveloped Kurdish provinces.
These executions, which were done without a trial or legal counsel, fit a pattern of how the government uses ethnic scapegoating to stay in power. And it echoes a historic pattern: When the government feels threatened, it strikes the Kurds first.
Kurds are estimated to number 10-12 million in Iran, composing roughly 12% to 15% of the country’s total population – making them the third-largest ethnic group after Persians and Azeris. Iran also includes significant Baluch and Arab minorities.
When the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, many ethnic groups supported the revolution. They hoped for a more inclusive and democratic Iran than what preceded it – the brutal autocracy of the shah that had frequently targeted minorities.
Those hopes were quickly dashed. By rejecting pluralism and promoting a unifying ideology centered on Shiite Islam and Persian identity, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini marginalized non-Persian and non-Shiite groups.
Other ethnic groups were viewed with suspicion, while Shiite Azerbaijanis were mainly co-opted into the system.
Khomeini declared jihad against Kurdish resistance groups, labeling them infidels, separatists and agents of Israel and the United States.
Armed with advanced weaponry inherited from the last Pahlavi shah, the government launched a military campaign in Kurdistan province. Many Kurdish villages and towns were destroyed, and approximately 50,000 Iranian Kurds were killed between 1979 and 1988.
The region was turned into a militarized zone — a status that continues today.
After the Iran-Iraq war ended in August 1988, the government — economically strained and militarily weakened – feared a domestic uprising.
But instead of embracing political reform, it responded with one of the most brutal crackdowns in Iran’s history. Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, ordering the execution of political prisoners, including large numbers of Kurdish dissidents.
Between late July and September 1988, thousands of political prisoners were executed – many without trial or any legal process. At least 5,000 people were killed and buried in unmarked mass graves, according to Amnesty International.
Khomeini labeled them “mohareb,” or “warriors against God,” and criticized the Revolutionary Courts for not sentencing them to death sooner. This mass execution campaign signaled the government’s resolve to eliminate all dissent, regardless of legal precedent or human rights norms.
In the years that followed, the government systematically assassinated prominent Kurdish leaders and other opposition leaders, both in Iran and overseas.
This targeted elimination of Kurdish leadership, combined with the mass executions of political prisoners, was a deliberate strategy to decapitate any organized opposition before it could challenge the government’s survival.
The Islamic Republic appears to be using the same playbook now, but under far more fragile conditions.
Given the precarious state of the government, it is fair to ask why there are not more protests now, especially in ethnic minority regions. For many, the answer is fear over what happens next.
Many Kurds have learned from previous uprisings – particularly the 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” movement – that when they lead protests, they face the harshest crackdown. Over 56% of those killed and persecuted in the subsequent crackdown were Kurds.
Meanwhile, the overall opposition remains fractured and leaderless, both along ethnic lines and in terms of goals. The main opposition groups have traditionally been reluctant to acknowledge ethnic rights, let alone include them in any vision for a future Iran. Rather, they insist on “territorial integrity” as a precondition for any dialogue, echoing the Islamic Republic’s rhetoric.
This is a key legacy of the Islamic Republic: Its propaganda has not only shaped domestic opinion but also influenced the opposition, dividing Iranians at home and abroad. And it has long mobilized the dominant ethnic group against minorities, especially Kurds, by portraying them as internal enemies.
This article has been republished courtesy of The Conversation.
Shukriya Mahmmoodee Bradost is a doctoral researcher at Virginia Tech, specializing in the securitization of ethnic groups in Iran. A member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) since 2010, she brings a wealth of experience as a lawyer, journalist, political analyst, and researcher. Shukriya frequently shares her insights on international and Middle East security issues through prominent media outlets such as BBC Persian, I24, VOA, and Iran International TV.
https://religionunplugged.com/news/iran-internal-fault-lines-deepen-after-israel-conflict
In an explosive sit-down interview with The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft back in March, European researcher Bernadette Conrads delivered a chilling exposé on the sprawling influence of USAID and its deep state-funded allies operating across the European continent.
Conrads, who currently serves as Head of Communications for MEP Petr Bystron of Germany’s populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), has spent the last five years tracing a tangled web of taxpayer-funded NGOs, censorship initiatives, and foreign election interference stretching from Washington, D.C. to Brussels.
While USAID may present itself as a harmless humanitarian initiative, Conrads warns it’s anything but.
“Foreign aid? No. It’s not about aid—it’s about control,” said Conrads. “It’s about censorship, regime change, and election interference.”
Her findings confirm what conservatives in America have long suspected: USAID and its sister organizations, like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), according to Conrads, are merely fronts for the CIA and other unelected power centers in the U.S. government.
These groups allegedly launder influence through NGO cover operations, rig foreign elections, silence dissenting media, and export the very same “deep state” corruption President Donald Trump has vowed to dismantle.
Conrads: “I think I’ve been interested in this topic for about five years—not specifically in USAID. I’m not an expert on USAID, but on these kinds of structures. There are many money pots like USAID. There’s also the National Endowment for Democracy. There are plenty of these organizations—organizations that work with the CIA and are deep state entities active around the world.
