tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42742347955600918502024-03-05T00:00:20.279-07:00brianleeBrian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.comBlogger5342125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-40440089694639553052016-12-16T08:15:00.000-07:002016-12-16T08:15:30.201-07:00The Spirit World's Dangerous Dark Side<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/the-spirit-worlds-dangerous-dark-side">evil spirits</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/could-dollar-fall-what-federal-reserve.html">this post</a> about the<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/could-the-dollar-fall" target="_blank"> Federal Reserve </a>and the <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/could-the-dollar-fall" target="_blank">U.S. dollar</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-authentic-is-christmas-portrayal-of.html" target="_blank">this post </a>about<a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth" target="_blank"> Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth" target="_blank">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/the-spirit-worlds-dangerous-dark-side">The Spirit World's Dangerous Dark Side</a></h1>
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<span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/mario-seiglie" title="View user profile.">Mario Seiglie</a></span> <span class="comment-link no-break"><a class="icon-bubbles" href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/the-spirit-worlds-dangerous-dark-side#comments" title="Jump to Comments">10 comments</a></span><span class="reading-time no-break"> Estimated reading time: 11 minutes</span> </div>
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Strange practices and religions such as Wicca, Santeria, voodoo and
channeling are growing in popularity. What's behind them? Are such
things harmless, or is there more to them than meets the eye? </div>
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As traditional Christianity has lost its appeal for many people,
growing numbers have sought to fill that vacuum in their lives in other
ways. Some turn to alternate religions popular in other parts of the
world. Some turn to witchcraft and pre-Christian paganism. Some seek
answers in the occult. A few even knowingly turn to Satanism and
evil spirits.<br />
Some are simply curious; others are very serious. But whether they
recognize it or not, all are dabbling in dangers that likely are well
beyond their limited comprehension. That's why these dangers are often
referred to as the occult—things that are secretive, mysterious
and concealed.<br />
Maybe you've never directly seen Satan or his demons, but certainly
those familiar with the Bible recognize their influence in this rapidly
degenerating world. No wonder the Scriptures describe Satan as “the god
of this age” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Corinthians_4_4_21795900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Corinthians_4_4_21795900">2 Corinthians 4:4</a>).<br />
His influence is not new, but its prevalence in modern society
certainly is. What was once banned or very limited in dealing with the
dark spirit realm is now mostly out in the open. Satanism is rampant in
movies, and movements based on it, such as Wicca, Santeria, voodoo and
consultation with mediums, are thriving, especially with the young.<br />
The apostle Paul tells us we should be wary of such practices, “lest
Satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his
devices” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Corinthians_2_11_23404300" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Corinthians_2_11_23404300">2 Corinthians 2:11</a>).<br />
<h3>
Wicca, Santeria and voodoo</h3>
One of the fastest growing movements in Western nations is Wicca, a
modern version of witchcraft. Part of its popularity is due to American <span class="caps">TV</span> programs such as <em> Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel</em> and <em> Charmed.</em>
Wicca is so popular that the United States, Great Britain and many
other nations now recognize it as a legitimate religion with
legal rights.<br />
The term <em> Wicca</em> was popularized in 1954 by the British leader
of the movement, Gerald Gardner, who described it as a return to the
“Old Religion” popular in Europe before Christianity.<br />
<em> Wicca,</em> from on an Old English word for “witch,” incorporates
many of the trappings of ancient British witchcraft practices. The
satanic pentagram is used as its symbol, and one of its main tenets is
adoring nature through different rituals and deities. Some, but not all,
covens, or groups, practice casting spells, divination and magic. Wicca
is an umbrella group or movement that gathers under its fold very
different beliefs and practices—but is at its core a thinly disguised
type of old-fashioned witchcraft.<br />
Santeria is a Caribbean religion based on mixing African witchcraft
with Roman Catholic beliefs—similar in many ways to voodoo or pure
African witchcraft. Its followers practice animal sacrifices and perform
feverish dancing during Santerian rituals that can lead to possession
of a person by an orisha or “saint” being invoked. The individual then
is said to speak and act as that saint. If this is an actual spiritual
experience, however, it is nothing more than demonic possession.<br />
All of these practices have this in common: Satan is their originator
and they should be absolutely avoided. God, who knows exactly how Satan
and his demons work, emphatically warns us not to have anything to do
with them. He tells us to not “give the devil a foothold” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Ephesians_4_27_23676800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Ephesians_4_27_23676800">Ephesians 4:27</a>, New International Version).<br />
We should not consult with people associated with these practices, in
spite of what they claim are good intentions to help us. God says:
“There shall not be found among you anyone who . . . practices
witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who
calls up the dead. For all who do these things <em> are an abomination </em> to the Lord” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Deuteronomy_18_10-12_23870100" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Deuteronomy_18_10-12_23870100">Deuteronomy 18:10-12</a>, emphasis added throughout).<br />
<h3>
What are mediums and familiar spirits?</h3>
What about mediums and people who use such things as tarot cards and Ouija boards to consult with the spirits?<br />
Mediums—also sometimes called “seers” or “clairvoyants”—are people who
may be used by the fallen angels the Bible calls demons. They might
appear normal and helpful, but those who are not fakes (and many are)
can genuinely have contact with deceitful spirits who seek to attract
and use human beings for their own evil purposes. For this reason these
evil angelic beings are called in the Bible <em> “deceiving </em> spirits” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-1_Timothy_4_1_24023400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="1_Timothy_4_1_24023400">1 Timothy 4:1</a>).<br />
A true medium has a “familiar spirit” in him, and the term comes from the Hebrew word <em> obh,</em>
meaning “a leather bottle.” To the ancient Hebrews, the hollow sound
of the voice of a familiar spirit, speaking through a medium, sounded as
if it came out of a skin bottle. Just as a skin bottle is a type of
vessel, so a person who has a familiar spirit serves as a vessel or a
“medium” that contains the spirit.<br />
Familiar spirits, in reality disguised demons, <em> can</em> have an
intimate knowledge of people, alive or dead. They have at their disposal
an extensive network of information from fellow demons who are more
than willing to share their knowledge with the deceived “host.” In this
way, they will entice many more people to be deceived and hooked—ending
sometimes as pawns to these spirits.<br />
This is the grave danger of participating in any of these practices—at
first these spirits appear as willing servants, but inevitably they end
up as harsh taskmasters.<br />
That is why we should avoid coming into <em> any</em> contact with
people who claim they can communicate with the dead. God, who is
intimately familiar with this spirit world, warns us that “the person
who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with
them, <em> I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people”</em> (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Leviticus_20_6_24172900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Leviticus_20_6_24172900">Leviticus 20:6</a>).<br />
The Scriptures candidly admit that legitimate mediums do exist and can
establish contact with demons, who disguise themselves as departed loved
ones, to attract the unsuspecting into their dark spirit world.<br />
<h3>
Tarot cards and Ouija boards</h3>
Some use manual devices such as tarot cards or Ouija boards to consult
directly with these familiar spirits. These objects should be avoided at
all costs—they are not innocent “games” but ancient ways of attracting
these familiar spirits.<br />
Think of these instruments as potential passports into your
mind—possibly opening an entry to the zone that should only be inhabited
by your own thoughts and God's Holy Spirit. If you do not invite these
evil spirits, they cannot enter. Yet sometimes even an unsuspecting
invitation through these devices can give demons a green light! Sadly,
many people have unknowingly invited evil spirits into their minds—never
to be quite the same again.<br />
As the Scriptures reveal, these spirits need to be cast out by genuine
ministers of God. Acts 19 records an instance where some would-be
exorcists tried to cast a demon out of a person and the demon turned on
them, saying, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” Much to
their surprise, “the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them,
overpowered them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of
that house naked and wounded” (verses 15-16).<br />
This is therefore no laughing matter or cute entertainment—it is deadly
serious! Scripture records several instances of people falling into
such forbidden practices with disastrous results.<br />
<h3>
Saul and the medium of En Dor</h3>
In the Old Testament, we find the tragic example of King Saul going to a
medium. He had first tried to consult with God, but because of his
multiple sins, especially his slaughter of 85 priests and an untold
number of innocent inhabitants of the town of Nob, he did not receive
any answers (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-1_Samuel_22_18-19_24446800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="1_Samuel_22_18-19_24446800">1 Samuel 22:18-19</a>).<br />
Saul then broke God's law and consulted with a medium at En Dor (1 Sam-
uel 28:7). She invoked a figure of one appearing as the prophet Samuel.
Yet Saul never saw him; he only heard a voice. This is one reason why
God prohibits such consultations—demons are very clever and can
impersonate the person being summoned. Notice the Bible had said God
would not answer Saul's inquiries “either by dreams or by Urim or by the
prophets” (verse 6). This clearly was not the prophet Samuel!<br />
The spirit the medium saw ascending out of the earth (verse 13) was in fact a demon. Saul only <em> thought </em>
it was Samuel, but this demon had tricked him. As the apostle Paul
explains: “For Satan himself transforms himself into [or disguises
himself as] an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his
ministers also transform themselves into [or impersonate] ministers of
righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Corinthians_11_14-15_24774700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Corinthians_11_14-15_24774700">2 Corinthians 11:14-15</a>).<br />
It was not unusual, therefore, for a demon to have impersonated the
dead prophet Samuel. The Scriptures clearly tell us Samuel was dead,
buried and unconscious: “For the living know that they will die, but the
dead <em> know nothing”</em> (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Ecclesiastes_9_5_24982200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Ecclesiastes_9_5_24982200">Ecclesiastes 9:5</a>).<br />
Saul was left with the dire prediction that he would die the next day.
He never did turn back to God. That is one of the reasons he is such a
tragic figure in the Scriptures.<br />
<h3>
Paul confronts a spirit of divination</h3>
Another case of a medium is found in the New Testament, and it is quite instructive.<br />
We read in <a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Acts_16_16-19_25120600" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Acts_16_16-19_25120600">Acts 16:16-19</a>: “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with <em> a spirit of divination</em>
met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This
girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, 'These men are the
servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.'<br />
“And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and
said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come
out of her.' And he came out that very hour. But when her masters saw
that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and
dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities” (emphasis
added throughout).<br />
This passage tells us quite a bit about the dark side of the spirit
world. First, it reveals there are some cases where people actually <em> do </em>
have the spirit of divination and are quite economically successful at
what they do. Nowhere does this section deny the fact that people can
tap into this source for valuable information. Also, it shows there are
others willing to promote such a business, which can be quite
profitable. Today, millions if not billions of dollars are made from
this ancient and harmful practice.<br />
One can find many programs on radio or <span class="caps">TV</span>,
backed by successful businessmen, where people with a spirit of
divination can greatly impress audiences with their apparent intimate
knowledge of those they interview. Most of the time these persons openly
call themselves channelers, psychics or mediums. Of course, not all who
practice this profession are genuine mediums, for there are many clever
charlatans as well, <em> but some are authentic!</em> <br />
As the biblical case in Acts 16 shows, the slave girl with the spirit
of divination was a real medium. We know this because when the demon
left her, she could no longer reveal intimate details of a person's life
or predict the future.<br />
Another insight from this account is that the message from a spirit can
be positive and true. After all, the Bible plainly says the young girl
used by the spirit of divination announced that Paul and his companions
came from God and preached the way of salvation. This was true, so what
was the problem?<br />
The problem wasn't the message itself, but the <em> source</em> of the
information. We see here the subtle element of deceit. Many times, the
initial message of a spirit of divination, or a demon, can seem
positive, harmless and helpful. Just as a fisherman entices fish with
succulent bait, so these spirits know they must attract innocent victims
with something useful and agreeable. They know, once their victims are
hooked, there will be plenty of time later for them to change
their message.<br />
<h3>
Simply say <em> “No!”</em> </h3>
We must simply say <em> “No!”</em> when enticed to play with this dark
spirit world. Don't fold under pressure from friends, family or anyone
else. Put God and His Word first! Literally, your life and your mental
welfare could depend on it!<br />
God, who knows exactly how Satan and his demons work, emphatically
warns us not to have anything to do with them. We should not consult
with people associated with these spirits in spite of any stated
intentions to help us. God's Word is clear: “Give no regard to mediums
and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I
am the Lord your God” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Leviticus_19_31_25452200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Leviticus_19_31_25452200">Leviticus 19:31</a>).<br />
Ask, “Would Christ approve of this?” Certainly He would not! So we
should avoid all contact with mediums, fortune-tellers, witches and
their devices—and not be fooled by whatever means they might use to try
to entice us. <em> <span class="caps">GN</span></em> <br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/evil">evil</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/demons">demons</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/satan-the-devil">Satan the Devil</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/the-spirit-world">The Spirit World</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/satan-the-devil">Satan the Devil</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/doctrinal-beliefs">Doctrinal Beliefs</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/user/mario-seiglie">Mario Seiglie</a></h4>
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</section>Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-19084366839198150752016-12-16T08:09:00.000-07:002016-12-16T08:09:33.191-07:00YET ANOTHER person leaving Facebook!<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/">www.freedomfeens.com</a> about why someone left <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/blog/?p=2538">Facebook</a>. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/star-wars-mysticism-and-dr-strange.html"> this post </a>about <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-dr-strange">mysticsim</a>, <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-dr-strange">Dr. Strange</a>, and <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-dr-strange">Star Wars.</a> This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/happy-new-year-celebrate-with-67-rap.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472820874501_2074" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post </a>about <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hip-hops-25-year-obsession-with-donald-trump_55d61727e4b055a6dab3524a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">rap songs</a> referencing <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hip-hops-25-year-obsession-with-donald-trump_55d61727e4b055a6dab3524a" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2072" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>. <br />
You can follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2078" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2077" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/blog/?p=2538">Why I Left Facebook, and where to find me online</a></h1>
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<img alt="me-no-Fbook" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2539" height="148" src="https://freedomfeens.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/me-no-Fbook.png" width="445" /><br />
I’ve always thought it was pathetic when people scream “I’m leaving Facebook!”….or MySpace, or however far you want to take it back….I even saw this before the World Wide Web, on newsgroups, in 1990. But it’s only pathetic when people’s reasons for leaving are the usual “No one likes me! And people are mean to me!” Those are not my reasons for leaving Facebook. In fact, a lot of people like me on Facebook. I have 2200 “friends” on there. And a lot of them are people I enjoy talking with.<br />
I find it interesting that you can’t just delete your Facebook account. It takes 14 days. Reminds me of a nanny waiting period to buy a gun. Facebook knows how annoying it is, and like the drug dealer giving out free samples to a junkie who gets off junk, Facebook says “You’ll be back…..” and tries to entice you not to leave. Sort of how some states make you be separated for a while before they’ll “grant” you a divorce. Anyway, if you do want to leave Facebook, <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account">here’s how to do it</a>. (Skip step one there, and before you delete your account, delete all your photos. Who knows if Facebook will decide they own those at some point.)<br />
So, if you’d like to know why I’m leaving Facebook, and where you can find me, read on…..<br />
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WHY I’M LEAVING FACEBOOK, EFFECTIVE NOON TOMORROW (12/19/2012):<br />
1. Facebook is starting to act like The State. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has updated their “user agreement” to say that they can sell any of your photos and not pay you. And they can use photos of your face. They could sell a photo of you smiling with a gun to an anti-gun campaign. If you’re overweight, you could end up in the “before” photo for a weight loss pill. etc. etc.<br />
In saying that they can change their user agreement this drastically, and that you’ve already agreed by being a member, they are acting like The State with its “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract">Social Contract</a>.” That is, Facebook is acting like the government. Even though <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/18/tech/social-media/instagram-terms-users/?hpt=hp_t3">Facebook has backtracked due to public outrage</a>, that sounds to me like what politicians do right before an election. Do I really wanna trust someone who figuratively says “Well, we were gonna rape you, but you complained and people are watching, so we’ll wait and rape you later”? (It’s ironic that so many statists are among the outraged, because they don’t realize this is EXACTLY how all governments behave.)<br />
2. I waste a lot of time on Facebook. I used to <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3220">write books that I was paid to write</a>, but I spend so much time on Facebook that I’ve stopped writing books. You could say “Why not just spend less time on there?” but that’s like giving a junkie a brick of drugs and saying “just use this once in a while.” While this is my problem, not Facebook’s problem, my solution is to leave. I’ll probably go through “withdraw” for a little while, but then I’ll go back to actually producing things instead of wasting time on Facebook.<br />
3. Facebook is censoring people. They are <a href="http://www.infowars.com/facebook-suspends-account-for-questioning-official-narrative-on-shooting/">suspending accounts of people</a> who do not tow the mainstream media line on current events.<br />
4. Facebook is hypocritical. <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/infowars-reporter-warned-not-to-use-facebook-for-political-viewpoints.html">They are suspending accounts of people who post political ideas</a> that Facebook does not like. Then they tell those people “Facebook is not a place for politics”, when in fact, Facebook was spamming me for Obama right before the election.<br />
5. <a href="http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/18/the-government-is-spying-on-you-through-facebook-right-now/">Facebook is spying on you</a>. Of course these days, you are being spied on everywhere, all the time, by governments and corporations, but Facebook is the worst of the worst. And their <a href="http://wiredpen.com/2011/06/07/facebook-changes-privacy-settings-again/">privacy settings are useless</a>.<br />
6. I don’t want to talk to a lot of the people on Facebook. But they want to talk to me, and foist their opinions on everything at me, and they’re usually wrong. It’s annoying. But it goes beyond annoying sometimes. I’ve had death threats simply for my political beliefs from strangers who would never have even heard of me if I weren’t on Facebook. Like I said in one of my books ten years ago, “The great thing about the Internet is that everyone in the world can talk to you. The horrible thing about the Internet is that everyone in the world can talk to you.” This is more true on Facebook than anywhere. It’s set up for that. None of those people would bother trying to find my e-mail and bug me, but on Facebook, that’s just part of what people do. It’s part of the business model.<br />
7. FACEBOOK USERS AS A WHOLE SEEM FAR MORE INTERESTED IN SPREADING FEAR THAN DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. This statement isn’t singling out any individual users, and there are exceptions. But as an entity, the collective mind of Facebook is far more into yelling “THE SKY IS FALLING!” than putting on a hard hat to protect their head from falling sky pieces. The final straw, for me, was when I posted two things on the same day…The first was a link to an article about new ways the government is planning to read your e-mail. The second was a link to an article we wrote on setting up encrypted e-mail so the government can’t read your e-mail. The thing about government reading your e-mail got 170 likes and 76 shares. The piece about actually DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT got ten likes and 3 shares. To me, that says all you need to know about Facebook and why you shouldn’t be on there. Most people on Facebook would rather live in a fear-spiral echo chamber than actually DO ANYTHING to protect themselves. I call it “Fear porn”, and it’s not a type of porn I’m interested in consuming.<br />
8. I’d rather spend my time and effort building my own sites than building someone else’s business model for free. Especially when that “someone else” is a company like Facebook that has no respect, and apparently has absolute contempt, for its “customers.”<br />
WHERE TO FIND ME:<br />
I’m not leaving the Internet. I love the Internet. I’ve been on it since 1990 (before the World Wide Web), and I’m still going to be around. I just hate Facebook. You can find me on Twitter, <a href="https://twitter.com/FreedomFeens">here</a>. You can find Freedom Feens, my thrice-weekly podcast with Neema Vedadi, <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/">here</a>. You can subscribe to that via RSS or iTunes, and post comments on the site, and I sometimes comment back. You can subscribe to the torrent link <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/feens-torrents/">here</a>. (Please seed Feens episodes for when the Central Scrutinizer declares free speech illegal, deletes our website, and throws us in camps.) You can find my interview podcast, Anarchy Gumbo, <a href="http://www.kittyfeet.com/">here</a>.<br />
You can find my past media <a href="http://www.michaelwdean.com/michaels-media/">here</a>, and my e-mail address <a href="http://www.michaelwdean.com/contact/">here</a>. (Though please submit news items for the Feens <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/show-prep/">here</a>, rather than via e-mail.) You can find my encrypted e-mail and PGP key <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/ASSETS/MWD-public-Keys.htm">here</a>. If I know you well and you use private i.m. via Pidgin, you probably already have my Pidgin address. I don’t give it out to many people.<br />
Only about five people have my phone number, and I don’t talk to people much on the phone, but you can call the Feens number during our live shows, info is <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/live-show/">here</a>. During Feens Live shows, I’m also on the <a href="http://www.freedomfeens.com/blog/zchat/chat.htm">Feens chat</a> page (my user name is MichaelFeen), and I occasionally pop in there at other times. I write for <a href="http://freedomfeens.com/blog/">the Freedom Feens blog</a> (the thing you’re reading right now), and you can comment on here, and I sometimes comment back. I’ll also start posting photos of my cats here sometimes, that was always a favorite on Facebook, and I know it helps power the Internet and keeps the tubes from getting slow.<br />
Skype is not a good way to find me except during the Feens live shows. I never turn Skype on unless I’m doing a show, and I never check my Skype messages. I am on YouTube, but that’s a bad way to contact me. I rarely answer on there, but you can <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/rightarmofwyoming">enjoy my videos</a>. I have a Google+ account, but I never check it and will probably be deleting that too.<br />
You can listen to us 24/7 (and occasionally live) on <a href="http://station.voscast.com/4ea6d70bd7547/">Freedom Feens Radio</a>.<br />
Even with all the above, that’s much more manageable than being on Facebook. Facebook is a time suck.<br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/FreedomFeens">There is a Freedom Feens Facebook page</a> that’s run by fans, but not by me. Apparently there will be some Feens updates there.<br />
So anyway, that about covers it. Enjoy Facebook if you stay. It’s useful for some people. But I’ve got things to do, and roads to build.<br />
–Michael W. Dean</div>
Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-33535242261301953722016-12-16T08:02:00.000-07:002016-12-16T08:02:29.186-07:00Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Just Okay (All the Bad Guys Are White; Heroes All Minorities)<span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2012" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Here is an interesting article from </span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/" id="LPlnk815818" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0072c6;">http://www.debbieschlussel.com/</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2011" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows </span><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/weekend-box-office-miss-sloane-office.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0072c6;">this post</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about some of the movies from last week and </span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/three-day-weekend-movie-rentals.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">THIS POST</a></span><span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2007" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This <u>all</u> follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-pick-good-movie.html" id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2015" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post</a> about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch <u>yourself</u>!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/83806/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-just-okay-all-the-bad-guys-are-white-heroes-all-minorities/" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Just Okay (All the Bad Guys Are White; Heroes All Minorities)">Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Just Okay (All the Bad Guys Are White; Heroes All Minorities)</a></h1>
By <b><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/" target="_blank">Debbie Schlussel</a></b><br />
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I saw the new Star Wars prequel, “<b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/?ref_=nv_sr_2" target="_blank">Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</a></b>,”
yesterday morning, under heavy security and lock and key. But it ain’t
all that. The movie–which debuts in theaters Friday (early screenings
Thursday night)–was just okay. Plus, I couldn’t help but notice a stark
casting decision: all the evil Empire leaders are old White men, and
all the rebel leaders and heroes are minorities (including a whiny
Muslim dude) and a perpetually-miserable chick.<span id="more-83806"></span><br />
At some point, one would expect that people will get sick of
Disney/Lucasfilm serving up what is essentially the same Star Wars movie
plot over and over again with more and more politically-correct,
watered-down characters. But apparently not yet, as this movie is
expected to do blockbuster numbers at the box office. Still, the movie
is exactly that: a watered-down rehash of the original Star Wars movie
from 40 years ago, with flat, boring characters picked for their
nationalities and non-White status only. The story is okay, but there’s
no magic here, no excitement the way there was for Harrison Ford’s Han
Solo and his suave smart-aleckiness, no naive but noble Luke Skywalker.
