Dependancy

(A few thoughts).

"Peace, through the blood of His Cross". Colossians 1:20.

When was the last time you heard a distinctively Christian protest song?

I'm referring to something like this or like this?

Those who are loved, Jesus states, will be rebuked and disciplined (corrected - Revelation 3:19). "Judgement" (proper discernment and its ramifications) begins in God's house and extends from there (1 Peter 4:17) - righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 

We become people who are content with the present when we cease to examine and question what is actually taking place... There are consequences.

Complacency brings delusion. We settle into the notion that we are doing well when in truth we are garbed in compromise.

Perhaps the most terrifying manner of judgement is not when we suffer because the world wishes us silent, but when we are mantled with the notion that all is well- that we have and are doing 'enough' to simply remain where we are.

How does Christ Himself respond to so feeble  a conclusion? - Revelation 3:15 is how!  We can so easily become a people defined by such stupor, ripe for divine disdain and disgust.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the protest songs I mentioned above were written in the seventies. 

The cost of our redemption was total war (Genesis 3:15). Our reconciliation was birthed in the shedding of royal blood and the rending of the most righteous flesh.

Today, the threats are defined as those which intrude upon our "equilibrium" rather than those which would draft us into full armed conflict, but beyond the bounds of our own perceived safety, the costs to many are just as high.

We so often act to keep ourselves 'distinct' (remote) from a true refining of our thoughts and deeds, from a repenting that would drive us away from what is all too comfortable... too familiar.

Fellowship with God as Job, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Moses and so many others discovered, requires an intimacy that exposes us to a 'fire' and a fellowship that is truly dangerous! (Hebrews 10:31), but the alternatives are eternally deadly.

Perhaps it's time for the church to find it's 'protesting' voice once again.

A final thought here, from the world of diet...

"Health fundamentalists of certain types no longer see food as something desirable or even necessary, but merely as a threat to longevity, and there lies a 'conspiracy' to kill us. Good cooking and eating are simply not 'sentimental' in this manner - they require a knowledge of cultivation of nutrition and genuine personal and social well-being being done well- deriving from good use of the larder, the kitchen and, above all, hospitality via genuine etiquette" (Faking it).

In truth, then (to borrow from Robert Farrar Capon), what the church needs right now is a decline in the triumph of diversion and a renewal of the art of oblation... in all things.

Selah.

 

Undone

 (A eulogy for today).

"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation,Rachel weeping for her children, she refused to be comforted, because they are no more". Matthew 2:18.

Imagine for a moment that you're back at the cusp of the 21st century. Someone you don't know approaches you, looking somewhat troubled, and tells you that in a couple of decades, you'll be buying many of your goods from China, and that this won't happen at your local store, but through a virtual ordering system in America, where a small group of businesses will run most of the world's key media.

You, no doubt, are a little taken aback at such pronouncements, but this strange moment hasn't ended. Your 'visitor' proceeds to say that the day will also arrive when the government of your country will require those deemed 'key workers' in particular places and vocations to be injected with an experimental medicine by Law. Failure to comply will result in the loss of their employment, not to mention a stigma expressed in society due to a fear of "them" being without said experimental medicine.

So, you're now heading for the door, defining your strange assailant as clearly in need of some serious assistance...

When stated like this, it really hits home, because of course all of this is now very much part of what passes for 'the norm' today.

It didn't all start twenty odd years ago. The blood-drenched "modernism" of the French Revolution was the ground in which the seeds of our present decimation really found the conditions necessary to thrive. Proceeding, like the malevolent 'red weed' in War of the Worlds to then crawl and choke every channel of health, uprooting and subverting order in the West, its latest and most acidic incarnation is now evidenced in the 'woke' culture.

Christianity succumbed in the 1950's and 60's, as scripture was substituted wholesale for doubt across the entire spectrum of theology. As the church crumbled, society sunk beneath the deluge of indulgence breaking every moral taboo, not privately but openly, celebrating such in the arts and in shearing forces at play that brought the fragmenting of the cohesion of family life. Business became the realm of greater and greater risk for fast profits, and in all spheres, individual pleasure became the key imperative.

I write this not to give some history lesson, but to remind us, myself included, why we are here. We are truly the children of these times.

The foundation of 'rock' (God-defined identity) of prior times is now a broken, crumbling mess of empty, destructive darkness.