They create regime changes, control our media, and use so-called NGOs as covers for their operations. They call them NGOs—Non-Governmental Organizations—although they are funded by U.S. taxpayers. That’s a very crazy thing.
I’ve followed these structures over the past few years many times because I was constantly confronted with them. I faced media censorship—not directly by our governments, who also attempt such control—but very strongly by organizations like these, which are funded by USAID.”
Back in January, President Trump froze all foreign aid spending on Day 4 of his second term. Less than two weeks later, Elon Musk—appointed by Trump to lead the newly empowered DOGE group—completely shut down USAID. Musk called it “an organization beyond repair.”
In response, a rogue leftist judge in D.C. ordered Trump to reinstate $2 billion in aid payments—an absurd ruling that has ignited a new constitutional crisis over who really runs the country: the elected president or a network of unelected bureaucrats and activist judges.
“This isn’t about charity,” Hoft said during the interview. “This is about global control. About silencing voices like Gateway Pundit—using American dollars and foreign fronts to do it.”
Conrads and I both shared personal examples of USAID-linked organizations like NewsGuard, OCCRP, and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which have taken direct aim at independent conservative media on both sides of the Atlantic—including The Gateway Pundit itself.
Jim Hoft:
Absolutely. We’re seeing that. In fact, Gateway Pundit was a victim of this. USAID gave money to this organization in the United Kingdom—it was the Center for Countering Digital Hate. And this group then went to Google and said, “You need to shut down the ads on Gateway Pundit.”So this is a British censorship group that worked to get our ads in the United States taken off of our site—and they were using U.S. taxpayer dollars from USAID to do that. They were successful, and we found out about it not because we read about it, but because the founder of the Center for Countering Digital Hate went in front of the Parliament there and bragged that he had removed ads from Gateway Pundit.
He mentions us by name in front of the British Parliament. And that doesn’t happen every day—when you hear a U.S. website getting attacked by someone in the UK. After some research and as more information came to light, we found out that it’s USAID that was funding his organization.
They were doing this—I think—across Europe. They were shutting down voices. I don’t know if they still are or not, but it’s shocking that that’s where that money was going.
Bernadette Conrads:
Absolutely, it’s true. That’s the thing. You see, we are all confronted with USAID—or were confronted with it—in the last few years. And I always tried to find out: where do these attacks come from?I did a deep dive, and the names that showed up in the end—where my research stopped—it was always like the National Endowment for Democracy or USAID. It always ends there. You go through organization after organization, and in the end, there is USAID or the NED.
And it’s the taxpayers’ money going into all these operations.
We had a similar experience. I founded Der Status, a German-speaking Austrian alternative news project. I founded it with two colleagues from another newspaper.
We had these attacks also. It was like fact-checks exploded—these fact-checkers coming up during COVID. There were all, I think, these organizations from the U.S. who told us what was right and what was wrong. It’s just censorship.
They call it fact-checking, but it’s censorship. The information we gave—later, scientists proved it was right, what we said. But fact-checkers said, “No, that’s not true. There’s no proof. It’s not right.”
They’re always using these Orwellian strategies to call…
Bernadette Conrads:
Censorship becomes fact-checking. Dictatorship becomes democracy. Slavery becomes freedom. And so on. That’s what they always do.It’s the same with USAID. Yeah, “foreign aid.” No. It’s not about aid—it’s about control. It’s about control and oppression.
It’s also about regime-changing strategies. It’s about election fraud, also. But I think we’re going to talk about this topic later.
Jim Hoft:
Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s amazing.We had the same problem in the United States, where they were fact-checking us—and we had people from overseas fact-checking our articles. People from China were fact-checking Gateway Pundit, and it was the same thing.
It’s probably the same issues that you were pointing out—that the virus was made in a lab. We had photos from inside the Wuhan lab before anyone.
And we had some great sources from inside China who were sending us things. And they would fact-check us and say, “No, that’s incorrect.”
Two or three years later, we find out: actually, that was 100% true. Fauci even admits it, and we have the emails now.
But this is what they do to shut us down. And it’s tragic that they were doing the same thing in Europe—and with U.S. dollars.
Was it just Facebook that was doing this to you? In the U.S., the social media giants got involved, and then they were censoring—conservative, mostly—independent media.
But is that where you were? Were you censored by them, or was it other groups?
In perhaps one of the most outrageous revelations, Conrads explained how Bluecoat, a U.S.-linked censorship tool used in authoritarian regimes like Iran, is now being employed inside the European Parliament itself to block conservative websites like Der Status, a German-Austrian alternative news outlet Conrads co-founded.
Bernadette Conrads:
No, absolutely not. There we come to the OCCRP Network. It’s called Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project—blah, blah, blah.It’s like, very nice guys, and they have their partnerships—and they control most of the huge media organizations in Europe. And it’s funded by USAID, as WikiLeaks showed. WikiLeaks showed that this was funded by USAID.