Instead, we get New Coke . . . or probably Crystal Pepsi, because it
tastes flat and it’s so clear and obvious you’re being served up an
inferior imitation of the original thing. Mediocrity gets old . . .
eventually. Though not in America.<br />
Yes, there are a few characters from Star Wars movies past, including
Darth Vader. I won’t reveal those familiar old faces who make cameos,
but I’m not spoiling anything by telling you Vader’s in this (it’s in
all of the trailers and press coverage). And at least one evil old
White man from the original is back, too, courtesy of the magic of
computer and digital regeneration. But the story isn’t that exciting.
Been there, seen that. And it was done better the first four times,
including in last year’s <b><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/80703/star-wars-the-force-awakens-chickified-like-america-but-still-very-good/" target="_blank">Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which I liked a lot better (read my review)</a></b>,
despite it’s verge into political correctness. This one is over the
top in that department. I mean, we’re talkin’ hitting you over the head
with a two-by-four with it.<br />
All of the generals and directors and commanders of the Empire look
the same: old, White, and evil-looking. And the rebels are some
Hispanics (Diego Luna and they even rehabbed Jimmy Smits from some
crypt), some Asian dudes (one of them blind), some Black guys, a dour
chick, and a Pakistani Muslim–Muslim-grievance-theater rapper and actor
Riz Ahmed, who plays Bodhi Rook. I’m bummed there was no Egyptian
transsexual vegan knitter. Would it have killed them to have even just
one White male rebel hero? Or was Jedi “White privilege” used up in the
first Star Wars flick? Maybe I can start a hashtag:
#EvilEmpireSoWhite. Funny how the #OscarsSoWhite isn’t whining about no
minorities cast for those roles.<br />
The movie takes place before the original and after the Jar-Jar Binks
fiasco set of movies. There aren’t any Jedi Knights or Kedi warriors
per se, although we know that there is a Force and it is with some of
the characters. Still, the Force seems to be missing most of the time,
if not all of it. The characters are boring, the story is full of
holes, and as I noted, it just lacks any charisma or magic. There’s no
charm here. And it’s missing any kind of warmth, the kind you felt with
the original Star Wars trilogy, back in the day. I guess maybe that’s
the times we’re living in–a colder world.<br />
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Felicity Jones–the dullest, most overrated actress on Earth–is a dud
as the heroine Jyn Erso. She looks bitter and sour all the time, and
her acting is equally unremarkable and unenthusiastic. Even though,
supposedly, the Force is with her (or something), it’s hard to believe
that she has the chops of a male MMA fighter. But in today’s Star Wars
world, everything has to be chickified (<b><a href="http://%3ca%20href=/" target="_blank">” target=”_blank”>as it was in last year’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”–again, read my review</a></b>).
Just how many times must Luke Skywalker be remade into a girl? She’s
the daughter of the White male architect of the Death Star. But she’s
been captured and joins the rebels. Plus her dad isn’t as evil is you
might think. She and a band of others–again, all minorities–come
together with the Rebel Alliance to steal the plans for the Death Star.
That a band of rebels stole those plans, was referenced in the original
Star Wars movie, and from that, the filmmakers created this movie.<br />
There’s no Yoda here, but there are the traditional scenes of aliens
in a bar, however so brief. And there’s the usual magnificent John
Williams music, although the Darth Vader theme is muted and the main
Star Wars theme is as well (at least until the closing credits roll).
There’s also a more rudimentary droid than the shiny gold C3PO we’re
used to (why do all Droids have an English accent?). The studio asked
me not to provide intricate details of plot points or to give away
twists and other spoilers. But, sadly, other than the cameos I alluded
to above, there really aren’t any of these to give. The movie just
wasn’t that suspenseful or exciting.<br />
I didn’t hate this movie. And there is–per usual with Star Wars
flicks–stark good versus evil, which I like. But I hated the PC
casting. And I just wasn’t very overwhelmed (or whelmed in any way) by
this movie. It’s just a churned out factory product, and nothing I’d
watch again like I did with other Star Wars movies. While it’s not
objectionable, it’s not that likable, either. It’s just . . . okay.
Color me disappointed.<br />
As Darth Vader might say, I find this film’s lack of imagination disturbing.<br />
Forget the Evil Empire. I’ve met the Mediocre Empire. It’s called Disney.<br />
***<br />
BTW, I say all of this as someone who is a tremendous, life-long Star
Wars fan. (Since we aren’t Trekkies, are we “Warsies”? We don’t have a
term.) <b><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/1752/h-l-schlussel-m-d-my-dad-zl-1937-2007-blessed-be-the-memory-of-an-american-patriot-proud-jew/" target="_blank">My late father</a></b>
took me to see the original when I was just seven years old. In a day
when parents still cared about what their kids consumed, he went to see
it first. “Kids, you have to see this great movie!” he said. When it
comes to Rogue One, I can hear my dad wondering, “Is that all there is?”<br />
<b>HALF A REAGAN PLUS ONE DARTH VADER</b><br />
<img alt="halfreagan" height="60" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/halfreagan.jpg" title="halfreagan" width="25" /><img alt="plus.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/plus.jpg" width="23" /><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/83806/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-just-okay-all-the-bad-guys-are-white-heroes-all-minorities/darththug/" rel="attachment wp-att-83813"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-83813" height="77" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/darththug.jpg" width="60" /></a><br />
<b>Watch the trailer</b> . . .<br />
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-8892018933365434872016-12-16T07:53:00.000-07:002016-12-16T07:53:23.618-07:00Star Wars, Mysticism and Dr. Strange<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/">www.thebereancall.org</a> about <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-dr-strange">mysticsim</a>, <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-dr-strange">Dr. Strange</a>, and <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-dr-strange">Star Wars.</a> This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/southern-poverty-law-center-targets.html"> this post </a>about the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/southern-poverty-law-center-targets-anti-jihad-crusaders-ann-corcoran-honored">SPLC</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/happy-new-year-celebrate-with-67-rap.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472820874501_2074" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post </a>about <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hip-hops-25-year-obsession-with-donald-trump_55d61727e4b055a6dab3524a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">rap songs</a> referencing <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hip-hops-25-year-obsession-with-donald-trump_55d61727e4b055a6dab3524a" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2072" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>. <br />
You can follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2078" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2077" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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In the <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-coming-world-religion-part-one-0">October</a> and <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/content/mysticism-and-coming-world-religion-part-two-0">November</a> 2016 issues of <i>The Berean Call</i> newsletter, a thesis was presented based upon Scripture and an observation of what has been taking place in the world and Christendom. It is simply this: the coming worldwide religion of the <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/taxonomy/term/2/antichrist">Antichrist</a> is rooted in and will establish itself as <i>mysticism</i>. Definitions of mysticism include: belief that one may attain a direct knowledge of and a final union with God or some Supreme Deity (personal or impersonal) through subjective experiences, altered states of consciousness, meditation, feelings, and occult manifestations. It is the turning from objective reality (reason, true <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/taxonomy/term/58/science">science</a>, facts) to metaphysical assumptions and speculations. Mysticism is believed to be the pathway to the spiritual realm that ultimately controls the physical universe. This article is a review of the latest global promotion of mysticism in the movie <i>Dr. Strange</i>.<br />
Before I became a biblical Christian—one who was graciously saved by putting my faith in the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the full payment for all my sins—I was a Hollywood screenwriter. One of the things I learned in my time at 20th Century-Fox studios and with independent productions was that as a screenwriter my primary objective was <i>entertainment</i>. The formula was hardly complex: the more entertaining the movie, the bigger the box office success. There are many other things that may go into a movie: for example, a message, a teaching, or a political, religious, or philosophical slant. But to the degree that any of those things detract from the entertainment value, they can put financial success in harm’s way. That is a major reason why the majority of theatrical movies fail at the box office.<br />
On the other hand, the movie medium is the most effective vehicle for promoting specific beliefs in the world today, and that potential is not lost on the screenwriter. For example, there are three movies that have had enormous success by featuring a religious teaching and yet lost no enthusiasts because the films were highly entertaining. <i>Star Wars</i> introduced the Force as a spiritual energy field that connects all living things. Director George Lucas wanted to “awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young audiences, suggesting a belief in God without endorsing any specific religion” (<i>The Mythology of Star Wars</i> [2000 documentary]). The ongoing theme of controlling the power of the Force produced occult manifestations throughout the <i>Star Wars</i> episodes such as telepathy and using the mind to manipulate matter. From the late 1970s on, children have been inculcated with “May the Force be with you,” and Yoda’s instruction to Luke Skywalker for manipulating the Force: “Luke, trust your feelings.” Entertaining? Yes. Spiritually seductive? Yes. Antithetical to Scripture? Totally.<br />
In 2009, <i>Avatar</i> (a Hindu term for an incarnated spirit or god) at one point surpassed <i>Star Wars</i> at the box office, becoming the highest grossing film in history. As <i>Star Wars</i> is to Eastern mystical occultism, the movie <i>Avatar</i> is to the largest non-centralized and non-structured religion in the world: shamanism. Shamanism is practiced throughout the globe, from Siberia to the Solomon Islands, from Africa to the Far East. Yet the fact that it functions identically among people groups who have never been in contact with one another confirms that the shaman’s guidance comes from a nonhuman (i.e., spiritual) source. <i>Avatar</i> portrays a litany of anti-biblical beliefs, albeit in a highly entertaining way: through reincarnation, the worship of nature and nature spirits, Gaia as supreme deity, Hinduism, goddess worship, panentheism, the connection of humans and nature, the purity of those closest to nature, and spirit/soul travel. Writer/director James Cameron loaded his film with Hindu nuances (e.g., the blue skin of the Na’vi, akin to the gods Krishna and Rama) and declared that he “tried to make a film that would touch people’s spirituality across the broad spectrum” (<i>The Times of India</i>, retrieved March 20, 2010).<br />
Both <i>Star Wars</i> and <i>Avatar</i> teach various aspects of mysticism indirectly through their focus on the Force and shamanism respectively, but <i>Dr. Strange</i> (the latest of the Marvel super heroes to come to the big screen) is a narrative that specifically and clearly explains mysticism as the story unfolds. A surgeon at the top of his profession loses the use of his hands due to a horrific car crash. Nothing scientifically attempted is able to restore his surgical skills. Dr. Strange, therefore, having lost all but a fleck of hope, journeys to Katmandu. His huge ego, wrapped in a materialist mindset, sets the stage for Mysticism Apologetics 101. There he is led to the “Ancient One,” a sorceress who dismantles his zealous disbelief in nonphysical reality.<br />
Dr. Strange: “I do not believe in fairy tales about chakras or energy.… There is no such thing as spirit. We are made of matter and nothing more.” Brushing his ignorance aside, the sorceress pushes him into <i>experiences</i> and makes pronouncements that have no correlation outside of a mystical worldview. Dr. Strange (and the audience) are taught that “At the root of existence, mind and matter meet. Both shape reality.” Yet we learn quickly that the mystical realm is far more powerful than physical matter, and we follow the path of Dr. Strange, the former hardcore materialist, as he develops into the “Supreme Sorcerer,” supposedly drawing only upon the “good side” of mystical power.<br />
Like the other Marvel movies, <i>Dr. Strange</i> is highly amusing, well written and directed, includes humor, dazzling special effects, and very likeable characters. That’s the good news for the ticket purchaser: you get your entertainment-money’s worth. That good news however is bad news for biblical Christians, those who are aware that the chief mystical ingredients of the <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/taxonomy/term/2/antichrist">Antichrist</a>’s worldwide religion are spreading like wildfire, and who are grieved over the multitude of souls who are deceived in the process. Those ingredients include sorcery (<span class="bls" id="Acts_8_9-11_36986500">Acts:8:9-11</span><span class="popup" id="popup-Acts_8_9-11_36986500" style="-ms-overflow-x: hidden; -ms-overflow-y: auto; background-color: #eeeeee; border: 4px ridge rgb(0, 170, 255); height: 200px; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 300px; z-index: 999;"> <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[9]</span></span> But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[10]</span></span> To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[11]</span></span> And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. <br /><a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/bible/1/ACT/8/9-11#v9">See All...</a></span>; <span class="bls" id="Revelation_9_21_37144300">Revelation:9:21</span><span class="popup" id="popup-Revelation_9_21_37144300" style="-ms-overflow-x: hidden; -ms-overflow-y: auto; background-color: #eeeeee; border: 4px ridge rgb(0, 170, 255); height: 200px; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 300px; z-index: 999;">Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.<br /><a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/bible/1/REV/9/21#v21">See All...</a></span>; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15), lying signs and wonders (<span class="bls" id="2_Thessalonians_2_9-10_37338600">2 Thessalonians:2:9-10</span><span class="popup" id="popup-2_Thessalonians_2_9-10_37338600" style="-ms-overflow-x: hidden; -ms-overflow-y: auto; background-color: #eeeeee; border: 4px ridge rgb(0, 170, 255); height: 200px; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 300px; z-index: 999;"> <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[9]</span></span> Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[10]</span></span> And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. <br /><a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/bible/1/2TS/2/9-10#v9">See All...</a></span>; <span class="bls" id="Revelation_16_13-14_37486700">Revelation:16:13-14</span><span class="popup" id="popup-Revelation_16_13-14_37486700" style="-ms-overflow-x: hidden; -ms-overflow-y: auto; background-color: #eeeeee; border: 4px ridge rgb(0, 170, 255); height: 200px; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 300px; z-index: 999;"> <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[13]</span></span> And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[14]</span></span> For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. <br /><a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/bible/1/REV/16/13-14#v13">See All...</a></span>), and a supreme sorcerer-to-come who is empowered by Satan himself (<span class="bls" id="Revelation_13_11-14_37690000">Revelation:13:11-14</span><span class="popup" id="popup-Revelation_13_11-14_37690000" style="-ms-overflow-x: hidden; -ms-overflow-y: auto; background-color: #eeeeee; border: 4px ridge rgb(0, 170, 255); height: 200px; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 300px; z-index: 999;"> <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[11]</span></span> And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[12]</span></span> And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[13]</span></span> And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, <span class="verse"><span style="color: green;">[14]</span></span> And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. <br /><a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/bible/1/REV/13/11-14#v11">See All...</a></span>). Jesus warned that these things would take place just prior to His return (Matthew 24).<br />
Among those who profess to be Christians, confusion is further induced by a myriad of attempts to spin anti-biblical movies as Christian, including the <i>Harry Potter</i> series, which offers pure, unadulterated instructions in witchcraft. <i>Christianity Today</i>, a professing Christian journal that has been fostering the <a href="http://www.thebereancall.org/taxonomy/term/809/apostasy">apostasy</a> in copious ways for years, provides an obvious example of <i>sanctifying mysticism</i> in its review of <i>Dr. Strange</i> (<a href="https://goo.gl/e9Ytyx">https://goo.gl/e9Ytyx</a>). Understanding, therefore, that what is taking place is actually a fulfillment of prophecy that will continue its course until Jesus returns, what is a biblical believer to do? We need to <i>know</i> what the Bible declares about the days ahead, and we must <i>pray</i> that the Lord will give us the opportunity to point out these things to people who don’t know what the Scriptures teach, including the lost, professing “Christians,” and sincere but uninformed believers.</div>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-76324919690726041062016-12-15T08:15:00.000-07:002016-12-15T08:15:51.661-07:00Could the Dollar Fall? What the Federal Reserve is doing!<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about the<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/could-the-dollar-fall"> Federal Reserve </a>and the <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/could-the-dollar-fall">U.S. dollar</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-authentic-is-christmas-portrayal-of.html">this post </a>about<a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth"> Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<time class="no-break" datetime="1255323600" pubdate=""><strong></strong></time> <span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/darris-mcneely" title="View user profile.">Darris McNeely</a></span> </div>
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Could the dollar be challenged and replaced by another world
currency? Will something that until recently was "unthinkable" become a
reality? The global financial slump is challenging long-held
assumptions. </div>
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Several recent headlines in London's <em> Financial Times</em>
illustrate a continuing thought among world financial leaders. The first
headline said, “Brazil and China Eye Plan to Axe Dollar.” “China
Attacks Dollar's Dominance” read another. A third spoke of
“De-Dollarization and the Ending of America's Financial-Military
Hegemony.” Another spotlighted the lack of confidence in American
financial leadership: “Dollar Falls as Geithner [the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Treasury Secretary] Hails Recovery Hopes.”<br />
Warning shots are being fired across America's bow. Many want an end to
the era of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. If that happens,
your financial world will be forever altered.<br />
<h3>
Could this happen?</h3>
The United States is now the world's largest debtor nation ($10.6
trillion). And China owns more of that debt than any other nation—more
than $800 billion. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has publicly expressed
“worries” over China's significant holdings of <span class="caps">U.S.</span> government bonds, which ties China to America's good times and its bad times.<br />
China is concerned that the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Treasury
bills (T-bills) and bonds it holds will lose much of their worth if the
dollar is devalued or the financial crisis does not turn around.<br />
By calling for the creation of another reserve currency, China, Russia
and other nations seek insurance for their economies against the
problems generated when one country's economy goes bad. They also seek
to end American dominance over the world economy. America's decline and
China's rise fit their geopolitical ambitions.<br />
Ending the dollar's role in the world economy is not an easy matter. <em> The Wall Street Journal</em>
stated: “The technical and political hurdles to implementing China's
recommendation [to create a new standard world currency to replace the
dollar] are enormous, so even if backed by other nations, the proposal
is unlikely to change the dollar's role in the short term.<br />
“Central banks around the world hold more <span class="caps">U.S.</span>
dollars and dollar securities than they do assets denominated in any
other individual foreign currency. Such reserves can be used to
stabilize the value of the central banks' domestic currencies” (“China
Takes Aim at Dollar,” March 24, 2009).<br />
<h3>
Will the dollar's reign soon end?</h3>
Before the dollar, the British pound sterling formed the underpinning
of the global economy. It took two world wars and several decades for
the world standard to shift from the pound to the dollar. Since the end
of World War <span class="caps">II</span>, the dollar has been king.<br />
Although the current financial problems ignited in America have led to a
global meltdown, it will take more than what we've experienced so far
to topple America from its current role. That is not to say this could
not or will not happen.<br />
Creating another world currency requires several factors to be in
place. Research analysts at the private intelligence agency Stratfor
outlined what those factors would be:<br />
“As to a world beyond the dollar, the issue is that a reserve currency
is not decided upon; it creates itself. Two things are needed to create a
reserve currency. First, there must be sufficient liquidity to support a
global system. That requires a central bank with an enormous amount of
autonomy from a state government, and the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Federal Reserve is unparalleled on this count. Not even the European Central Bank can compete.<br />
“Second, the economy upon which the currency is based must be large
enough to withstand fluctuations caused by other economies buying and
selling its assets in massive amounts. Again, the United States is the
only economy that potentially could qualify.<br />
“Part and parcel of any replacement of the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> dollar would be a large-scale abandonment of <span class="caps">U.S.</span>
T-bills as the core of Chinese currency reserves, which—as the
conventional wisdom holds—would force intractable economic problems upon
the United States. But a closer look reveals that this is not the case.<br />
“First, selling <span class="caps">U.S.</span> T-bills en masse simply
is not possible. Every seller requires a buyer, and the volumes at hand
cannot be exchanged quickly. Second, starting down that road would cause
the value of the securities in question to plummet, destroying the
savings the Chinese have been building up for years. The so-called
'nuclear option' really is not an option at all” (“China's Calculated
Currency Rhetoric,” March 25, 2009).<br />
China has its own problems. The huge middle class created by their
recent boom is beginning to experience layoffs and financial setbacks.