The basis of such evil is clear. As the Canaanites sacrificed their offspring to Moloch, my generation has sacrificed the unborn on the altar of 'medical' procedure (where the 'preference' of the "mother" is upheld over the rights of the child). As shown in the purging of the unwanted in Germany's T-4 "hygiene" units, any society which chooses to shed such blood is marked as fit for only one destination - Gehenna.

It really was only a matter of time before we reached the point where such abominable 'rationality' was applied to all, for all will become marked with the same value required to be complicit, or will face exclusion and purge.

I find myself deeply undone by developments today. I have known moments of great distress for these times, but, in truth, I have been too readily distracted and often, too afraid to speak as clearly and as urgently as required. I freely admit my being too complicit in these rebellious years and can only pray for grace and mercy in these times of need.

Seeking aid from beyond ourselves - the overshadowing of the Most High - is all we can do. The Lord will indeed come soon with ten thousand of His own to judge and to save, and we must surely make ourselves ready.

This era tells us exactly why we are a faith of "Christ Crucified". At the cross, outwardly, Christ expiates the ruin of sin, whilst, in parallel, amidst apparent weakness and failure, He breaks the strength of every principality against Him, and thereby destroys fear and death.

Now we see why His coming was marked with the cry in Ramah - evil can do nothing but destroy. Only Christ brings life.

The night is surely upon us, but will pass. A bright and unending day is fast approaching! Let us, weary of the times, cast off what is dark and clothe ourselves, exclusively, in the perfect, spotless splendour of His righteousness.

The Worst of Times...

 "As it was in the days of Noah"...  Jesus.

Whether we're talking about dark matter, exotic particles, Unidentified Ariel Phenomena, or Fallen Angels, this world we inhabit is simply far more strange than we usually bring to mind, so talking about things beyond the norm isn't something you come across all the time, even in church... and 'the days (age) of Noah'?

It's one of those periods that Christians rarely like to talk about, principally because it opens a 'whole other chapter' when it comes the really bizarre events that have unfolded in respects to the history of our race and our world, but it's imperative to unpack what's there. Thankfully, some have awoken to the significance of what's spoken about in those opening verses of Genesis chapter 6 (see Dr David Rohl's "The Lords of Avaris") and, occasionally, a Christian theologian comes along who says, 'we really need to tackle this head on'.

This talk is an excellent presentation by Doug Wilson, not only on what happened back then, but the ramifications for today.

"Pharmakia"

 "They wore breastplates the colour of fire and sapphire, like sulphur, and the heads of their beasts were like lions - fire, smoke and sulphur expelled from their mouths".

Revelation 9:17.

The movie Thirteen Days is a favourite of mine. It tells the story of the Cuba Missile Crisis, when the United States found itself facing a possible nuclear strike - literally within a matter of  days.

Most of the present generation do not recall the genuine fear that was generated in the Cold War era, generated by the horrors which had been evidenced in the concluding days of the second world war (the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the 'liberation' of the German concentration camps).  As Dr David Berlinski notes in his recent book on Human Nature, such evil was made possible in the prior decades by humanity's mechanisation of war, which allowed the carnage to become so much more total (encompassing civilian populations as well as the militia), and bringing about the nightmare of 'modern' annihilation.

The 1930s laid the key discoveries for nuclear weaponry. The early 1900s had seen the same deployment of science to create the likes of mustard gas to be employed to bring tortuous death. These indeed, as John notes, were clearly the 'deadly smoke released from the bottomless pit of the great furnace' which releases all manner of evils upon the world.

Which brings us to this present moment - a day when the 'civilised' world (the UK, America) is seeking to introduce (or has passed) laws that will allow the termination of a child in the womb up to the very moment of birth.

The Apostle notes in Revelation 19 how mankind which has not been 'killed by plagues' and is not 'sealed' (as God's own) will give itself over to "worshipping  demons" found amidst the idols of "silver and gold" (wealth) and "stone" (construction - industrious expansion of business) and "wood" (pragmatism) which are entirely 'blind' when it comes to the actual objectives intended for life and human culture (19:20). These are a generation of souls who 'do not repent of their murders or their "sorceries" (Pharmakia - use of drugs) or their sexual immorality or their thefts" (vs 21).