This OCCRP network had their own fact-checkers, and they transported it to this legacy media—telling them which websites were trustful and which were not.
It doesn’t end there. It’s not just about trust with your readers or viewers (if you do video).
It’s also about being published on social media platforms. But also—we had the situation at the European Parliament. We were in a situation where we were censored by a technical organization called Blue Coat.
Blue Coat is a U.S. program. The European Union uses it, obviously, and it banned our website in European institutions.
Some politicians and their staff called me and told me—back then, when I was not at the European Union—that our website was banned. I investigated this case, and I was like, “Okay, how did that work out?” I knew why.
A few months before we were blocked there, we got a question via email from a company called NewsGuard.
NewsGuard is also one of those NGOs that is government-funded. It’s a U.S. company, and it’s also funded by the European Union—as MEP Virginie Joron showed before. She’s a French MEP, and she’s also interested in these cases.
They were successful. They organized that we were blocked—because they said we would spread disinformation.
I let people check afterward. I asked them to check—experimentally—if you could watch porn at the European Parliament. And yes, you could watch hardcore porn.
But you could not read Der Status there. Because that’s “too dangerous” for staff to do any research—because they said, yeah, it was disinformation we spread about COVID.
Jim Hoft:
That company, obviously, has hit a lot of media outlets in the United States—NewsGuard.But it only targets one side of the aisle. It only targets… If you’re conservative or independent media, they’ll challenge everything you do.
It doesn’t matter what the mainstream says—they, in the United States, have produced lie after lie for about eight years. It just keeps stacking up—all their lies.
And yet, they never get a flag from NewsGuard. It’s just the smaller, independent media—and that’s their target.
And we found, too, that it was the United States Defense Department that was funding NewsGuard—that was giving some money to NewsGuard.
So, yeah—it’s just a horrible organization that was created just to censor, silence, and blacklist independent media.
Conrads also discussed the unholy alliance between U.S. intelligence, taxpayer-funded NGOs, and George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which are deeply entangled in shaping “acceptable” narratives around the world.
“Soros is not like the rich philanthropist who does it just for fun—what he does. He works for the government, in my opinion, for the deep state government of the U.S. That’s why he does that. He’s just a regime-changing operationist, and he uses this National Endowment for Democracy money to organize these regime changes.
And what was interesting: he also organized the travel of refugees during the refugee crisis in 2015. It was his organizations that were in Africa, hiring people to go to Europe and helping them with plans. He also educates people in African prisons through his organizations.
And yes, he’s a very important factor in political science as well, as he has his own universities and his own “science”—because nearly every democracy index you find in political science is somehow funded by a Soros organization.
So, with his organizations—aligned with the interests of the U.S. deep state—he defines what is a democracy and what is not.”
She also revealed that former CIA and NSA chief Michael Hayden is now a top advisor at NewsGuard, and famously bragged, “We kill people based on metadata.” This Orwellian mindset, Conrads says, underpins the global censorship-industrial complex.
Just weeks before the 2024 European elections, the USAID-funded OCCRP network orchestrated a coordinated media smear campaign against Bystron and other AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) candidates using fabricated ties to “Russian influence.” Mainstream outlets across the EU parroted the false narrative in lockstep—only to drop it after the ballots were cast.
“It was a show. A political hit job to sway the elections—and it worked,” Conrads said.
Despite the attacks, the AfD performed well, but Conrads insists the outcome was tainted by foreign interference—this time, not from Moscow, but Washington.
In response, MEP Petr Bystron has tabled a resolution calling for a full EU investigation into USAID, NED, and the Soros network’s influence across Europe. His proposal seeks to expose:
“It’s time to ban these fake NGOs from operating in our democracies,” Conrads declared.
Conrads closed the interview with a powerful warning—and a rallying cry.
“Trump has his experiences with this deep state, and he really wants to fight it now. I think he suffered from this deep state in his first period also. I think that’s why he’s very focused to understand what’s going on, what are the reasons for the situation to become as we had it. Now, What’s going on is a revolution, in my opinion. It’s a revolution in the US of common sense and of truth and freedom and honesty. And that’s so amazing. I hope that we are going to get this situation in Europe also. But here, it’s very dangerous now because our leaders, they freak out as they lose all these control from the US. They’re like chicken without hats or something. They don’t know what to do and they freak out and they try to pervert all the instructions they got before from organizations like the National for democracy and so on. I think that’s a very dangerous situation.”
The post EXCLUSIVE: European Researcher Bernadette Conrads Uncovers the Shadowy Reach of USAID Across Europe — Deep State Dollars, Election Meddling, and Censorship Campaigns Exposed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
One of the most important Shiite clerics in the entire world, Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi of the Iranian holy city of Qom, has just issued a fatwa which officially declares Donald Trump to be an “enemy of God”. In Iran, those that are designated to be “enemies of God” under Islamic law are normally executed. According to an Iranian news source, the reason why Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has issued this fatwa is because Trump threatened Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders…
Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has issued a fatwa in which he declares anyone who threatens Leader, and Shia Marja to be the Enemy of God, who has to be fought against according to Islamic teachings.