The ruling Communist Party cannot afford discontent from this segment of
its society. Once people have tasted materialism, they won't go back.
For now it's in China's interest to blame a foreign power (America). It
deflects attention from the home front.<br />
Yet clearly, China is playing a very dangerous geopolitical game with calls for a new reserve currency.<br />
<h3>
What would it mean for Americans?</h3>
Since the end of World War <span class="caps">II</span>, the dollar has
been the dominant world currency. For most living Americans, this is
the world into which they were born. This is all they have known.
Americans enjoy one of the world's highest living standards due to the
stability and wealth created by America's dominant economic role.<br />
So what would it mean for the American consumer if the dollar were no longer the world's reserve currency?<br />
Everything Americans import would cost more—<em> everything.</em>
Americans would have to buy the new currency in order to trade in world
markets. Last year's $4-per-gallon gasoline would quickly look like
a bargain.<br />
The credit market would collapse. Investors would flee toxic assets, further locking up the economy.<br />
The <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Federal Reserve would print more
money to combat the credit squeeze, with the likely result being
hyperinflation, meaning higher prices for available goods. Remember the
stories of Weimar Germany after World War I when it took a wheelbarrow
full of money to buy a loaf of bread? Not pretty.<br />
American power and influence in the world would seriously decline.
Little understood today is the role of the economy in shaping and
controlling world events. The dollar's place in the world adds
incalculable weight to American influence. With the dollar diminished,
that influence would be reduced substantially. Russia and China are
waiting for their turn to assume that power, but they would certainly
meet with competition from the European Union.<br />
Big losers from the fall of the dollar would include Japan and Latin
America. Because they hold much of America's debt, China and the
oil-rich Persian Gulf states would also see huge losses. Israel and
Egypt would suffer as well because of massive amounts of American aid
they would lose. What this would mean to the Middle East calculus is
unknown, but Egypt could be destabilized as a result.<br />
World politics would be altered. The vacuum of power created would be contested. The <span class="caps">EU</span>,
which stands to gain from the fall of the dollar, would be among the
chief contenders. China would no doubt make a play as well, but a number
of factors would hinder its bid. Stability would arise from the
potential period of chaos with another power becoming the global
economy's main engine. America's time in the sun would be over.<br />
American lifestyles would change radically. The end of cheap oil, low
interest rates and deficit spending would mean a lower quality of life
and higher taxes. What this would mean to the social fabric of the
nation is unknown. But Americans' way of life would dramatically change.<br />
This last point speaks to the character of the American people. Do they
have the same qualities that helped a prior generation survive the
upheaval of a Great Depression and World War <span class="caps">II</span>?<br />
<h3>
America losing the pride of her power?</h3>
Those pushing to create a different world are no doubt working hard to
bring about the demise of the dollar and the end of America's dominant
role in the world. In <em> The Good News</em> we have spoken before of America's prophesied loss of “the pride of [its] power” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Leviticus_26_19_64155800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Leviticus_26_19_64155800">Leviticus 26:19</a>).
While military might is what we think of first in this regard, economic
factors are also important here. The dollar losing its reserve currency
status would radically change America's leading role in the world.<br />
For one, America's crippling foreign debt would get worse with
decreased ability to finance the burden. In time the country would be at
the mercy of those holding its obligations, with little room to
maneuver. Economic enslavement to other nations would be on the horizon.<br />
However, it's unlikely that this will happen immediately. China and
several Arab states hold too many dollar-denominated instruments to see
this change. As mentioned, they would lose too much. Right now the
United States is too big, too rich and too powerful for them to allow it
to fail. There is too much at stake on the global scene.<br />
That does not mean things couldn't change—and change quickly—but the proper circumstances have to be in place.<br />
It will not happen until the God of heaven <em> allows</em> it to happen. God has blessed America with its wealth, power and resulting prestige. He will move to change that when it fits <em> His timing</em> for His great plan for all the nations.<br />
Until then we have days to live and many lives to touch. We have
character to develop and mistakes to correct. We have days to love those
close to us and, above all, time to discover God and His attention to
the details of eternity, history and our lives. Make the most of the
time while you can. <em> <span class="caps">GN</span></em> <br />
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-28106124240537357572016-12-15T08:03:00.000-07:002016-12-15T08:03:40.248-07:00Mexico, NOT RUSSIA, Has A Plan To Stop Donald Trump. But It’s Just A Bluff—Given Patriotic American Leadership<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.vdare.com/">http://www.vdare.com</a> about <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-mexicos-jorge-castaneda-has-a-plan-to-stop-donald-trump-but-its-just-a-bluff-given-patriotic-american-leadership">Mexican</a>, not <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-mexicos-jorge-castaneda-has-a-plan-to-stop-donald-trump-but-its-just-a-bluff-given-patriotic-american-leadership">Russian</a>, meddling. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/on-immigration-will-tom-cotton-succeed.html">this post </a>about Senator <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/on-immigration-will-tom-cotton-succeed.html">Tom Cotton</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/report-buried-trump-related-hate-crimes.html">this post</a> about the <a href="http://www.alipac.us/f9/report-splc-buried-trump-related-%91hate-crimes%92-against-white-kids-341292/" target="_blank">SPLC</a>. </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Remember, “Amnesty” means ANY non-enforcement of existing immigration laws! This follows <a href="http://briansnewone.blogspot.com/2013/06/contact-these-nc-house-reps-h786.html?showComment=1371340409102#c3000924856013028097" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2004" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2003" style="color: #0072c6;">this comment</span></a> and <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/reporting-illegal-aliens-how-to-do-it.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3101" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3100" style="color: #2288bb;">this post</span></a> about how to <b id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471957977604_2443">Report Illegal Immigrants</b>! Also, you can read two very interesting books <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">HERE</span></a>.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3095" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Please follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3097" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3096" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-mexicos-jorge-castaneda-has-a-plan-to-stop-donald-trump-but-its-just-a-bluff-given-patriotic-american-leadership">Memo From Middle America: Mexico’s Jorge Castaneda Has A Plan To Stop Donald Trump. But It’s Just A Bluff—Given Patriotic American Leadership</a></h1>
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“Some Americans….dislike immigration, but there is very little they can do about it,” gloated <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/jorge-casta-eda-on-mexicos-eternal-ma-ana">Jorge Castaneda</a> in <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> in 1995 [<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/95jul/feroce.htm"><i>Ferocious Differences</i></a><i>,</i> July, 1995 ] In the past few decades, it would have been hard to say <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/mexicos-talleyrand?redirect=http://www.vdare.com/articles/mexicos-talleyrand">Vicente Fox’s foreign minister</a> was wrong. But the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/said-in-spanish-mexican-government-accepts-trump-triumph-but-reserves-the-right-to-meddle-la-estrategia-sailer-etc">triumph of Donald Trump </a>may mean Americans will finally <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/jorge-casta-eda-on-mexicos-eternal-ma-ana">reclaim control of our immigration policy</a>. And Mexican elites don’t like that one bit.<br />
Castaneda, like other <a href="https://www.vdare.com/articles/said-in-spanish-mexican-elite-in-tailspin-after-trumps-triumphant-visit-to-mexico?redirect=http://www.vdare.com/articles/said-in-spanish-mexican-elite-in-tailspin-after-trumps-triumphant-visit-to-mexico">Mexican elitists,</a>
is livid over Trump. Though it’s concealed in Mexican nationalist or
globalist “human rights” rhetoric, the real reason Trump’s election
victory terrifies them is it threatens their strategy of <a href="http://www.vdare.com/letters/an-illinois-reader-discovers-jorge-castanedas-plan-flood-america-with-illegal-aliens-and-hav">dumping the Mexican poor on the American taxpayers</a>, in the process expanding <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-why-do-we-put-up-with-this-mexico-s-new-president-enrique-pena-nie">Mexican influence within our borders.</a><br />
The <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-wind-from-the-south-anti-white-populism">Mexican elite</a> is already attempting to sabotage Trump’s efforts. Thus the Mexican foreign ministry is continuing and probably expanding <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-post-election-mexico-steps-up-meddling-but-trump-can-tromp-on-them">its meddling through its vast consular network</a>
on U.S. soil. But Mexican elitists who aren’t part of the current
Mexican government are also working these issues. Castaneda is at the
forefront of these efforts.<br />
Castaneda has a <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-208">long history </a>of working for “<a href="https://jorgecastaneda.org/notas/2016/12/09/mexico-trump-salami-enchilada-completa/">the whole enchilada</a>” – a comprehensive migratory accord giving Mexico effective veto power over U.S. immigration policy. Of course, he <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Casta%C3%B1eda_Gutman#/media/File:Jorge_G._Castaneda_-_World_Economic_Forum_on_Latin_America_2011.jpg">has little in common</a>
with the poor mestizos he purports to champion, but instead operates as
part of the academic/journalistic jet set lecturing Americans about why
they should give up their country.<br />
In a new column entitled <a href="https://jorgecastaneda.org/notas/2016/11/11/pintar-nuestra-raya/"><i>Pintar Nuestra Raya</i></a>
[“paint our line,” the equivalent of “drawing a line in the sand”]
Castaneda declared Mexico should resist Trump in three major ways [Jorge
G. Castaneda website, November 11, 2016, first published in <i>el Financiero. </i>My translations].<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i><span style="color: #993300;">First</span>,</i> </b>Castaneda says Mexico should declare the construction of <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/the-psychology-of-the-great-wall-of-trump-vs-jebs-cant-do-cuckservatism">The Wall</a>
is a “hostile act toward Mexico.” He urges the use of “legal,
ecological, political, cultural and social” instruments so “it is not
constructed.” He even says “they [= Americans] have no right” to build
it.</li>
</ul>
<img align="right" src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/vdare-live/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/greatwalloftrump.jpg" width="225" />How is <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/mr-bush-put-up-this-wall">building a wall </a>on our side of the border “hostile?” The way the Mexican government <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/of-course-mexico-is-sending-illegals-their-government-backs-the-migrants-all-the-way">incites</a> migrants to <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/said-in-spanish-mexican-government-accepts-trump-triumph-but-reserves-the-right-to-meddle-la-estrategia-sailer-etc">break our laws </a>is obviously more “hostile” than a common-sense measure to <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-159">protect our sovereignty</a>. And Mexico is in no position to say what we can or can not do. But <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/lowlights-from-a-when-illegal-aliens-say-jump-you-just-ask-how-high-conference">they’ve been walking all over us </a>for decades. It’s going to be a shock when the gravy train ends.<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #993300;"><b><i>Secondly</i></b></span>,
Castaneda says “NAFTA cannot be re-opened or renegotiated.“ But in the
very next sentence, he writes in the future there can be a “certain
renegotiation” of NAFTA “in exchange for other concessions.”</li>
</ul>
Other concessions? According to Castaneda we can’t build a wall and can’t <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/rasmussen-poll-majority-of-voters-believe-government-acts-against-their-interests-particularly-in-trade-deals">renegotiate </a>a <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/trump-speech-thumps-the-great-god-globalism">trade agreement. </a>So what other concessions does he want from us?<br />
<ul>
<li><b><i><span style="color: #993300;">Third</span>,</i> </b>Castaneda
says “massive deportation of Mexicans” is “unacceptable for Mexico.”
Indeed, he openly says Mexico should try to make it “enormously
difficult” for us to enforce our laws.</li>
</ul>
In other words, as Mexico’s elites see it, they should call the shots in our immigration system.<br />
To frustrate our ability to enforce immigration law, Castaneda says<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/we-should-do-what-mexican-officials-do-about-deporting-illegals-ignoring-what-they-say-about-it"> Mexican officials</a><br />
<blockquote>
…could very easily tell the U.S. authorities that we
accept a deportee on the condition that they demonstrate to us, with
documents, their Mexican nationality. If they allege that by definition
the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/tales-of-the-undocumented">undocumented</a>
don’t have documents, we say to them that we think that the great
majority of the deportees are Central Americans, and that if they want
to deport them that they send them to Central America. Some Mexicans
will end up there… For the time being, such a delay of deportations will
accumulate that the Americans themselves will not know what to do.</blockquote>
Note Castaneda’s <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-mexican-meddlers-even-madder-about-trump-but-not-about-white-mexican-official-making-racist-fun-of-indians">disdain for ordinary Mexicans.</a> He doesn’t mind some of them being accidentally deported to Central America to make his point.<br />
But there’s a simple solution on the U.S. side. Just deport anybody, regardless of nationality, <i><a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-to-force-mexico-to-control-its-border-why-not-dump-central-americans-illegals-on-it">who enters illegally from Mexico</a> </i>to<i> Mexico</i>. Make Mexico deal with them. After all, they <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-10">entered the U.S. from Mexico!</a><br />
But Castaneda has an even more insidious suggestion. He openly states
Mexico should use Central American immigration as a weapon against us [<a href="http://www.univision.com/univision-news/opinion/mexico-can-use-central-american-immigration-as-bargaining-chip-with-trump?cmpid=444222&hootPostID=c3a5d4553b934d99302cd8012030bea6"><i>Mexico can use Central-American immigration as bargaining chip with Trump</i></a>, Univision, December 8, 2016]:<br />
<blockquote>
There has been a surge in Central American immigrants
heading for the United States since Donald Trump won the Election in
November, according to several initial reports… If this is the case, it
is only logical. Trump has vowed to build his wall. It does not matter
if Mexico will pay for it or even if the threat is true. It makes
perfect sense for anybody hoping to make it to the United States, from
Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala, to do so before any wall is put up….If
they have relatives in the United States, or if they think that their
reception will be better with President Barack Obama still in power
until January 20, then their decision is perfectly rational.</blockquote>
Castaneda recounts how <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-central-americans-continue-to-invade-because-our-rulers-including-congressional-gop-let-them">during the Surge of 2014,</a> the Obama Administration pressured Mexico:<br />
<blockquote>
When the first wave of unaccompanied minors came to the
United States in July 2014, Mexico complied with the White House request
to cooperate in stopping the flow of immigrants. The logic behind it
was sound. The goal was <i>to avoid sparking anti-immigrant hysteria in the United States precisely when immigration reform seemed set to prosper</i>.</blockquote>
My italics! By “hysteria,” Castaneda means provoking Americans who want a<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/derbs-oneparagraph-program-for-immigration-sanity"> sane American immigration policy.</a><br />
Castaneda says in 2014, in hopes of<a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/cpac-2014-conservatism-inc-tries-to-finesse-amnesty-immigration-surge-but-ann-coulter-doesn"> an imminent amnesty i</a>n
the U.S., Mexican President Pena “…declined to take either of the two
feasible actions for a country caught up in this immigration situation.”<br />
These “two feasible actions”:<br />
<ul>
<li>First, declare the Central Americans as “refugees,” let them stay in UN-supervised <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/syrian-refugees-are-happy-in-turkish-camp">refugee camps </a>in
Mexico for a month, after which “they have the right to leave Mexico
for wherever they choose: to the United States, or their home country.”</li>
<li>Second, “To follow Turkey’s example”. Here Castaneda refers to Turkey’s Erdogan <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/merkels-boner-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving">agreeing </a>to stop the flow of refugees entering Europe in return<b> </b>for <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/erdogan-jerks-merkels-strings-merkel-agrees-to-prosecute-german-citizen-who-made-fun-of-turk">benefits for Turkey.</a></li>
</ul>
It’s telling that Castaneda sees the relationship of Mexico with the United States as being analogous to that between <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/merkel-desperately-kowtowing-to-erdogan">Turkey and the European Union.</a><br />
According to Castaneda, “Mexico has agreed to do the United States’
dirty work without maintaining its values via the refugee option and
without extracting any benefits from a Turkey-style alternative. But
things have now changed.”<br />
So what does Castaneda propose?<br />
<blockquote>
….Trump is no friend to Mexico. It makes no sense for
Mexico to keep doing America’s dirty work with Trump as president if he
wants to build walls, deport Mexicans or revise the NAFTA trade deal.
Still, Mexico has a bargaining chip. Mexico can stop the flow of
immigrants on the southern border, or it can allow immigrants free
access to its northern border.</blockquote>
But how is this a bargaining chip? Aren’t there a<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/obama-countdown-illegal-immigration-ramped-up-during-fy2016">lready hordes of illegal alien Central Americans </a>entering our southern border? And did not <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-middle-america-formerly-known-as-memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-33">those same illegal aliens pass through Mexico?</a><br />
This means that Mexico either can’t or won’t stop the flow of Central
Americans. Castaneda is either mistaken and a victim of his own
arrogance or just bluffing.<br />
The real bargaining chips are in the hands of President-elect Trump, not the Mexican government.<br />
If we get control of our border, then hundreds of thousands of
Central American illegal aliens could be stuck in Mexico. And that’s
something the Mexican elite doesn’t want!<br />
So rave on, Jorge. If Trump does what he pledged to do, Mexico may have to finally get control of its southeastern border!<br />
And if Trump does what he said he’d do, it won’t matter what Mexican elites say about it.<br />
<span style="color: #993300;"><i>American citizen Allan Wall</i> (</span><a href="mailto:allan39@provalue.net" target="_blank"><i>email</i></a><span style="color: #993300;"><i> him) moved back to the U.S.A. in </i></span><a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall-152"><i>2008 </i></a><i><span style="color: #993300;">after
many years residing in Mexico. Allan`s wife is Mexican, and their two
sons are bilingual. In 2005, Allan served a tour of duty in Iraq with
the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived</span> </i><a href="http://www.vdare.com/users/allan-wall" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><i>;<span style="color: #993300;"> his Mexidata.info articles are archived</span> </i><a href="http://www.allanwall.info/mexidata-articles/"><i>here </i></a><i><span style="color: #993300;">; his News With Views columns are archived</span> </i><a href="http://www.newswithviews.com/Wall/allanA.htm" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><i>; <span style="color: #993300;">and his website is </span></i><a href="http://www.allanwall.info/" target="_blank"><i>here</i></a><i>.</i></div>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-11936430715319976222016-12-14T08:05:00.000-07:002016-12-14T08:05:24.990-07:00How Authentic Is the Christmas Portrayal of Christ's Birth?<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about<a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth"> Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth">Christmas</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/mankinds-choice-freedom-or-slavery.html">this post </a>about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/mankinds-choice-freedom-or-slavery" target="_blank">slavery</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/how-authentic-is-the-christmas-portrayal-of-christs-birth">How Authentic Is the Christmas Portrayal of Christ's Birth?</a></h1>
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<span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/edmond-macaraeg" title="View user profile.">Edmond Macaraeg</a></span> <span class="reading-time no-break"> Estimated reading time: 4 minutes</span> </div>
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During the Christmas season the Christian world's attention is
focused on its most important religious holiday that purportedly
commemorates the birth date of Jesus Christ. The influence of tradition
has caused the portrayal of Christ's birth to stray from the true
biblical account. When compared to the carefully detailed account of the
gospel writer Luke at least three very important deviations from
Scripture stand out. </div>
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This holiday season here in the Philippines consumes one third of
each year.
The Philippines has the fourth largest Christian population on earth.
With over 80 million of its people professing to be Christian (mostly
Catholic), the “Spirit of Christmas” begins as early as September 1 and
doesn’t end until January 6 each year. During this four-month season
Christmas carols are played in public and pervade the airwaves.