Let me be clear here - scripture does not teach that medicine in itself is evil. There are plenty of incidents in scripture where medicinal solutions are recommended and clearly used to remedy bodily troubles (see Job 2:7,8, Jeremiah 8:22, 2 Kings 20:7, Proverbs 17:22, Luke 10:34, 1 Timothy 5:23 as examples) - indeed, it's clear that such aids and wisdom are provided by God for our healing (Luke 5:31), but what the modern world so clearly shows is just how easily and readily the perverse and corrupt nature of men can turn what is meant to be for our good (Physics, Chemistry, etc) to devices for abominable evil.

John informs us that this will most certainly be the case when, in the latter days, men will respond to the evil rising from the pit by engaging in 'sorceries' (use of drugs) to 'worship' the demonic via their vain and empty ideologies which are manifest in their supposed pragmatism and wealth, but in truth are entirely wicked.

Which brings us to our present situation.

In 2020 we witnessed the deployment of a particular global 'solution' to a virus - an MRNA vaccine that was entirely new and revolutionary in the manner in which it would remedy the problem. Urgency to deal with the threat allowed this to then become deployed whilst by-passing many of the standard requirements for such a medication, and it wasn't long before this began to raise questions and then concerns amongst those who work at some of the highest levels in their scientific fields.

The situation, in medical terms, has not changed since the data collated from the early outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship back in March last year - those who are vulnerable to death from the virus are, generally, over 70 years of age and commonly suffering from other ailments which marry to the infection and bring death. People under that age who are generally fit and in good health may suffer a weak or severe infection, somewhat akin to flu, but in most cases, this will not kill them, and will bring immunity to further outbreaks. The variations we have seen may be more adept at spreading themselves, but they are presently bringing essentially the same results.

The response from Governments has been to deploy vaccination, not only to the most at risk sections of the population, but to ALL adults (and, it would appear, on to children as well). This is in spite of the fact that there are clearly large swathes of people who have already been infected and survived, and that there is also a number who already have natural immunity, so why take this route?

The funnelling of everybody into a single track through fear and manipulation has been telling  -this approach is not accidental. Media has been quick to shut down any and all dissenting voices, however clear and informed they may have been, to allow only one appropriate response - one option of treatment and cure - to be allowed amongst us. This, clearly, is to facilitate big business and stimulate huge profits for the pharmaceutical industry. It all comes at the expense of personal freedom.

These last few months have brought evidence of blood clotting, heart inflammation, possible fertility troubles and deaths in respect to our new vaccines in small numbers of cases (not to mention a 40% drop in efficacy noted in Israel this past week), and that is just in the short-term. What will the long-term consequences of having vast parts of the world receiving such a measure be? It is currently impossible to say as no research exists to support any claims, but judging by the growing issues already evidenced, there are clearly going to be concerns at the very least, especially as this 'new' method is employed in other ways (such as flu vaccinations).

In his book That Hideous Strength, Melvin Tinker writes to inform the church that the 'barbarians' (those who are seeking to actively promote and employ an anti-christian approach to the panacea of life) are not only at the gates - they are 'inside the city' and have pillaged and raped our culture of its Christian presuppositions.

What should trouble us most about the present crisis is not only the global employment of an inadequately tested vaccine, but the beliefs, intentions and ambitions which have fuelled and allowed such a response to become mainstream. The Church especially should be seeking here to 'prove all things, and to hold fast to that which is good' (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

The Lord alone is our help, our health and our salvation (Psalm 27:1) - he grants us what is necessary to live well and with purpose, employing His gifts rightly. That is the manner of wisdom we require right now - see the dangers, and walk closely with God.

Let us desire, seek and pursue to be such a people.

D O N 'T

"O you foolish Galatians - who has bewitched you?"

Paul - Galatians 3:1.

I'd only been on the bus for a minute when the nature of the problem appeared - a long (and lengthening fast) line of traffic snaking past a cordoned area of road where the accident had happened. "We'll be here for a long time", I thought, but then, the bus suddenly veered down a side road to take us past the queue. We arrived at the opposite side... to discover we'd dodged a secondary problem - all the traffic lights on the roundabout were also out, meaning the entire flow of some six roads on to the spot was a free for all.

I found myself really thankful for a driver who knew what he was doing.

The above event from today is a great analogy for the last 15 months.

We've been 'stuck in traffic' - fear, intimidation and inaccuracy. Our Mainstream Media simply isn't talking about what all of us need to know.

It's lead us to the point where something like this could be prayed in church this previous Sunday (as being the norm):

"Help us play our part (in dealing with the virus) by continuing to exercise caution, but also to overcome any fear, by facing up to the reality that if we seriously commit to becoming doubly vaccinated, we make ourselves and others safer".