To those of us living in the western world, labeling someone as an “enemy of God” may not seem like a very big deal.
But in Shia Islam, it is a technical theological term that has very grave implications.
Do you remember the fatwa that was issued against Salman Rushdie?
After that fatwa was issued, Rushdie had to live in hiding for years, but eventually an attacker caught up with him anyway.
Now President Trump is facing a similar threat. Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi is calling on “all Muslims around the world” to work together to make “the criminal American president” pay for what he has done…
After threats were made by the criminal American president and the leaders of the child-killing Zionist regime against the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the senior Shiite clerics known as Marja, a group of believers submitted a request to His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi regarding the duties of Muslims in response to such threats. Grand Ayatollah Makarem response to the question put forward by his followers is as follows:
“Any person or regime that threatens the Leader or Marja (May God forbid) is considered an enemy of God,” Grand Ayatollah Makarem said in his Fatwa, which is a response to the question to him.
The senior Iranian Shia Marja added that “any cooperation or support for that enemy by Muslims or Islamic states is haram or forbidden. It is necessary for all Muslims around the world to make these enemies regret their words and mistakes.”
He also said that if a Muslim who abides by his Muslim duty suffer hardship or loss in their campaign, they will be rewarded a fighter in the way of God, God willing.”
Now that this fatwa has been formally issued, Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and other high ranking Israeli officials are officially considered to be “Mohareb” from this point forward…
I asked Google AI for more information about the term “Mohareb”, and this is what I was told…
In Iran, Mohareb (or Moharebeh) is a term used to describe someone who wages war against God, the state, or who is an enemy of God. It is typically used in the context of Sharia law to refer to individuals who take up arms against the government. The charge is often associated with the death penalty, particularly when applied to those who allegedly use weapons to threaten public security.
Did you catch that last sentence?
Those that are designated as “Mohareb” in Iran are usually executed.
And there are vast numbers of lunatics inside Iran that would be more than willing to carry out such a sentence.
In fact, on Saturday thousands of Iranians that had poured into the streets for a funeral procession were burning U.S. flags and chanting “death to America”…
Thousands of enraged Iranians burned the US flag and chanted “death to America” and “Israel” Saturday as the Islamic Republic buried the head of its armed forces and other top commanders who were killed during the 12-day war.
The caskets of about 60 corpses, including Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s chief Generals Hossein Salami and Amir Ali Hajizadeh, were marched through the streets of downtown Tehran for the first public funerals since President Trump helped broker a June 23 cease-fire between the two Middle Eastern countries.
“Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” the crowds screamed as flags of both countries were set ablaze.
It certainly doesn’t sound like they think this is over.
In fact, many are entirely convinced that it is just a matter of time before Iranian sleeper cells inside the U.S. start taking action.
Could this be one of the reasons why large barricades are being put up around the White House and the U.S. Treasury?…
Overnight, construction crews in Washington, D.C. have been observed erecting large anti-scale barricades around the White House and the U.S. Treasury. This unusual activity has sparked widespread speculation among social media users about potential major announcements or events. The Secret Service has not provided an official reason for these enhanced security measures, leading to a mix of concern and curiosity.
Considering everything that just happened in the Middle East, and considering the fact that July 4th is coming up this week, law enforcement authorities from coast to coast are on a high state of alert…
Since the announcement of the US airstrikes in Iran last Saturday, major states, such as California and New York, have been on high alert for threats.
Earlier this week, Homeland Security announced it had arrested 11 Iranian nationals who were illegally in the country, including an alleged sniper.
The 11 men were arrested across the country, including from California, Colorado, Maryland, New York, and Texas.
Why haven’t we heard more about this?
It is certainly not normal for an “Iranian sniper” to be arrested.
Was he part of a team that was planning something really big?
As I warned last week, we are a nation that is absolutely teeming with soft targets. We are far more vulnerable than most people realize, and on major holidays such as July 4th there are large gatherings of people all over the country.
During a recent interview with Greg Hunter, Steve Quayle also warned that our enemies could choose to use “asymmetrical warfare” against us…
Everyone should learn the term ‘asymmetrical warfare.’ This is what you see when you are talking terrorism, refineries blowing up and wildfires being started at a much higher pace than ever before.
If a radical Shiite terrorist dies during a terror attack, that is considered to be a good thing.
In fact, many radical Shiite lunatics are quite eager to get to “paradise” because that will mean having endless pleasure with heavenly virgins.
Yes, this is what they actually believe. Dan Burmawi recently posted about this on Twitter, and I have included his entire post below because it does such a great job of detailing how these terrorists view the afterlife…
A single intercourse with one of the virgins of paradise will last seventy thousand years.
Islam’s obsession with virgins in paradise isn’t just a minor detail, it’s a central, driving force in its theology of rewards.
The Islamic afterlife isn’t about communion with God, spiritual enlightenment, or divine wisdom, it’s a carnal, male-centered fantasy of unlimited sexual gratification.