In an effort to authentically portray the birth of Christ, a new movie
titled The Nativity Story was released on December 1 for showing in
theatres during this year’s Christmas season. Starring Keisha
Castle-Hughes as Mary and Oscar Isaac as Joseph with Shohreh Aghdashloo
as Elizabeth, movie director Catherine Hardwicke sought to achieve
authenticity in the movie’s depiction of the birth of Christ.
The shooting location for Bethlehem was done in the village of Matera in
Italy (the same location used in filming The Passion of the Christ),
while the set for Herod’s castle and the Jerusalem temple was filmed at
Ouarzazate in Morocco (the same filming location as The Gladiator and
Kingdom of Heaven).
While the effort to authentically portray Christ’s birth is commendable,
the influence of tradition has caused it to stray somewhat from the
true biblical account. The movie depicts His birth occurring in a
shivering cold, windy and wintry season where fires were essential for
keeping people warm.
When compared to the carefully detailed account of the gospel writer
Luke at least three very important deviations from Scripture stand out.
The Roman decree for census and taxation . Let’s remember that with the
collective wisdom of Roman tax officials, local Roman administrators
made sure their tax collections would occur at the best of times—right
after the main fall harvest with still good weather to minimize the
potential problems stemming from lack of money or difficulty of travel
due to winter conditions (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Luke_2_1-5_29753900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Luke_2_1-5_29753900">Luke 2:1-5</a>).
There was no room in the inn. Why? Lodging at that time was likely
filled because of the Jews’ custom to attend the annual fall festivals
commanded by God. The Romans would have probably timed such taxation to
coincide with the Jews’ annual travel to Jerusalem to observe these
festivals (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Luke_2_7_31041900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Luke_2_7_31041900">Luke 2:7</a>).
Shepherds were out in the fields that night. The weather was still warm
enough for shepherds to keep their flock out in the fields at night (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Luke_2_8_31191700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Luke_2_8_31191700">Luke 2:8</a>).
The Adam Clarke’s Commentary (Abingdon Press, Nashville) notes concerning <a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Luke_2_8_31312400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Luke_2_8_31312400">Luke 2:8</a>,
“As these shepherds had not yet brought home their flocks, it is a
presumptive argument that October had not yet commenced, and that,
consequently, our Lord was not born on the 25th of December, when no
flocks were out in the fields … On this very ground the nativity in
December should be given up.”
Alexander Hislop’s book, The Two Babylons,explains: “In that region,
from December to February … the cold of the night was piercing. Thus the
shepherds never kept their flocks and herds out in the open country
from December through February—it was simply too cold” (p. 2, 1959).
Most encyclopedias and similar historical references document that the
December 25 nativity tradition is associated with the ancient Saturnalia
celebration (for worshipping the pagan god Saturn). All such references
(including the Catholic Encyclopedia) admit that Christ was not born on
or even near December 25 in the middle of winter! Yet this ancient
custom, even if celebrated in gross ignorance of its true pagan origin,
refuses to die.
Other aspects of Christmas’ celebrations also oppose biblical teachings.
Regarding adapting pagan celebrations for the worship of the true God
the Bible commands, “… do not inquire … ‘How did these nations serve
their gods? I also will do likewise’ … You shall not worship the <span class="caps">LORD</span> your God in that way … Whatever I command you be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Deuteronomy_12_30-32_31984700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Deuteronomy_12_30-32_31984700">Deuteronomy 12:30-32</a>)
.
Jesus Christ also spoke out against seeking to worship God by
incorporating pagan customs, “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as
doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of
God, you hold the tradition of men …” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Mark_7_7-9_32177700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Mark_7_7-9_32177700">Mark 7:7-9</a>).
For more informative details on this important subject, just request,
read online or download our free booklets: Holidays or Holy Days: Does
It Matter Which Days We Keep? and Jesus Christ: The Real Story. </div>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/pagan">pagan</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/christmas">Christmas</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/birth-of-jesus-christ">Birth of Jesus Christ</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/mans-holidays-0">Man's Holidays</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/holidays-and-holy-days">Holidays and Holy Days</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/christmas">Christmas</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/when-was-jesus-born">When Was Jesus Born?</a></h2>
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</div>
<div>
Did His birth occur on December 25th? Can we even know when Christ was born...</div>
</footer>
</article>
</div>
Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-88630269520237253512016-12-14T07:53:00.000-07:002016-12-14T07:53:11.903-07:00Pope: Christmas reminds us that Jesus was a migrantA timely post about from <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2099" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.jihadwatch.org</a> about <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/12/pope-christmas-reminds-us-that-jesus-was-a-migrant">Jesus Christ</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/raymond-ibrahim-pope-francis-vs-saint.html">this post </a>about <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/09/raymond-ibrahim-pope-francis-vs-saint-francis-on-islam" target="_blank">Pope Francis</a>.This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/fight-for-oil-sands-which-our-nation.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2124" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2123" style="color: #2288bb;">this article</span></a>
about American energy independence and preventing money from going to
hostile countries. For more, you can read two very interesting books <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2122" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2121" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE</span></a>.<span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2120" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">You can follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2119" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2118" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<header class="entry-header"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline">
<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/12/pope-christmas-reminds-us-that-jesus-was-a-migrant">Pope: Christmas reminds us that Jesus was a migrant</a></h1>
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By <span class="entry-author" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a class="entry-author-link" href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/author/samir" itemprop="url" rel="author"><span class="entry-author-name" itemprop="name">Robert Spencer</span></a></span> <span class="entry-comments-link"><a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/12/pope-christmas-reminds-us-that-jesus-was-a-migrant#comments">139 Comments</a></span> </div>
</header><div class="entry-content" itemprop="text">
Yes,
you remember when Jesus killed 130 people in Paris, and when he
threatened to conquer the Vatican and behead the Pope himself, don’t
you? Is the Pope actually saying that to be concerned about jihad
terrorists and Sharia supremacists flooding into Europe with the migrant
influx is tantamount to rejecting Jesus? Is he saying that opposing
this influx out of concern for one’s family and society makes one
un-Christian? No wonder the Church is offering no help against the
Muslim migrant influx, but only making sure the gates are flung open as
wide as possible. For the Pope, apparently, the only acceptable
definition of Christian charity is society and civilizational suicide.<br />
Remember, this Pope has said that <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/03/pope-francis-we-can-speak-today-of-an-arab-invasion-of-europe" target="_blank">“we can speak today of an Arab invasion” of Europe</a>
— and it is one he is actively abetting. But the problem with the
newcomers is not that they are Arabs, but that they are adherents of a
violent and supremacist ideology that has a will to conquer and
subjugate non-Muslim Europeans. If they succeed, it will be in large
part because of the ignorance, complacency, and willing help of Pope
Francis and his minions.<br />
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)<br />
<a href="https://cdn.jihadwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Pope-kissing-feet.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-88660" height="405" src="https://cdn.jihadwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Pope-kissing-feet.jpg" width="700" /></a><br />
“Christmas reminds us Jesus was migrant, like today’s refugees, pope says,” <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/12/Religion%20News%20Service" target="_blank">Daily Caller</a>, December 11, 2016:<br />
<blockquote>
VATICAN CITY — As Pope Francis officially opened this
year’s Christmas Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square, he said Jesus was
a “migrant” who reminds us of the plight of today’s refugees. Francis
told donors who contributed both the Nativity set and an 82-foot tree
that the story of Jesus’ birth echoes the “tragic reality of migrants on
boats making their way toward Italy” from the Middle East and Africa
today.<br />
“The sad experience of these brothers and sisters recalls that of
baby Jesus, who at the time of his birth could not find a place to stay
when he was born in Bethlehem,” the pope said Friday (Dec. 9) during a
brief address in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. “He was then taken to Egypt
to escape threats from Herod.”<br />
This year’s Christmas tree is an evergreen from northern Italy. The
Nativity scene was donated by the government of the Mediterranean island
nation of Malta and that country’s Catholic bishops. It was produced by
Maltese artist Manwel Grech and features 17 figures dressed in
traditional Maltese costumes as well as a replica of a typical Maltese
boat…<br />
The pope has spoken out in support of refugees many times and said
there were many stories of migration in the Bible. “Today the current
economic crisis unfortunately fosters attitudes of closure instead of
welcome,” he said during a weekly audience at the Vatican in October.<br />
“In some parts of the world walls and barriers are being built. It
appears that the silent work of men and women who, in different ways, do
what they can to help and assist refugees and migrants is being drowned
out by the noise made by those who give voice to an instinctive
egoism,” he said.</blockquote>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-62278976425209313472016-12-13T08:00:00.000-07:002016-12-13T08:00:10.828-07:00 Mankind's Choice Freedom or Slavery?<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/mankinds-choice-freedom-or-slavery">slavery</a>. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-to-avoid-end-time-deception.html"> this post </a>about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/how-to-avoid-end-time-deception" target="_blank">Apparitions</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-christmas-really-honor-christ.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<hgroup><h1>
<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/mankinds-choice-freedom-or-slavery">Mankind's Choice</a></h1>
<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/mankinds-choice-freedom-or-slavery">
</a><h2 class="subheader fl-subtitle">
<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/mankinds-choice-freedom-or-slavery">Freedom or Slavery?</a></h2>
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<span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/howard-davis" title="View user profile.">Howard Davis</a></span> </div>
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Captivity begins with human choice, spirit and character. Discover how we can be freed from spiritual slavery. </div>
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The struggle for freedom has long been a popular theme in literature, songs and movies. Recently <em> The Prince of Egypt, </em> an animated feature film, retold the story of Moses and how he led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.<br />
“But in this case as in so many others, the Book is better than the
movie” quipped one newspaper critic. While the movie has done well at
the box office, it doesn't compare with the depth and significance of
the original story in the Bible. While the story of Moses and the
Israelites' exodus from enslavement in Egypt is one of the most popular
and well-known, by no means is it the <em> only</em> biblical story
about freedom from slavery. Strange as it may sound, an even greater
saga of freedom from slavery is being worked out even now!<br />
But to understand the ongoing struggle against oppression described in
the Bible, and to understand how man will find the ultimate path to
freedom from slavery, let's first go back in time to the dramatic story
of the Exodus.<br />
<h4>
A Drama for all Time</h4>
It's no wonder that even in Hollywood, biblical stories like Israel's
exodus from Egypt surface as popular themes. After all, freedom,
oppression and choice are some of the greatest human issues of all time.<br />
Consider why the characters and causes of the real biblical Exodus
drama are so attractive to filmmakers. As a stage setting, the
Israelites dwelled in an Egyptian empire filled with gigantic monuments
so stupendous that they still inspire awe as the most magnificent
building efforts of the ancient world.<br />
The first villain in the cast is an egomaniacal leader possessed with
assurance that he is as powerful as any god. This Egyptian pharaoh
believes he has a divine right to subjugate a race of men, women and
children on whose backs he has built his empire.<br />
With indifference to their pain, suffering and torment, the Israelites
are treated as beasts of burden, to be used and discarded. The pharaoh
institutes a policy of infanticide of male babies to further degrade the
Israelites and in the process wipe out a generation of Hebrews along
with the identity of their race.<br />
In the Bible account, the supernatural Creator God outlines Israel's
pathway to freedom, using Moses as their human leader. Through Moses,
and a future Prophet like him (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Deuteronomy_18_15_57868400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Deuteronomy_18_15_57868400">Deuteronomy 18:15</a>, 18), God further defined for all time the nature of divine mercy, love and the ultimate judgment of slavery.<br />
<h4>
Confrontation Over Freedom</h4>
Out of the supernatural phenomenon of the burning bush God spoke: “I
have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have
heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_3_7-8_59120200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_3_7-8_59120200">Exodus 3:7-8</a>).<br />
At this time in history the Egyptians, like most of the world of today,
did not know of the supernatural existence of the Eternal God of
Israel. So God chose Moses and his brother Aaron to represent Him. God
said to Moses, “I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will
teach you what you shall say” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_4_12_59362700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_4_12_59362700">Exodus 4:12</a>)<br />
Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Let
My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness' ” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_5_1_59531200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_5_1_59531200">Exodus 5:1</a>).<br />
Pharaoh's response exemplified the all-too-common attitude of those who
acknowledge no higher power than themselves: “Who is the Lord, that I
should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will
I let Israel go” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_5_2_59725800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_5_2_59725800">Exodus 5:2</a>).
The Pharaoh's instinct was to assert his supposedly divine authority.
His word alone was law. No word, command, or law from the God of Israel
would effect His course of action. He felt himself answerable and
accountable to no one.<br />
<h4>
The Captivity of Human Arrogance</h4>
Throughout history human leaders have shown a persistent arrogance
that, at the end of the day, puts the self ahead of the commandments of
God and the welfare of community.<br />
As in the story of Israel's road to deliverance, the entire Bible
narrative abounds in accounts how the human spirit, obsessed with the
ego's ultimate importance, often justifies itself. It rebels when
challenged by God and fellow men to change, repent, or be humbled for
the sake of the equality and dignity of their fellow human beings.<br />
Humanity and its leaders reserve the ultimate right to forge human life
and society in their own terms. As the apostle Paul put it, “The carnal
mind is enmity against God and is not subject to the law of God, nor
indeed can be” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_8_7_59936300" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_8_7_59936300">Romans 8:7</a>). Typically, people rebel against God when He challenges them to acknowledge His ultimate authority in governance.<br />
Pharaoh's reaction, when told to allow the Israelites freedom to leave
Egypt, was to increase the oppression of Israel. He no longer would
provide straw for the slaves to make bricks. He commanded the Egyptian
taskmasters, “Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in
it …” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_5_9_60153200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_5_9_60153200">Exodus 5:9</a>).<br />
“Also the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's
taskmasters had set over them, were beaten …” (verse 14). The Israelites
failed to meet the increased demands of the Egyptian ruler. Only God
could put an end to the nightmare in which the Israelites
found themselves.<br />
<h4>
A Battle Between God and gods</h4>
God powerfully intervened through 10 supernatural plagues to
demonstrate His divine will in condemnation of human oppression,
captivity and slavery. God's interventions were spectacularly depicted
in Hollywood's special-effect wizardry in <em> The Prince of Egypt</em> and its dramatic predecessor, <em> The Ten Commandments, </em> produced a generation ago.<br />
One by one, God demonstrated His power over the supposed gods of Egypt:
The Nile River, frogs, trees and plants, cattle, insects. Even the sun,
symbol of the eternal god-man Pharaoh, disappeared in a darkness so
black it “may even be felt” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_10_21_60372500" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_10_21_60372500">Exodus 10:21</a>).<br />
At times pharaoh appeared to begin to relent. After locusts devastated
Egypt's crops and greenery, he told Moses: “I have sinned against the
Lord your God and against you. Now therefore, please forgive my sin only
this once and entreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me
this death only” (verses 16-17).<br />
But pharaoh's change of heart was not to last. His self-centered
arrogance led him to continued contempt for any power greater than the
kingdom of Egypt. In the final plague, God permanently separated and
protected His people through the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the
doorways of every Israelite household. Israel was passed over and saved
from the death that struck Egypt's firstborn. This deliverance depicted
the ultimate solution to captivity, oppression, and slavery-the
sacrifice of “Christ, our Passover, [who] was sacrificed for us” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-1_Corinthians_5_7_60758400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="1_Corinthians_5_7_60758400">1 Corinthians 5:7</a>).
Egypt was not protected by the Passover blood. The future of Egypt's
royal power, the firstborn of Pharaoh, died for his father's arrogance
and tyranny.<br />
<h4>
Out of Egypt, but Still in Slavery</h4>
God led Israel to and though the Red Sea, severing her from the slavery
of Egypt by destroying the army of Pharaoh (Exodus 14). Then the
experience of Israel being led by God for 40 years reveals the greatest
obstacle to true human freedom.<br />
Only a few weeks after leaving Egypt, Israel refused a relationship
with God by rejecting a divine way to freedom—obedience to God's
covenant based on living the way of His law of love.<br />
Jesus' disciple John later was inspired to write: “For this is the love
of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
burdensome” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-1_John_5_3_60939800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="1_John_5_3_60939800">1 John 5:3</a>).<br />
Simply put, when Israel rejected obedience to the law of love expressed
in God's commandments, “in their hearts, they turned back to Egypt” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Acts_7_39_61095400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Acts_7_39_61095400">Acts 7:39</a>)<br />
The tragic lesson of ancient Israel was an example of human nature's
fundamental problem. It is one of the most profound lessons of
human history.<br />
Though given physical freedom and protection by God, as a nation Israel
never left the lust, selfishness and spiritual blindness that had
enslaved both them and their captors in Egypt. Israel insisted on
choosing their own gods and making their own rules, a problem that
plagues humankind to this day.<br />
Israel enslaved itself because of rejecting God's way of life and
rulership. In more than 800 years of subsequent history, Israel chose to
“worship the host of heaven” in spite of God's warning that He would
“carry [them] away beyond Babylon” if they persisted (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Acts_7_42-43_61323400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Acts_7_42-43_61323400">Acts 7:42-43</a>).<br />
By 587 B.C., through the Assyrians and Babylonians, both the House of
Israel and the House of Judah had been expelled by God from the Promised
Land and taken into captivity for rejecting the true way to freedom.<br />
<h4>
A Lesson for Our Time</h4>
Is the story of the Exodus relevant to our modern era? Believe it or
not, our century as been more barbaric than the days of Moses. Only 60
years ago, Adolf Hitler was possessed of a satanic arrogance as brutal
as Pharaoh's. He plunged the world into the deadliest, most destructive
war in history. He came frighteningly close to accomplishing his
intention of exterminating the Jewish peoples in Europe.<br />
Our century's genocide of more than six million European Jews, and
scores of millions of Armenians, Slavs, Cambodians, Russians, Ugandans,
Rwandans, Chinese and others, has shown that human barbarity and
brutality are thriving. They endure, every bit as real as the biblical
account of Israel's slavery portrayed in <em> The Prince of Egypt. </em> <br />
Today we pride ourselves on how advanced we are compared to the
religion of the Egyptians. We no longer worship such things as rivers,
animals, insects, stars and planets. Instead our “gods”—the things we
worship and dedicate our lives to pursuing—are materialism, selfish
pleasures, love of money, sexual immorality and the like. These can be
as enslaving to the mind, culture and human potential as any
ancient gods.<br />
<h4>
Christ, Moses and Spiritual Freedom</h4>
At the time of the release of the movie <em> Prince of Egypt,</em> interest in Moses as ancient Israel's deliverer motivated a cover story in <em> Time</em>
magazine to ask “Who Was Moses?” While scholars may argue the details
of their opinions, the Bible is very clear about the authenticity and
ultimate work of Moses for us today and tomorrow.<br />
Jesus Christ and Moses had the same teaching and perspective on the way
of life commanded by God. Ultimately that way is personified in the
life of Jesus Christ Himself. He offers to live within us (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Galatians_2_20_61533800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Galatians_2_20_61533800">Galatians 2:20</a>; <a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-John_14_23_61624600" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="John_14_23_61624600">John 14:23</a>), empowering us to live according to God's divine law which shows us the way to true freedom (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-John_8_31-32_61753300" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="John_8_31-32_61753300">John 8:31-32</a>). This total submission to God is the character—the nature—of Christ to which man is to be ultimately converted and conformed.<br />
While this change of thought and action was not accomplished under
Moses, he nevertheless was used by God to record His laws defining
righteous human behavior for all time. The apostle James, half-brother
of Jesus Christ, spoke of the law of God, the Ten Commandments given at
Sinai, as “the perfect law of liberty” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-James_1_25_61980500" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="James_1_25_61980500">James 1:25</a>)—the way of freedom. Paul adds that God's law “is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_7_12_62131400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_7_12_62131400">Romans 7:12</a>).<br />
But Paul also pointed out the fundamental problem of each unconverted
human heart when challenged by God's divine rule of living. “For we know
that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_7_14_62324400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_7_14_62324400">Romans 7:14</a>).<br />
God's divine law is spiritual. But we, because of our enslavement to
our human nature, are not spiritual. Humanity has never been able to
obey fully God's divine way of freedom by itself because our inherent
sin and selfish nature has held us captive. Enslaved, humanity has been
doomed to death like the Egyptians. We have been ensnared and held
captive by the devil, “who deceives the whole world” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Revelation_12_9_62586400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Revelation_12_9_62586400">Revelation 12:9</a>).<br />
Our carnal human desires and motivations hold us captive as slaves to
our lusts and delusions like the ancient Egyptian overlords held the
Israelites captives. “Do you not know that to whom you present
yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey,
whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to
righteousness?” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_6_16_62825500" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_6_16_62825500">Romans 6:16</a>).<br />
The way out of the impasse—the inevitable bondage, oppression, and
slavery of the evil in human nature—is through the death and life of
Jesus Christ. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer
be slaves of sin” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_6_6_63046900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_6_6_63046900">Romans 6:6</a>).<br />
<h4>
The Path to True Freedom</h4>
Christ explained that the way of life given to Israel under Moses is
the way all mankind should live. He told a young man who asked how he
could enter eternal life to “keep the commandments,” and listed some of
the Ten Commandments to make clear what He meant (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_19_18-19_63265500" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_19_18-19_63265500">Matthew 19:18-19</a>).<br />
That way of life is made possible by the indwelling of Christ (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Galatians_2_20_63400200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Galatians_2_20_63400200">Galatians 2:20</a>),
which gives us freedom after repentance from sin and baptism. God's law
is then “fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_8_4_63563200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_8_4_63563200">Romans 8:4</a>).<br />
Triumph for the victims of oppression has been a major human aspiration
throughout human history. It is also a major theme of the bible. The
Exodus is perhaps the most celebrated national event in ancient history,
changing the course of the world. The story of ancient Israel is
broadly relevant to the entire world because humans hate oppression and
suffering and eagerly desire to be free.<br />
But the oppression, captivity, and slavery gripping the mind and
behavior of humanity does not have to grip you. Christ is calling His
people out the embrace of a dangerous and evil world. “Come out of her
my people, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive
of her plagues” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Revelation_18_4_63781700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Revelation_18_4_63781700">Revelation 18:4</a>).<br />
As Moses led Israel out of Egypt, Christ our Passover will come one day
as the deliverer of all humanity, leading mankind to a spectacular
utopia under the reign of the Kingdom of God on earth. And, even now, He
is delivering from the bondage of sin those who respond to His call for
true repentance.<br />
This is the wonderful good news Jesus Christ brought. “… Jesus came to
Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The
time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and
believe in the gospel” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Mark_1_14-15_63978200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Mark_1_14-15_63978200">Mark 1:14-15</a>).<br />
What will you do about it? <em> <span class="caps">GN</span></em> <br />
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-19476532958196361462016-12-13T07:51:00.000-07:002016-12-13T07:51:00.584-07:00On Immigration, Will Tom Cotton Succeed Jeff Sessions As “America’s Senator”?<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.vdare.com/">http://www.vdare.com</a> about Senator Tom Cotton. This follows this post about the <a href="http://www.alipac.us/f9/report-splc-buried-trump-related-%91hate-crimes%92-against-white-kids-341292/" target="_blank">SPLC</a>. </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Remember, “Amnesty” means ANY non-enforcement of existing immigration laws! This follows <a href="http://briansnewone.blogspot.com/2013/06/contact-these-nc-house-reps-h786.html?showComment=1371340409102#c3000924856013028097" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2004" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2003" style="color: #0072c6;">this comment</span></a> and <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/reporting-illegal-aliens-how-to-do-it.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3101" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3100" style="color: #2288bb;">this post</span></a> about how to <b id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471957977604_2443">Report Illegal Immigrants</b>! Also, you can read two very interesting books <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">HERE</span></a>.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3095" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Please follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3097" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3096" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/on-immigration-will-tom-cotton-succeed-jeff-sessions-as-americas-senator">On Immigration, Will Tom Cotton Succeed Jeff Sessions As “America’s Senator”?</a></h1>
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We at VDARE.com have long regarded Jeff Sessions [R-AL] as “<a href="https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=site%3Avdare.com%20%22america%27s%20senator%27">America’s senator</a>”
because of his tireless work on behalf of our native-born citizenry,
especially on immigration and international trade. But what happens now
that he’ll apparently be leaving the Senate to become Attorney General
in the Trump administration? Fortunately, there is an answer: Senator
Tom Cotton [R-AR]<br />
Cotton is a <i>rara avis</i> in Sodom-on-the-Potomac: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cotton#Early_life_and_education">He grew up on a farm in Arkansas</a> and then—despite being the lowest of the low (i.e. a <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/anti-white-bias-and-bigotry-in-academia">white male from Flyover Country</a>)—was accepted at Harvard. He graduated with a B.A. in just three years.<br />
<img align="right" src="https://images.politico.com/global/2015/06/19/vetphoto.jpg" width="225" />Cotton floated
around a bit after that, then returned to Harvard for law school.