In a week when Israel has reported a 40% drop in efficacy in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, seeing hundreds "doubly vaccinated" returning for help, does this 'serious commitment' really give us comfort or aid?

In a week when the UK has now released the same warning as the FDA in America about these vaccines, that they can be responsible for heart inflammation and may cause permanent damage, how does such 'devices' as "dubious at best' vaccinations bring an end to suffering and fear?

Just take a look at this graph, based on the latest ZOE data:

Notice that after a steady rise in infections amongst the non-vaccinated in the country the last few weeks have seen this level off, but the level of re-infection amongst the 'properly vaccinated' is steadily increasing. How can this be happening if the vaccines are such an effective answer?

Ignorance is everywhere.

I had another great example of this on You Tube this week. Someone sought to throw a BMJ reference at me concerning the efficacy of the incredibly safe, Nobel-prize winning drug, Ivermectin. Totally ignoring the results of some 60 trials of this drug's effectiveness in numerous locations across the world, the writer thought one word from the 'mainstream' was enough to silence any favourable research! That exact lie was broadcast again by the BBC today.

It's so past time that we were accurately told the truth on the issues of policies like lockdown's, masks and PCR tests.

So, where IS the "church" in all this? Well. according to Justin Welby and associates (Bishops), the focus now has to be folding the current focus of parishes in favour of a new project. As in the pandemic, the focus of 'ministry' will not lye with those who are currently "flocked", but in the multitudes they are aiming to attract who in turn will become, effectively, cult "programmers" to bring in multitudes more. The problem, of course, is that Jesus isn't all about numbers, but seeing disciples in this life who really know Him and God's astounding grace in sending Him to and for us.

This is clearly Anglicanism's part in the "Great Reset" - to set the church to becoming a proselytisation factory.

What angers me the most about all of this is last year, when I sought to express my concerns about where all this (the crisis) was going, I was told I was being "too political" in my worries and expressions, and yet here is the 'church', professing government policy as the 'safe haven' for it congregants, and watching as the church itself becomes hobbled into one single program.

We have entirely lost the plot.

"Amusements"

 "But perhaps the most important thing of all from the modern agents of propaganda is cinema... leading to almost world-wide uniformity. The great majority of the young in modern civilisation derive almost their ideas of love, honour, ambition and priorities (clothing and the like) from the evenings spent in what Hollywood defines for them as good. I doubt whether all the messages of churches or the hours spent in education combined have anywhere near as much influence as the visual media on the minds of  the young. The producers of such content are the high priests of a new religion.

(One) result is the defects of our new system are only noticed by a very few who are willing to spend their leisure time in pursuits other than amusements - these are, of course, a small minority and are, therefore, negligible".

Bertrand Russell - The Scientific Approach.

"We are not ignorant of his (the Devil's) devices".

The Apostle Paul.

Some years ago, I was required to attend a training course at a prior job on the subject of developing personal confidence at the workplace. Most of the course was pretty straightforward, but the focus of the final session was to be a teaching of the techniques of visualisation, in order to bring about 'inner health and healing'. Thankfully, I'd read up on this a few years before and how it had been tragically employed in the church as a technique to bring prosperity and positive mental attitude, and it was clear the it's roots were far from Christian.

I sat the session out, but wasn't surprised when one of those participating had a very adverse response as certain painful memories were encouraged to be brought to the surface. 

When the course was finished, I expressed my concerns to management, and an enquiry decided that such a technique shouldn't be used in future. I also had a candid discussion with the tutor, and wasn't surprised to discover that she had a active interest in the occult and had learned this particular technique from various esoteric sources she'd read and encountered.

The truth is, very little in this life really leaves us 'passive'. Sure, passivity is a "nice" avenue to implement in scenarios like the one I've just outlined (if you have certain goals in mind), but all it actually does is lower our defences to allow things to just 'flow' right on in and take us into a supposed 'wonderland' without responsibility.

I learned in my teens, through a doorway opened by engaging with Yoga, just how dangerous such passiveness can be.

It's easy for us to look at Bertrand Russell's observations above and seek to by-pass what they're really saying (and this is from someone who loves movies), but if we miss 'the wood from the trees' here, we're in real trouble. 

Hollywood wants us to believe (as does You Tube, Facebook and the like) that it really doesn't have an ideology - at least one that's going to cause you any harm - but that's a total lie, and one we neglect at our peril.