Islamic texts describe these women as perpetual virgins, untouched, and designed solely for the pleasure of men.
“Indeed, We have produced the women of Paradise in a [new] creation. And made them virgins, devoted [to their husbands] and of equal age.” (Quran 56:35-37)
“Fair ones reserved in pavilions. Untouched before by any man or jinn.” (Quran 55:72-74)
Hadith collections affirm that after every act of intercourse, these “virgins” miraculously return to a state of virginity so the process can be repeated endlessly.
These heavenly beings are not just virgins, they are physically exaggerated to fulfill male fantasies:
Large, round breasts:“Indeed, for the pious there is a triumph… full-breasted companions of equal age.” (Quran 78:31-33)
The Arabic term kawa‘ib in 78:33 literally means “firm, swelling breasts.”
Big, lustrous eyes:“They will have maidens with intensely white skin and large black eyes, as if they were hidden pearls.” (Quran 52:20)
Glowing, hairless, smooth skin:“If one of the women of paradise were to appear to the people of the earth, she would fill the space between heaven and earth with light and fragrance.” (Tirmidhi, 2538)
Muhammad explicitly stated that men in paradise will have endless sexual stamina, never experiencing fatigue.
The virgins, in turn, never get tired, never say no, and are always ready for intercourse.
The Prophet was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, do we have sexual intercourse in Paradise?” He replied: “Yes, by the One in Whose Hand is my soul, a man will have sexual intercourse with a hundred virgins in one morning.” (Ibn Majah, 4337)
Another hadith states that men will be given the strength of 100 men in sexual performance. (Tirmidhi, 2536)
According to Al-Suyuti, a famous Islamic scholar:
“The believer will be given such and such strength in paradise for intercourse… A single intercourse with one of the virgins of paradise will last seventy thousand years.” (Al-Suyuti, Al-Haba’ik fi Akhbar al-Mala’ik)
These “virgins” don’t need to poop, pee, or sweat, they exist for one purpose: eternal male pleasure.
“They will neither urinate, defecate, nor suffer from phlegm or mucus. Their sweat will be musk.” (Muslim, 2834)
“They will be hairless except for their eyebrows and eyelashes.” (Tirmidhi, 2536)
A believer doesn’t get just one virgin, he gets dozens, or even hundreds.
“A martyr will have 72 virgins.” (Tirmidhi, 1663)
“The lowest rank of a person in paradise will have 80,000 servants and 72 wives.” (Ibn Majah, 4337)
While men are promised an endless supply of sex slaves, the fate of women in Islam’s paradise is nonexistent or humiliating.
Women in Islamic eschatology exist only for men’s pleasure, nothing else.
While other religions speak of enlightenment, unity with God, or transcendent joy, Islam offers a pornographic fantasy land where men indulge in endless sex, alcohol, and servitude.
What kind of God rewards faithfulness with an eternal orgy?
What kind of religion reduces the afterlife to a hypersexualized playground?
This is not spiritual. This is not divine. This is the theology of a man who designed an afterlife to justify his own sexual obsessions.
And yet, Muslims claim Islam is the most moral and pure religion.
Islam’s paradise is nothing more than a cosmic brothel.
How can you reason with people that actually believe this stuff?
You can’t.
Personally, I am entirely convinced that Islamic terrorists will commit some absolutely horrifying acts of violence on U.S. soil.
But if they do release bioweapons or set off a dirty bomb, we may not ever know who did it.
They may simply unleash death and destruction without taking any responsibility at all.
We have made a very dangerous enemy, and they will remember the events of this month for a very, very long time.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post A Grand Ayatollah In Iran Just Issued A Fatwa That Designates Donald Trump As An “Enemy Of God”, And That Normally Results In Execution appeared first on The Economic Collapse.
Those that are crying “peace, peace” might want to take another look at what is happening on the other side of the world because there is no peace. Israel is conducting airstrikes in Lebanon, the military offensive in Gaza is moving forward, and high ranking terror leaders are being eliminated. Meanwhile, the Russians just unleashed the largest air assault on Ukraine that we have seen in more than three years, and Russian troops are gobbling up territory at a very rapid pace. On top of everything else, speculation is rampant that the war between Israel and Iran could suddenly erupt again at any moment. Echoing the opinions of so many other experts, Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis is warning us that “the Israeli-Iranian war is far from over”…
The headlines may proclaim a ceasefire, but let us be clear: the Israeli-Iranian war is far from over. What we are witnessing is not peace—it is a tactical intermission. The guns may be momentarily silent, but the war remains alive in motive, method, and mindset.
Sadly, I believe that he is quite correct.
Israel has publicly warned that it could strike Iran again. The primary reason why Israel attacked Iran in the first place was to eliminate the threat of Iran’s nuclear program, and we just got even more evidence that goal has not yet been achieved. The following originally comes from the Washington Post…
The United States obtained intercepted communication between senior Iranian officials discussing this month’s U.S. military strikes on Iran’s nuclear program and remarking that the attack was less devastating than they had expected, said four people familiar with the classified intelligence circulating within the U.S. government.