After using the latter degree for a few years, this Harvard B.A./J.D. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cotton#Military_service">enlisted in the U.S. Army</a>, subsequently seeing combat in <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/memo-from-mexico-by-allan-wall">Iraq </a>and later serving in <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/camp-bastion-families-want-answers-about-afghanistan">Afghanistan</a>.<br />
During his Iraq assignment, an “extra-curricular” initiative by Cotton attracted wide notice, as <i>Wikipedia</i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cotton">describes</a> it:<br />
<blockquote>
In June 2006, while stationed in Iraq, he gained international public attention after he emailed a letter to <i>The New York Times</i>,
criticizing the paper’s publication of an article detailing a Bush
administration secret program monitoring terrorists’ finances. The
newspaper ignored his letter, but it was published in <i>Power Line</i>, a <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/04/when-tom-cotton-mailed-it-in-to-the-times.php">prominent conservative blog </a>which
had been copied on the email. In the letter, Cotton called for the
journalists responsible for the newspaper article to be imprisoned for
espionage. He asserted that the newspaper had “gravely endangered the
lives of my soldiers and all other soldiers and innocent Iraqis here.”
The article was <a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/tomcotton.asp">widely circulated online </a>and reprinted in full in several newspapers. [Links in original]</blockquote>
That attention along with <a href="http://powerline.wpengine.com/archives/2012/09/support-tom-cotton-for-congress.php">encouragement from the crew at <i>Power Line</i></a> presumably
sparked Cotton’s successful 2012 campaign for the House of
Representatives, where he served one term. Then in November 2014, he
defeated incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Pryor’s bid for a third term
(memorable video campaign ad <a href="https://youtu.be/PB-y5RdFCik">here</a>). So Cotton’s been a senator—indeed, the <i>youngest</i> senator—since January 3, 2015.<br />
Above, I called Cotton a “rare bird” because even in the clubby U.S. Senate—the <a href="http://www.senate.gov/general/search/search_cfm.cfm?q=deliberative+body&x=0&y=0&site=default_collection&num=10&filter=0">World’s Greatest Deliberative Body</a>®—he’s
been no go-along-to-get-along cipher. Instead, he has exhibited both
seriousness and spine in committee (two-minute video example <a href="https://youtu.be/Tg6lus7mld0">here</a> regarding the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/no-means-no-keep-gitmo-jihadists-out-of-u-s-a">detainees </a>infesting <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/let-them-starve-gitmo-swindlers-strike-again">Guantanamo</a>) and on the Senate floor (<a href="https://youtu.be/LF6igWnkMQA">three-minute example</a>, appropriately skewering<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/remembering-reid-how-an-immigration-patriot-became-an-open-borders-supporter"> Minority Leader Harry Reid </a>[D-NV]).<br />
For a lengthier look at Cotton in conversation, see his <a href="http://www.hoover.org/research/arkansas-senator-thomas-cotton-events-iraq-negotiations-iran-and-life-us-senate">40-minute 2015 interview</a> with the Hoover Institution’s Peter Robinson.<br />
More recently, here’s part of Senator Cotton’s <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/14/cotton-trump-congress-need-to-reduce-legal-and-illegal-immigration.html">interview on November 14, 2016 with Tucker Carlson</a> of Fox News [<i>transcription by PN, emphases in original</i>]:<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Carlson:</b> [first quoting Speaker of the
House Paul Ryan] “I want to put people’s minds at ease; there will be no
deportation force.” I wonder what percentage of Trump’s voters kind of
<i>want</i> a deportation force. Whose “minds” is [Ryan] talking about?<br />
<b><i>Cotton:</i></b> Well, Donald Trump said last night on <i>60 Minutes</i> that he’s going to focus on criminal aliens, and I think most Americans are shocked that our government isn’t <i>already</i>
focusing on criminal aliens. There may be two million, three million.
That number is unknown, but if you’re a criminal and you’re not
entitled to be in this country by law, then <i>of course</i> you shouldn’t be here, you should be returned back to your country.…<br />
<b><i>Cotton:</i></b> On immigration, Donald Trump ran
not just on security and enforcement, which is important, but he also
ran on reducing legal immigration, and we need to <i>do</i> that.
Because people who work on their feet, they work with their hands in
this country, they haven’t seen a pay rise in a long time, and part of
that is because legal immigration has been at such high levels that it’s
driven down wages and it’s taken a lot of jobs.<br />
That’s why Donald Trump ran pretty well with Hispanics compared to
some past Republicans as well. So I think that Donald Trump has got the
right approach to immigration. You heard that some on <i>60 Minutes</i> last night, but that’s one reason why he appealed to so many working voters across the country.<br />
<b><i>Carlson:</i></b> <i>Legal</i> immigration, that’s the real [unclear].<br />
<b><i>Cotton:</i></b> Yeah, legal immigration, we have to address legal immigration in addition to <i>illegal</i> immigration.</blockquote>
And there are other reasons to be hopeful that Cotton will be able
and willing to step up once Sessions has left the Senate. On September
26, 2016, he and Congressman Mike Pompeo [R-KS] published an article in
the <i>Wall Street Journal</i> with the highly promising title, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-we-learned-in-scandinavia-about-migrants-1474932369"><i>What We Learned in Scandinavia About Migrants: Sweden failed. Norway succeeded—in part because it did what Trump does: Listen.</i></a><i> </i>[If the provided link yields a behind-the-paywall message, try Googling on the phrase <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+we+learned+in+scandinavia+about+migrants.%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8">“what we learned in Scandinavia about migrants.”</a>]<br />
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pompeo">Pompeo</a> is now Trump’s nominee for CIA Director—and, like Cotton, is an alum of both Harvard and the Army.)<br />
Their article doesn’t disappoint. Although you should read—and
celebrate!—the whole thing, here are excerpts covering a couple of its
main themes:<br />
<blockquote>
Norway … established measures to stop uncontrolled
migration. It imposed new border controls featuring a border fence,
increased waiting periods for residency and deportation of ineligible
migrants. It also reduced migrant benefits to match those offered by its
neighbors. Norway even advertised in foreign nations, warning that
migrants who do not face war or persecution will be deported.<br />
The result: Asylum applications in Norway fell 95% between the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016.<br />
Norway is far from hardhearted. It has welcomed refugees for decades
and its foreign policy prioritizes conflict resolution and humanitarian
relief. But <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/democratic-norway-v-authoritarian-sweden-norwegians-are-allowed-to-reject-asylum-seekers">Norwegians understand </a>that an Open-Border policy would<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/strange-country-norway-where-politicians-favor-voters-getting-higher-wages-and-dont-worry-abou"> strain their resources</a>, disrupt the integration of other recently arrived immigrants, and <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/norway-notices-diverse-crime-problem-half-of-oslo-residents-say-they-fear-immigrant-street-cri">undercut </a>the legitimate desire of Norwegians to preserve their nation’s culture and character.[Links added.]</blockquote>
So we have two up-and-coming Republican officeholders extolling the
idea of preserving a “nation’s culture and character.” Pinch me!<br />
Cotton and Pompeo go on:<br />
<blockquote>
Sweden threw open its doors in 2013, offering Syrian
refugees permanent residency. Asylum applications from across the
world—not just Syria—spiked. Sweden has since received more than 280,000
migrants, and counting. … These migrants are disproportionately poor,
young, male, undereducated, conservatively Muslim and possess virtually
no Swedish-language skills.<br />
This radical policy occurred with little debate because political
correctness pervades Sweden. They even have a term for the phenomenon: <i>åsiktskorridor, </i>or
“the opinion corridor.” Any questions about the economic, fiscal and
cultural impact of an immediate influx of migrants clearly lay outside
the corridor; asking them could result in accusations of xenophobia or
racism.<br />
But these questions are real and they reflect legitimate concerns for the Swedish people. …<br />
Faced with growing public dissatisfaction, the Swedish government
finally relented and imposed border controls and other restrictions this
summer. But not before committing more than 7% of its 2016 budget to
migrant services, with costs set to steadily increase. …<br />
Sweden’s failures have been repeated in Germany, France, Austria and
elsewhere. Immigration was the key issue driving British votes to leave
the European Union.<br />
The parallels to the U.S. immigration debate are clear. For years, a
bipartisan elite consensus has favored the mass immigration of unskilled
and low-skilled workers into America coupled with the legalization of
millions of illegal immigrants already here. Only one thing has stopped
these elites from their desired immigration policy: Two-thirds to
three-quarters of Americans consistently oppose any increase in
immigration.<br />
<i>Immigration is the central issue of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign</i>. <i>[Emphasis added!] </i>He
saw legitimate concerns about stagnant wages, low
workforce-participation rates and lower levels of immigrant
assimilation. He also understood that our own “opinion corridor” of
political correctness largely ruled these topics out of bounds. When
conventional leaders would not address their concerns, it’s not
surprising that Americans turned to a new voice.</blockquote>
“Immigration is the central issue …” Wow, pinch me again!<br />
And with <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">four successive tweets Cotton sent on November 25</a>,
he reinforced the impression that he’s fit—and maybe even eager—to
assume from Sessions the mantle of “America’s senator.” Here they are:<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Higher wages for Americans are a feature, not a bug, of reducing levels of legal immigration! 1/ <a href="https://t.co/dIkduolACO">https://t.co/dIkduolACO</a></div>
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/802137939325153280">November 25, 2016</a></blockquote>
<ul>
<li>There are no “jobs Americans won’t do”! Americans are majority in every job & sector. Want more? Pay more! <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/802139626576248832">2/</a></li>
<li>Employers in this story are paying more, offering more benefits & training. This is a good thing, not a problem! <a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/802140488451166208">3/</a></li>
<li>Build wall, enforce law, limit legal immigration = safer streets, higher wages, better govt. Let’s get started!<a href="https://twitter.com/TomCottonAR/status/802141330658983937"> 4/4</a></li>
</ul>
Significantly, Senator Cotton dispatched these tweets in response to a typical <i>Wall Street Journal</i> article bleating about the reflexively-invoked “labor shortage” (<a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/small-businesses-lament-there-are-too-few-mexicans-in-u-s-not-too-many-1480005020"><i>Small Businesses Lament There Are Too Few Mexicans in U.S., Not Too Many</i></a>,
by Miriam Jordan and Santiago Perez, November 25, 2016 [updated on
November 28, and if the provided link doesn’t work for you, trying
googling on the phrase <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Small+Businesses+Lament+There+Are+Too+Few+Mexicans+in+U.S.%2C+Not+Too+Many&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8">“small businesses lament”</a>]).<br />
Cotton’s <a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/content/my/congress/11591/gradescoresheet/#tabset-3">career immigration-sanity grade</a> (counting both House and Senate service) at NumbersUSA is “A−.”<br />
However, he’s rated only “C+” in the critical category of “Challenge
Status Quo,” which has to do with taking useful initiative on the
subject, as distinguished from merely making useful votes on
immigration-sanity bills while otherwise ignoring the subject. But I’ll
guess that when NumbersUSA goes through its next grading cycle,
Cotton’s “Challenge Status Quo” rating will soar to reflect his recent
full arrival in this arena.<br />
(Congressman Pompeo’s <a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/content/my/congress/9891/gradescoresheet/#tabset-3">career grade</a>
with NumbersUSA is “A,” and he has a “B” in “Challenge Status Quo.” It
would be excellent to have the CIA’s Director be someone who’s deeply
knowledgeable about immigration, instead of being just another
officeholder who’ll annoyingly lecture us, when provoked from
slumber, that “America is <a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/speaking-up-in-a-nation-of-immigrants-audience-0">a nation of immigrants.</a>”)<br />
So, VDARE.com regulars, please consider piling on the compliments to
reinforce Senator Cotton’s highly encouraging behavior! I did this soon
after his appearance with Tucker Carlson by phoning
Cotton’s Washington, DC office [202-224-2353] and emphasizing to the
message-taker the importance of the senator’s strong statement about
reducing <i>legal</i> immigration.<br />
If you’re new at making such calls, you might want to first listen to
the recording (MP3 clip, below) of my end [only] of that call as an
example; it’s about 70 seconds long.<br />
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It’s important that Cotton hear this encouragement from all over the
country. It might well finally convince him he needs to become
“America’s senator.”<br />
It’s also critical that he receive massive approval from his fellow
patriotic Arkansans. They, too, might phone the DC office. But if
they’d like to engage in a lengthier, lower-pressure exchange with a
staffer, it’ll generally be better to phone one of Senator Cotton’s
district offices. These are in Little Rock (501-223-9081), Springdale
(479-751-0879), El Dorado (870-864-8582), and Jonesboro (870-933-6223).<br />
Whether you’re in Arkansas or abroad in America, go to it, immigration patriots!<br />
<span style="color: #993300;"><i>Paul Nachman [</i></span><a href="mailto:PNBL48@hotmail.com"><i>email</i></a><span style="color: #993300;"><i> him] is a retired physicist and immigration sanity activist in Bozeman, MT</i></span>Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-27029083922929419482016-12-12T08:10:00.000-07:002016-12-12T08:10:53.084-07:00Editorial: SPLC and #FakeNews<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/editorial-michael-slager-blm-and-due.html">Editorial</a><br />
<br />
SPLC, the Southern Poverty Law Center, is a fundraising organization that has a history of inventing "hate crimes" which usually turn out to be hoaxes. These "hate crimes" usually allege that mainstream America is Islamophobic, Homophobic, Xenophobic, Misogynistic, and the biggest of all, RACIST. The SPLC then targets particular organizations which it then lumps into at least one of these charged allegations and tries to delegitimize those particular organizations while the SPLC itself fundraises off of these charges.<br />
As stated, almost ALL of the so-called "hate incidents" turn out to be frauds, but by the time these frauds are exposed, the fundraising and the effects of the hate charges have already borne their fruits.<br />
<br />Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-77694633389083411132016-12-12T07:57:00.000-07:002016-12-12T07:57:11.936-07:00Over 60,000 People Every Year Get Adult Stem Cell Treatments, Embryonic Cells Help No One<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2011" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting story from <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2017" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2016" style="color: #0072c6;">www.lifenews.com</span></a> about <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2016/12/09/over-60000-people-every-year-get-adult-stem-cell-treatments-embryonic-cells-help-no-one/">stem cell </a>research. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/wendy-davis-slams-new-texas-law-making.html">this post </a>about <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2016/12/02/wendy-davis-slams-new-texas-law-making-abortion-clinics-bury-aborted-babies-instead-of-selling-them/">Texas's new abortion laws</a>. For two very interesting books click <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yui_3_16_0_1_1475586207993_1961" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yui_3_16_0_1_1475586207993_1960" style="color: #0072c6;">HERE</span></a>. </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2016/12/09/over-60000-people-every-year-get-adult-stem-cell-treatments-embryonic-cells-help-no-one/">Over 60,000 People Every Year Get Adult Stem Cell Treatments, Embryonic Cells Help No One</a></h2>
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<span class="categoryname"><a href="http://www.lifenews.com/category/home-posts/">Home Posts</a></span> David Prentice, Ph.D. Washington, DC </div>
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We are now just a
little more than two weeks away from Christmas when Christians celebrate
the birth of Jesus and reflected on the wonder of God taking on the
form of a human being, especially starting as a newborn baby born under
humble circumstances.<br />
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But that human being didn’t start his earthly form at birth, but rather nine months earlier, as an embryo.<br />
King David expresses it as “unformed substance” in verse 16 of Psalm
139, an apt description of our early embryonic morphology. The
biological truth is that the existence of every new human organism did
indeed begin at the formation of that first new organismal cell, the
zygote, the combination of the egg and sperm. The lack of recognizable
human structures, the unformed substance of our earliest existence, does
not invalidate the humanity of our earliest stages of life.<br />
Strange then that early human embryos, our most vulnerable stage of
life and “the least of these” our fellow humans, have been targeted
especially in recent years, as a source of stem cells that we were told
would cure all known maladies. Yet the facts have been, and continue to
be, obscured by proponents of embryonic stem cell research who are so
eager to harvest stem cells from tiny humans they are blind to the truth
that there are plentiful alternative sources.<br />
Embryonic stem cells have been known to exist for decades and were
studied for many years before being grown successfully in the lab. One
initial point people must realize is that the isolation of human
embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of a young human embryo,
and often many embryos are destroyed before one successful cell culture
is achieved.<br />
And what of the “potential” for cures? After over 30 years, not very
many mice have benefited from embryonic stem cell therapy, and to date
there is no proven success with human embryonic stem cells. Embryonic
stem cells are the least likely type of stem cell to help any patients.