So, here's the big test - what do you do when someone comes along with some measure of 'authority' (acceptance) and asks you to do something, to participate in something, that they promise is for your good? Do you just go along with what's said, or do you say you want to spend time looking at what's being offered in a more objective fashion? Do you, in other words, just jump at something because it sounds good, or do you thoroughly weigh up what's there?

A film or show can allow an  'escape' for a while, but is there more going on with what we're investing our time and money into than just straightforward amusement?

The telling consequence is how such engagement shapes our behaviour, modifies our thinking to condone or at least accept certain "norms" as acceptable, even good, when we know they're actually seriously harmful in respect to distancing us from God's good intents and purposes. Over time, they can subtly shift our beliefs and desires to drive us along by something distant to God's radiant righteousness evident in Christ Jesus.We should never forget that there's a big part of us - the old Adam - which is entirely on board with that kind of departure!

The test here isn't just with respect to the things that are blindingly obvious - being promiscuous in respect to what we eat, indulge or who we are intimate with - the lies, remember, are usually coming down from those in authority, who are merely using various means (be it Amazon, Netflix or even the health service) to employ what they have devised as 'good' for you.

All of this, then, can be poison, and we need to handle what's going on around us right now with a very great deal of care, for there are real dangers here.

Conformity, of course, doesn't have to be just a 'positive' scenario. Back in the late 1930's, as the world was rushing towards the nightmare that was a global war, an American radio company based in New York decided to perform a contemporary rendition of H G Wells' novel, the War of the Worlds. The broadcast was so convincing that before the players had concluded the first act, parts of the country had been brought to chaos through the fear it had generated that an actual invasion was taking place. In like fashion in the same city, there was a total loss of power for some 13 hours in 1965, resulting in looting and chaos amongst some 80,000 people there, and some 3 million in the entire affected region.

Like a drowning man, fear drives us to grasp for answers, and if they are wrapped in the oh so familiar wrapping of modern 'science' (technology or medicine), we welcome them with open arms... and omit to stop, to examine, to reflect.

The church has chosen to built its position in the current crisis right here - no deep reflections by the majority of leaders or parishioners - the many years of 'hearing' what is being stated about what's best by the 'entertainers' have soaked in, and now, we are merely on board with whatever's passed down, even if it means seriously impeding what the church is actually meant to be about.

So, to draw a few conclusions...

Life is, generally speaking, a minefield.

Look at the troubles any saint worth their salt had to navigate in respect to external (worldly) and internal (church) matters, and you'll see the same truth over and over again - life is presently riddled with dangers, that, upon contact, explode and cause us real and often terrible damage.

We cannot escape these troubles (Jesus promised they'd be there), but we can seek to engage with them with wisdom and discernment, caring for ourselves and others as we do so.

The problems truly become endemic when we fail to give the measure of consideration essential to de-fusing what's before us, so we can escape the collateral damage. Negligence results in severance and suffering.

Much of the present situation is saturated with fear, and much of what has been done has been implemented and worked through on the basis of that condition. This is a cycle that needs to be broken, and Christians, who understand that life is about a perfect love that expels such paralysis need to be first in line to show that there is a way out of this current nightmare - that neither life or death, or things present or things to come, or peril, or nakedness or sword can ever sever us from the magnificence of the love that has been so bountifully lavished upon us by our Heavenly Father in the giving of Christ Jesus.

The world so deeply needs that mercy right now.

Right...

 "Common Sense addressed to the inhabitants of America" on a range of subjects was the document that crystallised all the ferment and angst that had been justifiably rising for several years amongst the new world colonists who found themselves being arbitrarily subjugated to assumptions that left them defined as surfs and not people with dignity.

The rule of law, in effect, was subjected to a range of new requirements that left the people burdened with demands that were far above and beyond the rights and agreements established between the accepted authorities in England and those expected to live by these beyond those shores.

As Douglas Wilson points out in this informative reflection on the American struggle for independence, this wasn't a revolt - it was a break with tyranny, and it was entirely different in tone and intent to the French Revolution because of that.

The 1700's show us that when men are placed in a constant state of despotic control (as had been the case with the English under various Stuart Kings), then the moment will come when they, to break injustice, will rise against this.

The events and results witnessed in America's struggle to retain the freedoms that had been given and then abused by the British are truly worth considering in this present moment. They speak so well not only to what transpired at that time, but the social and political undercurrents now at play amongst us.