The communication, intended to be private, included Iranian government officials speculating as to why the strikes directed by President Donald Trump were not as destructive and extensive as they had anticipated, these people said. Like some others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.
On the other side, the Iranians are thirsty for revenge and are promising that if war erupts again their strikes will be “more crushing and more devastating this time”…
In comments at the funeral of over 60 Iranians who have been martyred in the Israeli regime’s war of aggression against Iran, held in Tehran on Saturday, General Ali Mohammad Naeini said the Zionist regime and the US have failed to accomplish their declared objectives in the war.
“This is our final message to the Zionist regime and the delusional president of the US: If Iran’s national interests and assets are violated once again, our response will be different, more crushing and more devastating this time, in a way that it will accelerate the process of downfall of the (Zionist) regime,” the spokesman said.
Those that believe that Iranian leaders have turned over a new leaf and that they really want peace this time are just being delusional.
You see, the truth is that Iran is run by a bunch of “Twelver” Shiites that are waiting for “the Mahdi” to arrive.
And as Michael Youssef has aptly pointed out, “the Mahdi” is supposed to arrive during a period of great conflict…
Twelver Shiism is the largest branch of Shia Islam, and is defined by its belief in twelve divinely ordained Imams (rightful successors to Muhammad). The last Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, supposedly went into occultation (a miraculously hidden state) in the 9th century. Twelvers claim the Mahdi will one day reappear to establish global justice.
Many of Iran’s clerics fervently believe that, before the Mahdi can be revealed, an apocalyptic battle must be fought between faithful Muslims and the forces of evil. As a result, some Iranian leaders—and possibly the Ayatollah himself—are motivated to trigger a nuclear war to fulfill the ancient prophecies and force the appearance of the hidden Mahdi.
So the Iranian regime doesn’t want world peace.
The Iranian regime wants chaos so that “the Mahdi” will come.
Enjoy this “pause” while you can, because it won’t last indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the IDF is using this time to hammer Hamas and Hezbollah with airstrikes.
Yesterday, a targeted airstrike in Gaza City killed one of the masterminds of the October 7th massacre…
On Saturday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced that a targeted airstrike on the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City eliminated Hakham Muhammad Issa Al-Issa, a key Hamas leader and the mastermind behind the October 7 terrorist attack against Israeli civilians.
IDF shared that Al-Issa, one of the founders of Hamas’ military wing, led the terror group’s force build-up and the training and planning of the October 7 massacre. His current role was as Head of Combat Support Headquarters in Hamas’ military wing.
The day before that, the IDF conducted at least 12 strikes against an underground Hezbollah command center in southern Lebanon…
The IDF Air Force on Friday launched strikes on South Lebanon’s Beaufort mountain range targeting an underground Hezbollah command center.
According to reports from the area, at least 12 strikes hit the area around the village of Tebnit. Explosions were heard on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon area.
“This site is part of a significant underground project that was completely taken out of use following IDF strikes. The IDF identified rehabilitation attempts made by Hezbollah beforehand and struck terror infrastructure sites in the area,” the military said in a statement.
The day before that, an Israeli airstrike killed one of the top commanders of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force…
On Thursday, the IAF killed an elite Hezbollah terrorist commander, also in Lebanon’s Nabatiye Governorate.
The airstrike in the village of Baraachit, located less than four miles from the border, killed a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, a unit of terrorists specialized in infiltrating Israel and capturing areas around the Jewish state’s northern frontier, the IDF said.
Two days before that, an Israeli airstrike killed the head of the Al-Sadiq Currency Exchange…
On Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force killed Haytham Abdullah Bakri, the head of the Al-Sadiq Currency Exchange, in a strike in Kfar Dajjal, also in the Nabatiye Governorate. The exchange serves as a transfer mechanism for Hezbollah, handling funds originating from the Iranian Quds Force, the Israeli military said.
While all of those airstrikes have been going on, the Israeli military continues to conduct ground operations inside Gaza…
The evacuation order covered the Jabalia area and most Gaza City districts. Medics and residents said the Israeli army’s bombardments escalated in the early hours in Jabalia, destroying several houses and killing at least six people.
In Khan Younis in the south, five people were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment near Mawasi, medics said.
As you can see, this isn’t a time of peace for Israel.
This is a time of war.
So don’t be fooled by this “pause” with Iran. That front of the war will erupt again at some point too.
Let me shift gears and talk about what is going on in Ukraine.
Many were hoping for peace, but instead it appears that the war has just shifted into another gear.
In fact, the Russians absolutely pummeled Ukraine with drones and missiles last night…
Ukrainian authorities said Russia had launched 477 drones and decoys, as well as 60 missiles of various types, at Ukraine overnight. The country’s air force said it had shot down 211 drones with another 225 straying before hitting their targets. Air defenses intercepted one of the short-range ballistic missiles, four of the Kalibr cruise missiles and 33 Kh-101 missiles, according to the military.