Their very nature—a tendency to incessant growth—means that they are
much more likely to form a tumor than to form healthy tissue, and so
embryonic stem cells risk the life and health of those who are injected
with them.<br />
Even some embryonic stem cell advocates are beginning to admit
failure. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, charged
with spending $3 billion of state taxpayer dollars primarily for
embryonic stem cell and human cloning research, has lately been funding
mostly grants for non-embryonic stem cell research, hoping that they
will have something to show for their expenditures which so far have
yielded nothing from embryonic stem cells. Given the ethical taint of
embryonic stem cell research, creating and destroying human life
specifically for destruction, the trend away from embryonic stem cells
is encouraging both for ethics as well as for practical needs of
patients.<br />
The new, ethical method of producing iPS cells (induced pluripotent
stem cells) is also encouraging. The iPS cells are made by adding a few
genes to a normal cell such as a skin cell, causing the normal cell to
look and act like an embryonic stem cell, yet without use of embryos,
eggs, or cloning technology. There is often confusion here. Even though
iPS cells use an adult cell (not a stem cell) as the starting material,
they are definitely not “adult stem cells,” but rather an ethically
derived version of embryonic stem cells.<br />
They can be made from any person, starting with almost any normal
cell, and have already been used in the laboratory as models to study
cell growth, differentiation, and the development and potential
treatment of disease. For example, Israeli scientists have made iPS
cells from heart patients, then turned the iPS cells into beating heart
cells in the lab, to study heart disease.<br />
Adult stem cells remain the gold standard among stem cells when it
comes to helping patients. The first transplants, using whole bone
marrow, were done decades ago, but it took many years before these
transplants were accepted as therapeutic successes. It wasn’t until the
1990s that doctors began isolating human adult stem cells, rather than
using bone marrow. Today, adult stem cell transplants remain the only
successful use of stem cells for patients, as documented by hundreds of
published, peer-reviewed scientific articles. Adult stem cells can be
isolated from many different tissues, including bone marrow, blood,
muscle, fat, and umbilical cord blood, and isolating the adult stem
cells from tissues of a patient or a healthy donor does not require
harming or destroying the adult stem cell donor. That gives adult stem
cells a distinct ethical advantage over embryonic stem cells. Over
60,000 people around the globe are treated each year with adult stem
cells, because adult stem cells have a proven record at saving lives and
improving health.<br />
Here are a few samples of adult stem cell advances in the last year.<br />
<b>Heart damage.</b> Adult stem cells continue to pile up
the evidence for their success at improving the health of damaged
hearts. Repair of damaged heart muscle in patients has been documented
both for new heart attack damage as well as for patients with chronic
heart failure. Doctors at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles used
adult stem cells from the hearts of the patients themselves, grown in
the lab and then injected back into the patients’ own hearts. They found
that the adult stem cells could re-grow damaged heart muscle and reduce
scars in the heart tissue. Meanwhile Yale scientists used a young
girl’s own bone marrow adult stem cells to grow heart tissue and blood
vessels to repair the girl’s congenital heart problem. And doctors from
the Texas Heart Institute in Houston presented evidence that adult stem
cells from a patient’s own bone marrow could repair damaged areas of
hearts suffering from severe heart failure, allowing the heart to
increase its pumping capacity to deliver oxygenated blood to the body.<br />
<b>Muscle repair.</b> Scientists at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine have shown that adult stem cells from the
muscle of young mice can improve the health and extend the life of aged
mice. While this doesn’t mean that the cells are truly the fountain of
youth, it highlights the possibility of using adult stem cells for
muscle repair, as well as the ability eventually to isolate
“rejuvenating factors” from adult stem cells in muscle or other tissues.<br />
<b>New windpipes.</b> Italian Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, who is
a visiting professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden,
continues to improve on his procedure to grow new windpipes for
patients. Dr. Macchiarini has grown new trachea for at least eight
patients, using the patient’s own adult stem cells from bone marrow to
grow functional windpipes in patients with cancer or other tracheal
problems. His most recent advance this year was using a synthetic
substrate on which the adult stem cells are seeded, allowing them to
grow and take the shape of a normal windpipe.<br />
<b>Grow your own transfusion.</b> French scientists showed
for the first time that a few adult stem cells from a patient could be
used to grow enough red blood cells in the lab for a transfusion. The
adult stem cells efficiently produced new cells that survived
transfusion back into the patient’s body and functioned normally.<br />
If you’d like to see a few examples of the success of adult stem cells, see the videos at <a href="http://www.stemcellresearchfacts.org/">stemcellresearchfacts.org</a>. For the latest facts on adult stem cell transplants see <a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/fact-sheet-adult-stem-cell-research-transplants">lozierinstitute.org</a>.<br />
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-34592937135953234572016-12-12T07:49:00.000-07:002016-12-12T07:49:34.433-07:00Weekend Box Office: Miss Sloane, Office Christmas Party<span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2012" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Here is an interesting article from </span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/" id="LPlnk815818" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0072c6;">http://www.debbieschlussel.com/</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2011" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/weekend-box-office-manchester-by-sea.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> </a></span><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/weekend-box-office-manchester-by-sea.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0072c6;">this post</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/weekend-box-office-manchester-by-sea.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> </a>about some of the movies from last week and </span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/three-day-weekend-movie-rentals.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">THIS POST</a></span><span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2007" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This <u>all</u> follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-pick-good-movie.html" id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2015" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post</a> about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch <u>yourself</u>!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/83793/weekend-box-office-miss-sloane-office-christmas-party/" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to Weekend Box Office: Miss Sloane, Office Christmas Party">Weekend Box Office: Miss Sloane, Office Christmas Party</a></h1>
By <b><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/" target="_blank">Debbie Schlussel</a></b><br />
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It’s nearly Christmas time. So, this is supposed to be the time of
year when most of the new movies are very good. That ain’t happening.
Two new movies this weekend, neither of them good.<span id="more-83793"></span><br />
* <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4540710/?pf_rd_m=A2FGELUUNOQJNL&pf_rd_p=2723454962&pf_rd_r=0D0ACWNJTP1NH1TMZKV1&pf_rd_s=right-4&pf_rd_t=15061&pf_rd_i=homepage&ref_=hm_otw_t2" target="_blank">Miss Sloane</a> – Rated R</b>:
This is a very cold, very harsh, very dark, and very overwrought
picture of the kind of lobbying that happens on Capitol Hill. As one
who worked for several Congressman on the Hill, I can tell you that this
movie is ridiculous and bears no resemblance to reality. The
cat-and-mouse absurdities that go in during the course of this movie are
just not how it’s done in real life. Not even close. <br />
Plus, while the movie pretends to be even-handed on the gun control
debate, it really isn’t. The protagonist, a female lobbyist, risks it
all in order to get stricter gun control laws passed–it’s the only
“moral” position she’s ever taken in her life. And with that, the movie
is a more subtle version of the gun control propaganda we’re used to
seeing in the movies, on TV, and throughout pop culture. On top of
that, this is an attack on the free market and makes no bones about it.
Our “heroine,” the lobbyist, is a free marketeer and evil until she
gives it all up to pull out all the stops in favor of more gun control.<br />
On top of that, the movie is long, slow, and boring, taking up 132 minutes of your life that just aren’t worth the wasting here.<br />
Jessica Chastain–in very dark, harsh makeup–is a Elizabeth Sloane,
the aforementioned lobbyist, who tells us flat-out that she believes in
the free market and American free enterprise. That’s “bad” in the
filmmakers eyes, as she bends the rules to almost the breaking point in
order to get tax laws and import duties to go her clients’ way. But
she’s also smart (or so we’re told). In order to get a client’s
sugar-laden breakfast cakes out from under restrictive regulations, she
recommends reclassifying them as cookies, which are covered by more
relaxed rules.<br />
But that’s the humdrum stuff. Now, a new client–the gun lobby (and
presumably, the NRA)–wants to hire her lobbying firm and her to in order
to relax gun laws. The lobby wants her to present guns as the ultimate
equalizer for women against violence and would-be attackers. But
Elizabeth doesn’t want that and laughs in the new client’s face, as well
as that of her boss (Sam Waterston). Soon, she’s gone from her big
firm to a smaller one in order to lobby for more gun control and fight
her former employer in the fight.<br />
Elizabeth has no life. She never sleeps (and takes a lot of pills to
stay awake). She hires male prostitutes for sex, as there’s no time
for a relationship. And so on. In the meantime, the team she’s poached
from her former firm, helps her pursue several senators to get their
votes for gun control. They’re working with a victim of “gun violence.”
However, later in the film, there’s an incident that makes the gun
lobby’s point.<br />
The various machinations in this movie just don’t happen on Capitol
Hill. The lobbying in real life is a lot more dry and basic. There
just isn’t the intrigue–to the point of the cockamamie in this film–that
is presented here. Not even close. And there aren’t mechanical bugs
with cameras crawling into Senators’ and lobbyists’ cars. There also
aren’t major Senate hearings into the personal lives of lobbyists. The
only thing I can ever remember happening that was even close (and it
didn’t involve an examination of the lobbyist’s private life or health),
were the Senate hearings into corrupt, convicted lobbyist Jack
Abramoff’s multi-million-dollar rip-offs of federal Indian tribes. But
in that case, there was major money-laundering, tax-evasion, and other
crimes going on, including the use of jihadist Muslim Grover Norquist’s
“non-profit” Americans for Tax Reform to launder Indian tribe money and
hide the source and ultimate destination of it. Apparently, some of
that money went to Islamic terrorist outfits tied to Al-Qaeda, too.
That’s a legit inquiry by Congress.<br />
The Senate inquiry into Miss Sloane, a major and prolonged scene in
the movie, is just ludicrous, and it would never happen. After nearly
2.5 hours of this movie, there just isn’t a worthy payoff. Not even a
little bit. (Unless gun control is what you consider a worthy payoff.)<br />
The movie’s just a high-styled, low-brow bore pretending to be
something important. It isn’t. Certainly not important enough for 132
minutes of your life and ten-bucks-plus from your wallet.<br />
Yawn.<br />
<b>TWO MARXES</b><br />
<img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><br />
<b>Watch the trailer</b> . . .<br />
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* <b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1711525/?ref_=nv_sr_1" target="_blank">Office Christmas Party</a> – Rated R</b>:
I hated this poor excuse for comedy. You’ve seen this crap–waaaaay
toooooo muuuuuch of it–already in recent years. Juvenile, crass,
depraved jokes pretending to pass for funny. And they just aren’t.
Sure, I laughed several times. But most of this movie was just dumb.
Extremely dumb. On top of that, it’s the usual message from liberal
Hollywood: loser, drug-using, incompetent, unethical schmucks are the
good guys and the heroes; straight-laced, disciplined people, who
actually work for a living are the losers and the villains. (Ditto for
the human resources manager who objects to female employees wearing
too-sexy-for-work outfits–she’s “too uptight”). So typical, so stupid.<br />
The story: Jason Bateman is the Chief Technology Officer at the
Chicago branch of Zenotek, a failing internet-hosting and online
promotions company. Everyone at the branch is either incompetent or a
whiner. The boss is Clay VanStone (T.J. Miller), a rich idiot who
wastes money and acts like a child. His rival sister, Carol (Jennifer
Aniston), is the hard-working, responsible adult in the family and the
company CEO. She wants to pull the plug on the Chicago branch and end
the bleeding. She’s right. But, of course, in all Hollywood movies
these days, responsible people and responsible decisions aren’t hip and
they aren’t to be admired. Instead, they are to be condemned. <br />
Clay and his sister agree that if he can land more business and keep
the office profitable, it can remain open. So, he goes about trying to
recruit the account of Walter Davis (Courtney B. Vance). At first,
Walter rules out hiring Zenotek, and morale is lower than low. But Clay
decides to throw a giant, wild Christmas party to entice Walter to
change his mind and hire Zenotek. The party is filled with cocaine
binges, topless naked women, a prostitute and her female pimp, and other
lowlife stuff, which makes it “cool” in the world according to
Hollywood. Soon, Walter is literally hanging from the chandeliers,
trying to ride ropes of lighting–Tarzan-style–from across a second-floor
balcony. <br />
Ultimately there are hospital trips, annoying Uber rides, car
crashes, and a power outage in the entire Chicago. Haha, funny. NOT.
Also not funny: that a guy (Bateman–who is supposed to be the voice of
reason here) drinks spiked eggnog from the male genitalia of an
anatomically-correct ice sculpture and then gets his tongue stuck on it.
If this is your idea of humor, that’s a not-so-thrilling statement on
the state of America. And, sadly, that’s where we are. Forget Kris
Kringle. This is Kris Kringeworthy.<br />
Absolute garbage. And not even good for more than five or six laughs. If that.<br />
<b>FOUR MARXES PLUS TWO ISIS BEHEADINGS</b><br />
<img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="plus.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/plus.jpg" width="23" /><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg"><img alt="isisbeheading" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74359" height="54" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg" width="50" /></a><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg"><img alt="isisbeheading" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74359" height="54" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg" width="50" /></a><br />
<b>Watch the trailer</b> . . .<br />
<br />Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-91603058465578525232016-12-09T08:03:00.000-07:002016-12-09T08:03:09.971-07:00How to Avoid End-Time Deception<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/how-to-avoid-end-time-deception">Apparitions</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/hail-mary.html">this post </a>about <a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1987491023" target="_blank">Mary</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/ecumenism-bridges-major-gap-virgin-mary.html" target="_blank">this previous post </a>about <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/ecumenism-bridges-major-gap-virgin-mary.html" target="_blank">her</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-christmas-really-honor-christ.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<time class="no-break" datetime="1471147200" pubdate=""> </time><span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/steve-myers" title="View user profile.">Steve Myers</a></span> <span class="audio-link"><a class="jp-player-play icon-headphones active" href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/how-to-avoid-end-time-deception">Listen</a></span> </div>
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Learn how you can prepare for a coming time of incredible deceitfulness that could threaten your eternal life.<br />
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[Steve Myers] The time is coming that you will be deceived. It’s guaranteed—unless…<br />
It will be a very difficult time on the world scene and in your
neighborhood, with conflicting choices that have to be made. So much so
that your life may depend on what you do.<br />
A great spiritual leader is coming. He will seem to have all the
answers for your life. Amazing evidence will seem to confirm everything
he does.<br />
But that religious leader will be false. So unless you choose carefully, you will be led astray.<br />
Will you make the right choice? How can you protect yourself from
this coming evil influence? Is it possible that you are already misled?
What you do can make all the difference.<br />
On this edition of <em> Beyond Today</em> we’ll examine: “How to Avoid End Time Deception.”<br />
[Announcer] Join our host Steve Myers and his guests as they help you understand your future on <em> Beyond Today</em> !<br />
[Steve] Bible prophecy says that deception is a very real
possibility! We’re repeatedly commanded, “Be not deceived,” so many
times throughout the Bible.<br />
Jesus Himself said that you are at risk. He warned in one of His
parables that those who are misled will suffer weeping and gnashing of
teeth (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_22_13_52073800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_22_13_52073800">Matthew <span class="number">22</span>:<span class="number">13</span></a>). Another speaks of the unbelieving servant that will be cut in two and cast off with the hypocrites (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_24_51_52250900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_24_51_52250900">Matthew <span class="number">24</span>:<span class="number">51</span></a>). Those are scary possibilities.<br />
Jesus warned us not to be taken in by false teachers, amazing
occurrences or evil signs and wonders. Well, could remarkable miracles
mislead you?<br />
How can you avoid powerful deception that threatens your very eternal life?<br />
I spoke with many people who are skeptical of claims of healings, miracles or any supernatural events.<br />
[Steve] Do you believe in supernatural events?<br />
> I do not. I do not.<br />
[Steve] Do you believe in any of that sort of thing, supernatural events?<br />
» Not really.<br />
[Steve] You don’t believe in that?<br />
> No.<br />
[Steve] …There’s this painting in a church in Chicago that’s weeping oil. Did you see that?<br />
» I believe that about as much as I believe in Jesus’ grilled cheeses. How’s that?<br />
[Steve] You don’t believe in the mother Mary on toast?<br />
> I do not.<br />
»I would like to think that I don’t get fooled by smoke and mirrors…<br />
[Steve] Here’s the challenge: How can you determine what is from God
and should be believed and what should not be believed? How can you
avoid being deceived?<br />
Too often the genuine miracles of the Bible are looked at as quaint
fairy tales. Some feel ancient primitive cultures in the Bible believed
them in order to explain the mysteries of nature they
couldn’t comprehend.<br />
So today, science claims to give us the ability to explain all those
wonders. Any rational mind believes that phenomena can be explained by
nature—without God. But is that true?<br />
Speaking with people on the street about miracles and phenomenon—it
occurred to me that just below the surface of our modern psyche is a
part of us that is attracted to the mysterious and unexplainable.<br />
Ghosts, magic, <span class="caps">UFO</span>s, and witchcraft are so
popular today. There are mystical elements of various religions that
attract scores of new converts every year.<br />
Religious sites like Fatima, Portugal; Medjugorje in Herzegovina are
locations where the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared in the past. So
today, these places draw millions of religious pilgrims every
single year.<br />
[Steve] Do you believe in supernatural events?<br />
> Yeah, absolutely.<br />
[Steve] You believe in that sort of thing?<br />
» Do I believe in—? Yes, I do.<br />
[Steve] Maybe you’ve seen pictures of maybe a statue of Mary is
weeping, or blood coming out of a statue of Jesus, and that sort of
thing. Do you believe in those kind of phenomena?<br />
> Yeah, I think so. Definitely. Actually, definitely. I’ll backtrack. Yeah, I definitely do.<br />
[Steve] Do you believe in supernatural things?<br />
» Yeah, I do. I don’t necessarily believe in like Bigfoot, like
things like that, but maybe like—yeah, yeah, definitely believe in a
spiritual realm, for sure.<br />
[Steve] But what kind of things in the spiritual realm should you believe to be real?<br />
Are all phenomenons equal? Could you be deceived by something that
looks like a miracle from God but in actuality is not? Would it lead you
to follow that individual because of the wonders he can do? Is it
possible that you could be misled right now?<br />
Now, don’t take it lightly. The Bible foretells that your very life
is at risk! Jesus said that “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks
after a sign” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_16_4_52524000" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_16_4_52524000">Matthew <span class="number">16</span>:<span class="number">4</span></a>).
Is a miraculous sign an unconditional indication that the person is of
God? Can supernatural wonders come from a different source?<br />
Now, many think that a miracle or a supernatural event can come only from God.<br />
[Steve] Do you think those kinds of things, unexplainable things, are only from God?<br />
> Yes.<br />
[Steve] Do you think that it’s possible that those kind of
supernatural possibilities, those phenomenon, could come from another
source other than God?<br />
» No, not really. I don’t think so.<br />
[Steve] So if you saw something that was just astounding, just was
unexplainable—how would you react to something like that? If you
witnessed that yourself?<br />
> I would not dismiss it as, you know, oh, that’s not possible.<br />
[Steve] So then you would think that those kinds of things—God is behind those kinds of miracles?<br />
» Absolutely, yeah.<br />
> If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.<br />
[Steve] Well let’s consider that for just a moment. Is it really meant to be?<br />
Is every wonder—is each supernatural event—are all miracles by the hand of God? Your Bible says, “no.” Here’s a clear example.<br />
You probably remember the story of the Egyptian Pharaoh who enslaved
the Israelites. Before he was willing to let the slaves go, the Bible
records <span class="number">10</span> destructive plagues that were brought on that stubborn ruler and his people by God.<br />
Now here’s the connection: the Pharaoh’s magicians were able to
duplicate those first few miracles! Now, that must have been impressive.<br />
In fact, one of those events occurred when “Aaron threw down his
staff before [the] Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent!
Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these
Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down
their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff
swallowed up their staffs” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_7_10-12_52842000" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_7_10-12_52842000">Exodus <span class="number">7</span>:<span class="number">10</span><span class="number">-12</span></a>, <span class="caps">NLT</span>).<br />
So the evil sorcerers were apparently able to copy that miracle.