This bombardment was so unusual that NATO actually scrambled fighter jets in response…
NATO countries scrambled fighter jets early on Sunday, according to the Polish military, after a Ukrainian official said Moscow had launched its largest-scale air attack on the country in more than three years.
Poland’s Operational Command said its fighter jets, along with other NATO aircraft, were scrambled with ground-based air defenses and reconnaissance systems put on the “highest state of readiness” after Russia launched overnight attacks on Ukrainian soil.
On the ground, Russian troops have been taking ground at a rate that is much faster than earlier this year…
The rate of advance of the Russian army in June increased by 30% compared to May. If in May the rate of advance of the Russian Armed Forces was approximately 14 square kilometers per day, then in June it was on average 18 square kilometers per day in the period from June 1 to June 26.
During May, the Russian army advanced more than 400 square kilometers. The most active offensive was observed in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), as well as in the Sumy region.
For general comparison: in January the rate of advance was 325 square kilometers, in February – 191 square kilometers, in March – 133 square kilometers, in April – 177 square kilometers, in May – 418 square kilometers.
I realize that it is not a popular thing to say, but the truth is that the Russians are winning.
As Russian forces move forward, this is going to put an increasing amount of pressure on NATO to intervene more directly.
Of course if NATO intervenes directly in the conflict, that will put us just one step away from the unthinkable.
We really are living at a time of wars and rumors of wars.
Perhaps when the war between Israel and Iran erupts again, a lot more people will start to understand this.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
The post As Other Conflicts Are Raging Like Crazy, We Are Being Told That The War Between Israel And Iran “Is Far From Over” appeared first on End Of The American Dream.
DOJ Holds a Press Briefing on Healthcare Fraud. Watch LIVE on RSBN starting at 10 am EDT on June 30, 2025.
Source: LIVE: DOJ Holds a Press Briefing on Healthcare Fraud – 6/30/25
seeing that His divine power has granted to us (1:3a)
Whatever spiritual sufficiency believers have is not because of any power they possess in themselves (cf. Matt. 19:26; Rom. 9:20–21; Eph. 1:19; Phil. 3:7–11; 1 Tim. 1:12–16; Titus 3:5) but derives from His divine power. Paul expressed it this way: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20). The power that operates in believers is of the same divine nature as that which resurrected Christ (cf. Rom. 1:4; 1 Cor. 6:14; 15:16–17; 2 Cor. 13:4; Col. 2:12). That power enables saints to do works that please and glorify God (cf. 1 Cor. 3:6–8; Eph. 3:7) and accomplish spiritual things they cannot even imagine (see again Eph. 3:20).
His refers back to the Lord Jesus. If the personal pronoun modified God, Peter probably would not have used the descriptive word divine since deity is inherent in God’s name. His use of divine pointing to the Son underscores that Jesus is truly God (cf. John 10:30; 12:45; Phil. 2:6; Col. 1:16; 2:9; Heb. 1:3) and also refutes any lingering doubt some readers may have had concerning that reality (cf. 1 John 5:20). Peter himself had been an eyewitness to Christ’s divine power (1:16; cf. Mark 5:30; Luke 4:14; 5:17).
God’s supply of spiritual power for believers never fails. They may distance themselves from the divine source through sin, or fail to minister and use what is available, but from the moment they experienced faith in Jesus Christ, God has granted His power to them. Has granted (dedōrēmenēs) is a perfect, passive participle meaning that in the past, with continuing results in the present, God permanently bestowed His power on believers.
DIVINE PROVISION
everything pertaining to life and godliness, (1:3b)
Because of their constant sins and failures as Christians, many find it hard not to think that even after salvation something is missing in the sanctification process. This faulty idea causes believers to seek “second blessings,” “spirit baptisms,” tongues, mystical experiences, special psychological insights, private revelations, “self crucifixion,” the “deeper life,” heightened emotions, demon bindings, and combinations of various ones of all those in an attempt to attain what is supposedly missing from their spiritual resources. All manner of ignorance and Scripture twisting accompanies those foolish pursuits, which at their corrupt roots are failures to understand exactly what Peter says here. Christians have received everything in the form of divine power necessary to equip them for sanctification—they have no lack at all. In view of that reality, the Lord holds all believers responsible to obey all the commands of Scripture. Christians cannot claim that their sins and failures are the result of God’s limited provision. There is no temptation and no assault of Satan and demons that is beyond their resources to overcome (1 Cor. 10:13; 12:13; 1 Peter 5:10). To stress the extent of the divine power given each believer, Peter makes the amazing statement that saints have received from God everything pertaining to life and godliness. Syntactically, the term everything is in the emphatic position because the Holy Spirit through Peter is stressing the extent of believers’ self-sufficiency.
The great power that gave Christians spiritual life will sustain that life in all its fullness. Without asking for more, they already have every spiritual resource needed to persevere in holy living. Life and godliness define the realm of sanctification, the living of the Christian life on earth to the glory of God—between initial salvation and final glorification. With the gift of new life in Christ (John 3:15–16; 5:24; 6:47; Titus 3:7; 1 John 2:25) came everything related to sustaining that life, all the way to glorification. That is why believers are eternally secure (John 6:35–40; 10:28–29; 2 Cor. 5:1; 1 John 5:13; Jude 1, 24–25) and can be assured God will empower them to persevere to the end (Matt. 24:13; John 8:31; Heb. 3:6, 14; Rev. 2:10), through all temptations, sins, failures, vicissitudes, struggles, and trials of life.