Many must have been convinced that the sorcerers were powerful people to
be trusted.<br />
And it didn’t stop there. Next, the first plague was replicated: “So
Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. As Pharaoh and all
of his officials watched, Aaron raised his staff and struck the water
of the Nile. Suddenly, the whole river turned to blood! The fish in the
river died, and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t
drink it. There was blood everywhere throughout the land of Egypt. But
again the magicians of Egypt used their magic, and they, too, turned
water into blood” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_7_20-22_53177400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_7_20-22_53177400">Exodus <span class="number">7</span>:<span class="number">20</span><span class="number">-22</span></a>, <span class="caps">NLT</span>).<br />
Now there was more evidence to convince Pharaoh and the people that the sorcerers were powerful and should be respected.<br />
Then, the next plague was also imitated—they made even more frogs
appear than those God had sent. “But the magicians were able to do the
same thing with their magic. They, too, caused frogs to come up on the
land of Egypt” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Exodus_8_7_53396100" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Exodus_8_7_53396100">Exodus <span class="number">8</span>:<span class="number">7</span></a>, <span class="caps">NLT</span>).<br />
Those supernatural miracles from an evil spiritual source were
intended to deceive and turn Pharaoh’s heart against God. Many were
fooled to reject God Himself because of these events. Evil miracles—they
can have that effect.<br />
The Bible details many events like these: false miracles, lying wonders and false prophets.<br />
And here’s why this is so critical: These events are not limited to
just Bible times. So don’t be so naive—false leaders, false miracles can
and do still happen today. Don’t be taken in by the deception—be sure
to protect yourself.<br />
[Steve] Would you say then you believe that there are possibilities that there’s false miracles?<br />
> Oh yeah, I mean, like there are definitely people who, I mean
in a supernatural world there’s evil, too. So I definitely believe that
people can do miraculous things to kind of sway people away from what
God’s trying to do in their lives. I believe that that miracle can
happen from demonic sources, like whatever…<br />
[Steve] So if there was some kind of miraculous, crazy thing that
was even a verifiable miracle, let’s say, and yet it was something that
was false, how would you determine one way or the other, so that you
wouldn’t be deceived?<br />
» Yeah, I’m not just going to kind of blindly follow. I’m going to
really kind of dig in and ask, “Hey, what’s going on here?” you know,
and really kind of get to the core…<br />
[Steve] God certainly wants us to get to the core of truth now so
we’re not led astray later. He warned His people that not all
supernatural wonders are from the true God. Adding to this He says to
reject any minister, any pastor, any teacher or even miracle worker who
speaks contrary to His laws and His teachings.<br />
Notice this passage: “Someday a prophet may come along who is able
to perform miracles or [to] tell what will happen in the future. Then
the prophet may say, ‘Let’s start worshiping some new gods—some gods
that we know nothing about.’ If the prophet says this, don’t listen! The
Lord your God will be watching to find out whether or not you love him
with all your heart and soul” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Deuteronomy_13_1-3_53727900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Deuteronomy_13_1-3_53727900">Deuteronomy <span class="number">13</span>:<span class="number">1</span><span class="number">-3</span></a>, <span class="caps">CEV</span>).<br />
God says that even though someone’s prophecy actually comes true or a
miracle happens—it doesn’t mean we should religiously follow that
person. We have to step back—consider the big picture.<br />
Jesus warned: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves…” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_7_15-16_53890900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_7_15-16_53890900">Matthew <span class="number">7</span>:<span class="number">15</span><span class="number">-16</span></a>).<br />
Dishonest teachers, priests and deceptive leaders have wrong
intentions and actions that go beyond whether their prophecies or
miracles actually happen.<br />
Imagine this: Christ even described some of them who even cast out
demons and did many wonders in His name. But, they were evil. He said,
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you
who practice lawlessness’” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_7_23_54117400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_7_23_54117400">Matthew <span class="number">7</span>:<span class="number">23</span></a>).<br />
Think about that for a moment. Someone could be doing great signs
and wonders in the name of Jesus and yet they are wicked. What would
you do?<br />
> Well, if they’re trying to get me to follow them personally,
that’s not what I believe in. I believe if they’re doing something that
leads to Jesus, then yeah, I’ll follow them in their pursuit of Jesus,
because it’s not about them, it’s about God.<br />
[Steve] …what would it take to convince you?<br />
» You just said it. If I see it with my own eyes, I might believe it.<br />
[Steve] What would it take for you to buy into something like that?<br />
> I guess it would take experiencing myself, you know, something supernatural that has no explanation.<br />
» If I saw somebody even supernaturally heal someone, that wouldn’t
make me follow them. It’d definitely be with the message that they
come bearing.<br />
[Steve] How would you know the difference then, whether to follow somebody and believe it or not?<br />
> I wouldn’t know the difference. I’d have to take a chance.<br />
[Steve] It is possible to know the difference. Even if the message
sounds good. It may seem biblical. The miracle is real. But following a
distorted version of Christ will lead down a dangerous path. Could you
be following a distorted version of Christianity? You don’t want to
leave it to chance.<br />
In a prophecy for our time, Jesus warned, “False christs and false
prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if
possible, even the elect” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_24_24_54326800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_24_24_54326800">Matthew <span class="number">24</span>:<span class="number">24</span></a>).<br />
Christ had just finished saying, “Take heed that no man deceive you” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_24_4_54459000" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_24_4_54459000">Matthew <span class="number">24</span>:<span class="number">4</span></a>).
You, He said—you—you disciples. When Christ says ‘you,’ He’s not
talking to the world in general. He’s not talking to everybody. He’s
talking to His own followers—He’s talking to you!<br />
He also gives the specific deception that you need to notice.<br />
“For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_24_5_54609700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_24_5_54609700">Matthew <span class="number">24</span>:<span class="number">5</span></a>).<br />
That’s a powerful warning for all Christians. Christ’s direct
warning is this: Beware of people who mislead you about Jesus! Now could
it be possible that you’re already following a wrong Jesus, contrary to
the truth?<br />
Christ warned His disciples and He is alerting you and me—that
people would try to deceive us about Him and His message. He went on to
talk about how the “many”—not the few—would be misled.<br />
So you should ask: is my Christianity the true faith that Jesus
taught? You need to know. Christ gave that warning: don’t take your
religion for granted. I hope you’ll take time to seriously consider the
possibility that you might be misled. It’s time to examine what you
believe and why you believe it.<br />
I’ll have much more to say on what you should do in just a moment.<br />
Now notice how critical it is: The apostle Paul expands on Jesus’ warning and told us to watch out for a specific person.<br />
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ… <em> that Day will not come</em> unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition…The coming of the <em> lawless one</em> is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Thessalonians_2_1-9_54886100" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Thessalonians_2_1-9_54886100"><span class="number">2</span> Thessalonians <span class="number">2</span>:<span class="number">1</span><span class="number">-9</span></a>).<br />
This evil, sinful man will come with the power of Satan. He’ll use
every kind of influence, including miraculous and wonderful signs. It
will look good. It will seem righteous. There’ll be a great revival of
what appears to be a wonderful Christian religion.<br />
But, it will be lies. Would you follow a leader like that?<br />
[Steve] Let’s say someone did something amazing, phenomenal, just unexplainable but yet miraculous—would you follow them?<br />
> Yes.<br />
[Steve] Would you follow them?<br />
» If someone makes me to trust him, maybe I will follow.<br />
[Steve] Would you follow someone like that?<br />
> I think it depends on things. Is, what kinds of things he make me to believe.<br />
» It’s hard to wrap your head around something like that, and so if
it happens in a situation where it’s easy to understand and it’s more
tangible, yeah, I would.<br />
> Yeah, I would follow him.<br />
» Maybe if he convinces me something good, I can—I think this man is good, I think I would think he is a good leader.<br />
[Steve] So if a guy was in front of your own eyes, and you actually
believed it, do you think you’d follow him and do what he says?<br />
> If the guy was in front of my eyes, yeah, I would believe him.<br />
» If a supernatural event happens, I’m looking for it to have purpose, not just to be a cool event kind of thing.<br />
[Steve] These miraculous events will certainly have a purpose. Part
of that reason is described here: “The coming of the man of sin will fit
how Satan works. The man of sin will show his power through all kinds
of signs and wonders. These signs and wonders will lead people astray” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Thessalonians_2_9_55172700" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Thessalonians_2_9_55172700"><span class="number">2</span> Thessalonians <span class="number">2</span>:<span class="number">9</span></a>, <span class="caps">NIRV</span>).<br />
In other words, the intended aim of theses miracles is to deceive—to
lie. They’re called false miracles and “lying wonders” because their
whole purpose and intention is to deceive.<br />
So you should expect that many different supernatural signs and
wonders will occur. They’ll be real to our senses and perception.
Apparitions, supernatural encounters, great signs, and a seemingly
impressive religious leader will all be pieces to the end-time puzzle.<br />
But that’s not all. People are led into a false religious
system—away from the God of the Bible and the truth of Scripture. An
alternative false hope through the signs and lying wonders will be
accepted by the masses and lead to destruction. Now that’s on
the horizon.<br />
But God’s Word says there is an even more subtle way that deception
is impacting you right now. “The secret power [or mystery] of evil
[lawlessness; wickedness] is already working in the world” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Thessalonians_2_7_55366300" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Thessalonians_2_7_55366300"><span class="number">2</span> Thessalonians <span class="number">2</span>:<span class="number">7</span></a>).<br />
A sign that Jesus gave was that many Christians are deceived today.<br />
Is it possible that you’ve already been led astray? Counterfeit truth has been around from the beginning.<br />
The apostle Paul warns all of us: “For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And
no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according
to their works” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Corinthians_11_13-15_55635400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Corinthians_11_13-15_55635400"><span class="number">2</span> Corinthians <span class="number">11</span>:<span class="number">13</span><span class="number">-15</span></a>).<br />
These false apostles talk about Jesus, but don’t understand Christ’s
true message. He said they’ll look like angels of light—and that most
people will believe them.<br />
Jesus Himself taught the true gospel and warned about false
Christianity. He said, “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the
Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_24_23_55817100" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_24_23_55817100">Matthew <span class="number">24</span>:<span class="number">23</span></a>).<br />
Do you see the astonishing meaning? Jesus is telling us that most of
Christianity today has been hijacked by false teachers and empty
religion. He specifically warned against those who simply talk about
Him. True followers won’t listen to such teachers.<br />
Christ was concerned whether or not people understood and believed
His message. Don’t listen to someone who only talks about the
personality of Christ! Don’t listen to a man who says all you must do is
accept Him and believe in His name.<br />
Does your minister teach about the spiritual significance of the
seventh-day Sabbath? Does your clergyman preach about observing God’s
Holy Days and how to understand the plan of God that’s revealed in them?
If you haven’t been taught about the significance of God’s spiritual
law and how it applies to you today—you’re being deceived. The time is
now to understand these things and the full truth of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and the Kingdom of God.<br />
Now how can you determine if you’ve been a part of the kind of
Christianity that Christ warned about and how can you avoid
becoming deceived?<br />
Well here are two steps the Bible gives for us to take:<br />
First, love the truth<br />
To avoid being taken in by deception, we must know the truth, believe the truth, live the truth and love the truth.<br />
The Bible tells us deceit is happening right now and it will come to a crescendo in the future:<br />
“He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way
to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that
would save them. So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they
will believe these lies” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_Thessalonians_2_10_56110800" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_Thessalonians_2_10_56110800"><span class="number">2</span> Thessalonians <span class="number">2</span>:<span class="number">10</span></a>, <span class="caps">NLT</span>).<br />
God makes it clear that if you’re to avoid deception and be a true
follower—you can’t just claim to be Christian. Do you know and
understand the truth? Jesus said, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your
word is truth” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-John_17_17_56303200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="John_17_17_56303200">John <span class="number">17</span>:<span class="number">17</span></a>).<br />
That means the Word of God—the Bible—must rule our life. Well how
can you know if it does? Here’s an example. Jesus said He is Lord of the
Sabbath (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Mark_2_28_56467000" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Mark_2_28_56467000">Mark <span class="number">2</span>:<span class="number">28</span></a>). That means we love that truth. We then worship and celebrate His day—the Sabbath—from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.<br />
So it’s clear that to avoid being led astray we must be Bible
believers. We must read our Bibles. If you do, you’ll begin to discover
the other distinctive truths that Jesus taught. God tells us to learn
about those truths and to love them to the point that they change our
lives. Now if you need help with this—order our study aids to assist you
in understanding your Bible.<br />
Now the second step to avoid deception is to stay close to God by obedience, prayer and Bible study.<br />
There was a group of people in the New Testament who were praised
because they “were more open-minded.” “They listened to the message with
great eagerness, and every day they studied the Scriptures to see if
what Paul said was really true” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Acts_17_11_56673300" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Acts_17_11_56673300">Acts <span class="number">17</span>:<span class="number">11</span></a>, <span class="caps">GNT</span>).<br />
Studying the Bible with that purpose to learn and obey is a key to
avoid deceit. Then we must follow what the Word says. It tells us that
“Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-1_John_2_6_56870100" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="1_John_2_6_56870100"><span class="number">1</span> John <span class="number">2</span>:<span class="number">6</span></a>, <span class="caps">TLB</span>).<br />
Do we say we’re Christian? That means we must keep His commands and
live as Christ lived. We’re told, “This is love, that we walk according
to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard
from the beginning, you should walk in it” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-2_John_1_6_57074200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="2_John_1_6_57074200"><span class="number">2</span> John <span class="number">1</span>:<span class="number">6</span></a>).<br />
In the Bible, the word <em> walk</em> is often used to refer to a
lifestyle—how we live our life. If we walk according to God’s Word, it
means we apply it, and we put it into action. So, to walk with God means
that we obey His commands and we imitate Jesus’ example.<br />
This would include the observance of the seven annual festivals that
were kept by Jesus—the ones that He commanded the New Testament Church
to celebrate. These festivals reveal God’s plan of salvation. Do you
know about them? Do you observe them?<br />
I hope you’ll truly hear the message of Christ and study your Bible to see if what I am saying is really true.<br />
These two steps: loving the truth of Scripture and staying close to
Him in obedience are a sure way to prevent deception today and the
possibility tomorrow. No doubt, there will come a time when amazing
miracles will convince even the skeptics. Will they convince you to
follow those who perform them? The antidote to those lying wonders is to
be one of those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ.<br />
Many will believe that the miracles they see and think are of God.
Don’t be taken in. Ask yourself: Are they teaching God’s laws and
fulfilling His will? Or are they using miracles to trick people in
supporting a government and a religion that are actually opposed to God,
opposed to His law and His plan.<br />
Study God’s Word. Examine the evidence and remember: “To the law and
to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is
because there is no light in them” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Isaiah_8_20_57322500" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Isaiah_8_20_57322500">Isaiah <span class="number">8</span>:<span class="number">20</span></a>).<br />
God doesn’t want you to be misled. You can know the truth if you’ll
study God’s Word in-depth and believe what He says. Always love the
truth and it will show you how to live a fulfilling, satisfying life in
every way and avoid deception.<br />
To help you avoid deception and learn what’s revealed in your Bible, we have published a helpful Bible study aid: <em> Who is the Antchrist?</em> <br />
I hope you’ll order your free copy to help you put Scripture
together so you can prove the truth for yourself. As you use this study
aid alongside your Bible, you will be amazed at how plain the
truth becomes!<br />
<em> Who is the Antichrist?</em> will give you vital keys to understand what the Bible says about deception and prophecy.<br />
For your free copy, call: <span class="number">1</span><span class="number">-888</span><span class="number">-886</span><span class="number">-8632</span> or go online to <em> BeyondToday.tv</em> .<br />
You’ll want to discover more about what the Bible has to say about
the time of the end—how it will impact you and what you can do about it.
So be sure to act today.<br />
Plus, when you order, <em> Who is the Antichrist?</em> we’ll also send you a free subscription to our bi-monthly <em> Beyond Today</em>
magazine. It will help you understand how the Bible explains the
meaning of world events and God’s purpose for your life. It will also
help you grasp the significance of Bible prophecies—which will aid you
in preparing for the difficult days ahead—and the exciting future time
when Jesus Christ will establish God’s Kingdom on earth.<br />
So, to order your free copy of <em> Who is the Antichrist?</em> and receive your free subscription to <em> Beyond Today</em> magazine call: <span class="number">1</span><span class="number">-888</span><span class="number">-886</span><span class="number">-8632</span> or go online to <em> BeyondToday.tv</em> .<br />
Take advantage of our free offers and be sure to tell your family
and friends about us. Tune in again next week for another edition of <em> Beyond Today</em> and join me in praying, “Thy Kingdom come.” Thanks for watching.<br />
[Announcer] For the free literature offered on today’s program, go online to <em> BeyondToday.tv</em> . Please join us again next week on <em> Beyond Today</em> !<br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/false-teachers">false teachers</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/deception-6">deception</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/false-christianity">false Christianity</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/user/steve-myers">Steve Myers</a></h4>
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<small class="odd field-name-field-ucg-position">Beyond Today Presenter, United Church of God Pastor</small><div class="field field-name-field-biography">
Steve is pastor of the United Church of God congregations in
Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also an instructor at Ambassador Bible College
as well as a host on the Beyond Today television program. Together, he
and his wife, Kathe, have served God and His people for over 25 years.<br />
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</footer>Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-35351107813063596932016-12-09T07:49:00.000-07:002016-12-09T07:49:59.465-07:00Southern Poverty Law Center Targets Anti-Jihad Crusaders (Ann Corcoran Honored!)<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.vdare.com/" target="_blank">www.vdare.com</a> about the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/southern-poverty-law-center-targets-anti-jihad-crusaders-ann-corcoran-honored">SPLC</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/zero-black-congressmen-disavow-keith.html">this post</a> about<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/zero-black-congressmen-disavow-keith.html"> Keith Ellison</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/happy-new-year-celebrate-with-67-rap.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472820874501_2074" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post </a>about <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hip-hops-25-year-obsession-with-donald-trump_55d61727e4b055a6dab3524a" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">rap songs</a> referencing <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hip-hops-25-year-obsession-with-donald-trump_55d61727e4b055a6dab3524a" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2072" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a>. <br />
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<b>Until the 9/11 terror attacks, many Americans did not understand that Muslims like Osama bin Laden believe <a href="https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Invitations_to_Islam_Prior_to_Violence">Islam commands its followers to kill unbelievers who refuse to convert</a>.</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/southern-poverty-law-center-targets-anti-jihad-crusaders-ann-corcoran-honored">Southern Poverty Law Center Targets Anti-Jihad Crusaders (Ann Corcoran Honored!)</a></h1>
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Long-time friends of law and borders remember the unfounded <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2001/anti-immigration-groups">attacks on American sovereignty defenders</a>, in particular the slander of <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/john-tanton">John Tanton</a> (which <a href="http://www.johntanton.org/answering_my_critics/answering_john_tanton_critics.html">he refuted at length</a>).<br />
Now the faux-hate-peddling <a href="http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_20_3/tsc_20_3_walker_printer.shtml">money-grubbers at the SPLC</a> are back, this time bashing scholars and activists who have warned America of the national security threat posed by <a href="http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx">violent</a> jihadist Muslims. The SPLC follows Saul Alinsky’s <a href="http://www.bestofbeck.com/wp/activism/saul-alinskys-12-rules-for-radicals">Rules for Radicals</a>,
particularly his principle to “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize
it, and polarize it.” The cheap-shot smears against individuals are
straight from the Alinsky playbook.<br />
Earlier this week, the SPLC published a new screed,<i> <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20161025/field-guide-anti-muslim-extremists">Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists</a>. I</i>ts list of 15 subjects was rather distinguished, and Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch characterized her inclusion as <i><a href="https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/10/27/a-great-honor-splc-names-me-one-of-15-anti-muslim-extremists-in-america/">A Great Honor!</a></i><br />
Another chosen one, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/10/28/reformist-muslim-maajid-nawaz-anti-muslim-extremist-says-leading-civil-rights-group/">Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz, was less thrilled, writing</a>
on his Facebook page, “The non-Muslim led Southern Poverty Law Center
placing a jihadi target on my head by listing me (a reforming liberal
Muslim) as an ‘anti-Muslim extremist’ on their hit list published
today.”<br />
Good work, SPLC, you may get a real scalp from the latest targeting!
Sensitive jihadists are easily offended and may murder to protect the
strict interpretation of Islam.<br />
The other 13 are: Steven Emerson, Brigitte Gabriel, Frank Gaffney,
Pamela Geller, John Guandolo, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, David Horowitz, Ryan
Mauro, Robert Muise, Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebat, and Robert Spencer.
These are heroic people who are trying to save America from a determined
enemy of 1400 years who want to establish a world Islamic caliphate
ruled by totalitarian misogynous sharia. But the SPLC wants to shut them
up and thereby endanger America for the organization’s selfish
purposes.<br />
The last on the list, Robert Spencer, wrote a response to the SPLC calumny:<br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264645/splcs-libelous-new-report-anti-muslim-extremists-robert-spencer"><b>The SPLC’s Libelous New Report on ‘Anti-Muslim Extremists’</b></a>, by Robert Spencer, Frontpagemag.com, October 28, 2016<br />
The objective of this libelous new report from the <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/king-of-fearmongers/article/714573">hard-Left money-making and incitement machine</a>
the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is made plain within it: “Before
you book a spokesperson from an anti-Muslim extremist group or quote
them in a story, research their background — detailed in this in-depth
guide to 15 of the most visible anti-Muslim activists— and consider the
consequences of giving them a platform.”<br />
They wish to silence those who speak honestly about the nature and
magnitude of the jihad threat, blaming us for a supposed rise in
“Islamophobia.” If they really want to stamp out suspicion of Islam, of
course, they will move against not us, but the likes of Omar Mateen,
Syed Rizwan Farook, Tashfeen Malik, Nidal Malik Hasan, Mohammed
Abdulazeez, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the myriad other Muslims who commit
violence in the name of Islam and justify it by reference to Islamic
teachings.<br />
The SPLC doesn’t do that because its objective is not really to stop
“Islamophobia” at all, but to create the illusion of a powerful and
moneyed network of “Islamophobes,” who can only be stopped if you write a
check to the SPLC. That’s what this is really all about.<br />
In constructing this illusory edifice, the SPLC labels me and
fourteen others “anti-Muslim extremists.” We are, of course, no more
“anti-Muslim” than foes of the Nazis were anti-German, but note the word
“extremists.” That’s the mainstream media and Obama administration’s
term of choice for jihad terrorists. In what way are we “extremists”?