The word translated godliness (eusebeia) encompasses both true reverence in worship and its companion—active obedience. Saints should never question God’s sufficiency, because His grace that is so powerful to save is equally powerful to sustain them and empower them to righteous conduct (Rom. 8:29–30; Phil. 1:6).
DIVINE PROCUREMENT
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. (1:3c)
In light of the divine power and provision available to Christians, the question then arises, “How does one experience those to the fullest?” The apostle indicates that it is through the true knowledge of Him. Knowledge (epignōsis) refers to a knowledge that is deep and genuine. The word is sometimes used interchangeably with the more basic term gnōsis, which means simply knowledge. But Peter is referring to more than a superficial knowledge of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Christ Himself warned of the peril of an inadequate knowledge of Him, even for those who minister in His name:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” (Matt. 7:21–23; cf. Luke 6:46)
Personal saving knowledge of the Lord is the obvious beginning point for believers, and as with everything in the Christian life, it comes from Him who called them (John 3:27; Rom. 2:4; 1 Cor. 4:7; cf. Jonah 2:9). Theologically, God’s call comprises two aspects: the general call and the effectual call. Theologian Charles M. Horne succinctly defined the two aspects as follows:
The general call is a call which comes through the proclamation of the gospel: it is a call which urges sinners to accept salvation. “On the last day, the great day, of the feast, Jesus stood and cried aloud, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink’ ” (Jn 7:37, Williams; cf. Mt 11:28; Is 45:22; etc.).
This message (kerygma), which is to be authoritatively proclaimed—not optionally debated—contains three essential elements: (1) It is a story of historical occurrences—an historical proclamation: Christ died, was buried, and rose (1 Co 15:3–4). (2) It is an authoritative interpretation of these events—a theological evaluation. Christ died for our sins. (3) It is an offer of salvation to whosoever will—an ethical summons. Repent! Believe!
The general call is to be freely and universally offered. “Jesus came up … and said, ‘Full authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go then and make disciples of all the nations’ ” (Mt 28:18–19, Williams).
The effectual call is efficacious; that is, it always results in salvation. This is a creative calling which accompanies the external proclamation of the gospel; it is invested with the power to deliver one to the divinely intended destination. “It is very striking that in the New Testament the terms for calling, when used specifically with reference to salvation, are almost uniformly applied, not to the universal call of the gospel, but to the call that ushers men into a state of salvation and is therefore effectual.” [John Murray, Redemption—Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), p. 88.]
Perhaps the classic passage on the effectual call is found in Romans 8:30: “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called” (KJV). Other pertinent references include: Romans 1:6–7; 1 Corinthians 1:9, 26; 2 Peter 1:10.
The efficacious call is immutable, thereby insuring our perseverance. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Ro 11:29, NASB). (Salvation [Chicago: Moody, 1971], 47–48; italics in original. See also these other New Testament references: John 1:12–13; 3:3–8; 6:37, 44–45, 64–65; Acts 16:14; Eph. 2:1, 5, 10; Col. 2:13; 1 Thess. 1:4–5; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5.)
As in all appearances of this call in the epistles, Peter’s use of called here clearly refers to the effectual and irresistible call to salvation.
God effects His saving call through the revealed majesty of His own Son. Sinners are drawn by the glory and excellence of Jesus Christ. In Scripture glory always belongs to God alone (cf. Ex. 15:11; Deut. 28:58; Pss. 8:1; 19:1; 57:5; 93:1; 104:1; 138:5; 145:5; Isa. 6:3; 42:8, 12; 48:11; 59:19; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 21:11, 23). Thus when sinners see the glory of Christ they are witnessing His deity (cf. Luke 9:27–36; John 1:3–5, 14). Unless through the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 10:14–17) they realize who Christ is (the glorious Son of God who is Savior; cf. John 20:30–31; 2 Peter 1:16–18), and understand their need for repentance, so as to come to Him in faith, pleading for salvation, sinners cannot escape hell and enter heaven.
So, when God draws sinners to Himself, they see not only Christ’s glory as God, but also His excellence as man. That refers to His morally virtuous life and His perfect humanity (cf. Matt. 20:28; Luke 2:52; 22:27; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:7; Heb. 2:17; 4:15; 7:26; 1 Peter 2:21–23; 1 John 3:3). All salvation blessings, power, and provision come only to those who see and believe the words and acts of the sinless God/Man (cf. John 14:7–10; Acts 2:22; 1 Cor. 15:47; 1 John 1:1–2; 5:20).
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2005). 2 Peter and Jude (pp. 26–30). Moody Publishers.
Source: The Wrath of God Revealed
Truth2Freedom's Blog 