Has anyone on the SPLC’s hit list (and given the SPLC’s track record of
inciting violence against its targets, that is exactly what it is) ever
blown anything or anyone up? Beheaded anyone? Boasted of our imminent
conquest of any territory and the massacre of or enslavement of its
people? No, all we have done is speak critically about jihad terror and
Sharia oppression. The SPLC is trying to further the libel that we are
the other side of the coin, the non-Muslim bin Ladens and Awlakis. Until
we commit any terror attacks or conspire with others to do so, however,
the SPLC’s libel is only that: a libel.
<span id="more-14301"></span><br />
It’s also passingly ironic that the SPLC list includes several people
who are doubtless horrified to be in this company, as they have
endeavored for years to distinguish their message from that of those
whom they themselves would smear as “Islamophobes.” But their
temporizing and pandering didn’t work: they ended up on the Index of
Prohibited Thinkers anyway, as will, ultimately, anyone who dares to
note that Islam just might have something to do with the acts of murder
committed in its name and in accord with its teachings.<br />
The “report” as a whole stands as an example of the Left’s strange
tendency to present true statements as if they were self-evidently
false, without bothering to explain why. Apparently the SPLC knows its
supporters and is aware that it doesn’t need to bother with troublesome
things like, you know, facts.<br />
The SPLC’s hit list recurrently excoriates people for making true
statements that it apparently regards as self-evidently false. For
example, it says that Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch
“accuses immigrant-run stores of illegally trafficking in food stamps.”
This is a case <a href="https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/01/22/ho-hum-another-food-stamp-fraud-case-involving-an-immigrant-run-store-st-louis-this-time/">that Corcoran makes with evidence</a>
– evidence that the SPLC doesn’t bother to try disproving. It says that
Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism “has claimed
that the Obama administration ‘extensively collaborates’ with the Muslim
Brotherhood.” That he actually has done so doesn’t seem to bother them.
As Andrew C. McCarthy <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436783/obama-muslim-brotherhood-terrorism-radical-islam-violent-extremism">has noted</a>,
“Barack Obama has spent his presidency cultivating Islamists,
particularly from the international Muslim Brotherhood and its
affiliates in the United States.” The SPLC also hits Emerison for having
“asserted that Europe is riddled with ‘no-go zones.’” Regarding “no-go
zones,” here are some news articles from just the past few weeks:<br />
<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/09/sweden-police-admit-losing-control-of-55-no-go-zones">Sweden: Police admit losing control of 55 no-go zones</a><br />
<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/france-police-need-extra-protection-when-entering-muslim-no-go-zones">France: Police need extra protection when entering Muslim no-go zones</a><br />
<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/germany-police-sick-of-citizens-no-go-zone-fears">Germany: Police “sick” of citizens’ no-go zone fears</a><br />
The SPLC excoriates Brigitte Gabriel of ACT for America for saying
that any “practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the
word of Allah … who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays
five times a day — this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings
of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States.” Yet it
says nothing, of course, about the many teachings of the Qur’an that
contradict American Constitutional principles: the denial of the freedom
of speech, the death penalty for apostasy, the devaluation of women,
and more. How to reconcile these teachings with U.S. citizenship, the
SPLC did not bother to explain.<br />
The SPLC quotes David Horowitz saying: “There are only a couple of
degrees of separation between anybody on the left and the terrorists —
and that includes people in the Democratic Party, even those who are
anti-terrorist.” Here again, no refutation is offered – yet the Left’s
dalliance with Palestinian jihad groups and overall anti-Americanism
make it impossible to dismiss Horowitz’s assertion.<br />
Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, we’re told, “is
gripped by paranoid fantasies about Muslims destroying the West from
within.” The SPLC doesn’t bother to mention the <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/document/id/20">Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America</a>,
the captured Muslim Brotherhood internal document that explained that
Brotherhood members “must understand that their work in America is a
kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western
civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their
hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s
religion is made victorious over all other religions.”<br />
In attacking Pamela Geller of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the SPLC descended to outright fabrications. <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2016/10/splc-publishes-libelous-new-hit-list-of-anti-jihad-voices.html/">Notes Geller</a>:
“Their claim that I insist that Obama is the ‘love child’ of Malcolm X
is patently untrue. The SPLC also states that I ‘have spoken to a
neo-fascist group in Germany,’ when in fact I have never even been to
Germany.” It characterizes former FBI agent John Guandolo’s claim that
CIA director John Brennan was a convert to Islam as an “outlandish
accusation,” when <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/10/john-brennan-is-completely-unqualified-to-be-director-of-central-intelligence">in fact</a>
“a U.S. asset assigned overseas with Brennan in Saudi Arabia when he
was station chief confirmed years ago their firsthand account that
Brennan was indeed the target of a Saudi intelligence influence
operation that led to his conversion. Brennan has also stated publicly
that he visited Mecca, which is impossible for a non-Muslim to do unless
he is a special guest of the Saudi King.”<br />
Even more strangely, the SPLC targets Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a woman who
grew up as a Muslim in Somalia, suffered genital mutilated at the hands
of Muslims, is under death threats from Muslims, and lives in exile from
her homeland because of Muslims. Instead of trying to discredit her,
the SPLC should be honoring her for her stand for human rights against
Sharia oppression. But the SPLC has other priorities.<br />
Of me, the SPLC concedes that I am a “real intellectual” but
complains that I am “entirely self-taught in the study of Islam.” An odd
objection. One cannot be both “self-taught” and a “real intellectual”?
In any case, it’s false: I am indeed mostly self-taught in the study of
Islam, and make no secret of or apologies for it; every day’s headlines
proves me correct. Nonetheless, the fact is that I did first read the
Qur’an and began studying Islam in earnest while at the University of
North Carolina. My claims, says the SPLC, are “provably false,” but then
only offers a number of them that are demonstrably true, without any
attempt to refute them.<br />
It even says that I have “referred to Barack Obama as ‘the first
Muslim president.’” This one epitomizes the dishonesty of the SPLC. The
quote comes from <a href="http://humanevents.com/2007/03/20/our-first-muslim-president/">an article I wrote in 2007</a> discussing how Obama was <i>not</i>
a Muslim, stating that his obvious affinity for Islam and the Muslim
world could make him into “our first Muslim president” the way Bill
Clinton was called “our first black president.” After eight years of
Obama, I’d say I was proven correct in rather spectacular fashion.<br />
The SPLC, finally, hits me for having “even suggested that the media
may be getting money to depict Muslims in a positive light.”<br />
The facts are once again deeply unfortunate for the SPLC: George Soros <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/islamophobia-twitter-report-funded-by-soros">funded a report on “Islamophobia” on Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/soros-bought-favorable-coverage-of-iran-deal-islamophobia-smears-aided-anti-israel-groups">gave $200,000 to the Center for American Progress</a> for a defamatory report on alleged “Islamophobes.” He also <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/09/soros-group-spent-600000-on-countering-the-anti-migrant-rhetoric-and-toxic-narratives-surrounding-migration-in-europe">spent $600,000</a> for favorable coverage of the Muslim migrant inundation, <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/08/soros-bought-favorable-coverage-of-iran-deal-islamophobia-smears-aided-anti-israel-groups">bought favorable coverage of the Iran deal</a>, and <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/09/george-soros-network-pushed-islamophobia-propaganda-after-san-bernardino-jihad-massacre">bought “Islamophobia” propaganda</a> after the San Bernardino jihad massacre.<br />
But what need does the SPLC have of facts? It knows its readers won’t
check up on the veracity of its claims, but will accept them at face
value, since the SPLC is of the camp of the saints, the enlightened and
tolerant Left. Those who are outside that camp clearly have no rights
that the SPLC feels bound to respect.</blockquote>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-37229135439294755822016-12-08T08:05:00.000-07:002016-12-08T08:05:31.561-07:00Hail, Mary?<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about <a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1987491023" target="_blank">Mary</a><a href="http://./">.</a> This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/ecumenism-bridges-major-gap-virgin-mary.html">this previous post </a>about <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/ecumenism-bridges-major-gap-virgin-mary.html">her</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-christmas-really-honor-christ.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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Hail, Mary?</div>
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I was raised a Catholic. Sunday Mass at our neighborhood
Catholic Church was a regular part of the weekly observance of our
religion. As a young boy I was taught the Catholic observance of
Confession and Communion. For several years I served as an altar boy at
daily and Sunday mass. In my late teens I even investigated the
possibility of joining the Catholic priesthood.<br />
Then as I was attending Catholic university, I began to read and
study the Bible more than I had ever in all my years of Catholic
upbringing. I saw things in the Bible that contradicted my Catholic
religion. This led to my search for religious faith founded on the
Bible, not on Catholic tradition.<br />
In my search, one of the first things that I came to see is that
there is no intermediary between God and man other than Jesus Christ. I
had been taught that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the mediator and
advocate to intercede to God on our behalf. I had said the “Hail Mary”
countless times at family rosary and in my nightly prayers. But in
studying the Bible, I found that Jesus Christ is the true intercessor
between God and man. Here are some key scriptures that confirm this.<br />
<span class="dquo">“</span>It is Christ who died, and furthermore is
also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes
intercession for us,” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Romans_8_34_56767200" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Romans_8_34_56767200">Romans 8:34</a>).<br />
<span class="dquo">“</span>Therefore He (Jesus) is also able to save
to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always
lives to make intercession for them,” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Hebrews_7_25_58009600" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Hebrews_7_25_58009600">Hebrews 7:25</a>).<br />
<span class="dquo">“</span>For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, <em> which are</em> copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us,” (<a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Hebrews_9_24_58145400" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Hebrews_9_24_58145400">Hebrews 9:24</a>).<br />
The function of a mediator and an advocate is to intercede on behalf of
others. The Catholic tradition I learned assigns this position to Mary.
On the other hand, Scripture is plain about the identity of man’s true
intercessor before God the Father. Mary is never mentioned in the Bible
as an intercessor between God and man. The Bible teaches that anyone who
comes to the Father must go through Jesus Christ. It is clear that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only intercessor between God and man.<br />
My understanding of scripture has led me to reject the teachings of
the Catholic Church in which I was raised. I concluded that its
doctrines are not based on the Bible. Rather, they are based on the
teachings of men apart from the Bible. I must therefore agree with
Jesus’ statement directed at the Pharisees and apply it to the Catholic
Church or any church that teaches man’s doctrine and not God’s.<br />
<span class="dquo">“</span>In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” <a class="has-tip bls-abbr" data-reveal-id="modal-Matthew_15_9_58277900" data-reveal="" href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="Matthew_15_9_58277900">Matthew 15:9</a>.<br />
It is not me or any man that condemns the teaching of the Catholic
Church. Rather, it is the Bible itself, the Word of God, with which
Catholic doctrine does not agree.<br />
There are many other doctrines in the Catholic theology that I
learned as a child for which I could find no Biblical proof. In fact,
many churches share beliefs in common with the Catholic Church that do
not square with scripture. Among them are the observance of Sunday as
the Lord’s Day instead of keeping holy the seventh day Sabbath; the
teaching that the reward of the saved is heaven instead of living with
Christ in a Kingdom that comes to earth; the belief in the Trinity,
which does not define the true nature of God. <br />
Investigate further for yourself and you will find much in scripture
contradicting the doctrines of the Catholic Church and many of the
churches of our day.<br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/childrens-bible-story-8">virgin Mary</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/trinity">trinity</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/mary-2">Mary</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/hail-mary">hail mary</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/catholocism">catholocism</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/catholic-church">Catholic Church</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/jesus-christ">Jesus Christ</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/gods-church-1">God's Church</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/family-of-god">Family of God</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/doctrinal-beliefs">Doctrinal Beliefs</a></div>
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<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br />
Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-1109538566691417942016-12-08T07:58:00.001-07:002016-12-08T07:58:35.306-07:00 Report buried Trump-related ‘hate crimes’ against white kids - It's the $PLC, what do you expect<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.alipac.us/">http://www.alipac.us</a> about the <a href="http://www.alipac.us/f9/report-splc-buried-trump-related-%91hate-crimes%92-against-white-kids-341292/">SPLC</a>. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/vote-on-refugee-funding-and-h-2bs-this.html"> this post </a>about budget funding for <a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/sendfax?id=17417" target="_blank">Refugees</a> and <a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/sendfax?id=17417" target="_blank">H-2B visas</a>. </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Remember, “Amnesty” means ANY non-enforcement of existing immigration laws! This follows <a href="http://briansnewone.blogspot.com/2013/06/contact-these-nc-house-reps-h786.html?showComment=1371340409102#c3000924856013028097" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2004" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2003" style="color: #0072c6;">this comment</span></a> and <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/reporting-illegal-aliens-how-to-do-it.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3101" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3100" style="color: #2288bb;">this post</span></a> about how to <b id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471957977604_2443">Report Illegal Immigrants</b>! Also, you can read two very interesting books <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">HERE</span></a>.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3095" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Please follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3097" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3096" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.alipac.us/f9/report-splc-buried-trump-related-%91hate-crimes%92-against-white-kids-341292/"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3095" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b></b></span></a><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Report buried Trump-related ‘hate crimes’ against white kids</span></a></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: &amp;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: proxima-nova;">By <a href="http://nypost.com/author/paul-sperry/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Sperry</a></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: proxima-nova;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: proxima-nova;">At least
2,000 educators around the country reported racist slurs and other
derogatory language leveled against white students in the first days
after Donald Trump was elected president. But the group that surveyed
the teachers didn’t publish the results in its report on Trump-related
“hate crimes.”<br />
<br />
<b>The Southern Poverty Law Center</b> partnered with the<b> American Federation of Teachers</b>,
which formally endorsed Hillary Clinton, to circulate the questionnaire
among its 1.6 million mostly Democratic members. The survey was sent
out to K-12 teachers and administrators who subscribe to its “Teaching
Tolerance” newsletter.<br />
<br />
The SPLC’s widely cited report — “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20161128/trump-effect-impact-2016-presidential-election-our-nations-schools" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Trump Effect: The Impact of the 2016 Presidential Election on Our Nation’s Schools</a>”
— reported that 40 percent of the more than 10,000 educators who
responded to the survey “have heard derogatory language directed at
students of color, Muslims, immigrants and people based on gender or
sexual orientation.”<br />
<br />
The takeaway was that Trump-supporting white kids have been harassing
minorities at the nation’s schools. And SPLC’s schools report, along
with a broader report on alleged Trump-inspired hate crimes — “<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20161129/ten-days-after-harassment-and-intimidation-aftermath-election" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election</a>” — sparked breathless coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post and other major media.<br />
<br />
The reports also triggered a statement Friday from the US Commission on
Civil Rights, which expressed “deep concern” that “prejudice has reared
its ugly head in public elementary and secondary schools.” The panel
called for more federal funding to prosecute “hate crimes.”<br />
<br />
<b>But the SPLC didn’t present the whole story. The Montgomery,
Ala.-based nonprofit self-censored results from a key question it asked
educators — whether they agree or disagree with the following statement:
“I have heard derogatory language or slurs about white students.”</b><br />
<br />
Asked last week to provide the data, SPLC initially said it was having a
hard time getting the information “from the researchers.” Pressed, SPLC
spokeswoman <b>Kirsten Bokenkamp</b> finally revealed that “about 20 percent answered affirmatively to that question.”<br />
<br />
Bokenkamp did not provide an explanation for the absence of such a
substantial metric — at least 2,000 bias-related incidents against white
students — from the report, which focuses instead on “anti-immigrant
sentiment,” “anti-Muslim sentiment” and “slurs about students of color”
related to the election.<br />
<br />
<b>“They left that result out because it would not fit their ideological
narrative,” former Education Department civil rights attorney Hans
Bader said. “It was deemed an inconvenient truth.”</b><br />
</span></span><br />
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: futura-pt;">Suppressing reports of crimes against Trump supporters gives a one-sided and misleading view of post-election discord.<br />
</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Founded in 1971, SPLC claims to be a nonpartisan civil rights law firm. <b>But it receives funding from leftist groups, including ones controlled by billionaire George Soros</b>.
And a review of Federal Election Commission records reveals that its
board members have contributed more than $13,400 to Hillary Clinton’s
presidential campaigns.<br />
<br />
Bader says SPLC has an agenda to derail the Trump administration before it starts.<br />
<br />
“These flawed SPLC reports will be cited by left-wing special interests
to try to block the confirmation of moderate and conservative people to
posts such as attorney general by falsely making it look like America’s
schools and streets are pervaded by bigotry,” Bader said.<br />
<br />
Last week, SPLC held a press conference in Washington to demand Trump
“reconsider” his picks for White House advisers and attorney general,
and “disavow” his immigration policies.<br />
<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/161205-trump-related-attacks-embed.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=664&h=441&crop=1&strip=all" /><br />
Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center<span style="color: #bfbfbf;">Photo: Getty Image<br />
<br />
s</span>“His own words have sparked the barrage of hate that we are seeing,” SPLC President <b>Richard Cohen </b>maintained.
“He has been singing the white supremacist song since he came down the
escalator in his tower and announced his candidacy.”<br />
<br />
Cohen tied Trump to a number of hate crimes, which he warns will only
“spike” once he’s inaugurated. He noted his center recorded 867 alleged
anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-black hate crimes in the 10 days
following Trump’s Nov. 8 win.<br />
<br />
<b>But the SPLC acknowledges that it has not independently verified any
of the claims. It collected most of them on its website, many
anonymously.</b><br />
<br />
The group won’t use its $315 million in assets to investigate the “hate
crimes,” or at least help alleged victims file police reports or provide
them counseling or other assistance, but it has offered “sympathy.”<br />
<br />
“We wrote back to every submission that provided an email address to
express sympathy and encourage them to report the incident to local
authorities,” Bokenkamp said.<br />
<br />
Bader pointed out that most of the anti-minority “hate crimes” and “hate
incidents” cited by SPLC do not legally constitute hate crimes, and
many involve constitutionally protected speech.<br />
<br />
“It is simply ridiculous that SPLC treats ‘build the wall’ as hate
rhetoric,” he said. The center counted people mentioning “build the
wall” as 467 incidents of hate.<br />
<br />
<b>“Alas, these days the SPLC is mainly a fundraising machine,” </b>said Gail Heriot, a US Commission on Civil Rights member who voted against Friday’s resolution. <b>“The
more it can persuade its donors that hate groups have penetrated every
nook and cranny of American society, the more money it can raise</b>.
Now it wants us to believe that the election has unleashed unprecedented
waves of hatred and violence among schoolchildren. Let’s stop and take a
deep breath before we assume that’s true. The SPLC has no credibility
with anyone — on the left or the right — who is familiar with its
methods.”<br />
<br />
While there no doubt are legitimate reports of hate crimes against
minorities — and even one is too many — hyping such incidents recklessly
fans the flames of anxiety among such communities. And suppressing
reports of crimes against Trump supporters gives a one-sided and
misleading view of post-election discord.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nypost.com/2016/12/05/report-buried-trump-related-hate-crimes-against-white-kids/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://nypost.com/2016/12/05/report-...st-white-kids/</a></span>Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-9504727031137333892016-12-07T07:55:00.000-07:002016-12-07T07:55:39.499-07:00Ecumenism bridges a major gap: The Virgin Mary<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-ecumenism-bridges-a-major-gap-the-virgin-mary">Mary</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/peace-on-earth.html">this post </a>about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/peace-on-earth" target="_blank">Pearl Harbor</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-christmas-really-honor-christ.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-ecumenism-bridges-a-major-gap-the-virgin-mary">World News and Trends</a></h1>
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</a><h2 class="subheader fl-subtitle">
<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-ecumenism-bridges-a-major-gap-the-virgin-mary">Ecumenism bridges a major gap: The Virgin Mary</a></h2>
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<span class="authors"> by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/jerold-aust" title="View user profile.">Jerold Aust</a>, <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/john-ross-schroeder" title="View user profile.">John Ross Schroeder</a></span> <span class="reading-time no-break"> Estimated reading time: 1 minute</span> </div>
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Some Protestants are now beginning to accept the Roman Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary. </div>
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Some Anglicans are now beginning to accept the Roman Catholic devotion
to the Virgin Mary. Wrote Stephen Bates, the religious affairs
correspondent of The Times: “After nearly 500 years of intense division,
Anglicans and Roman Catholic theologians yesterday decided that one of
the two faiths' most fundamental differences—the position of Mary, the
mother of Christ—should no longer divide them.”<br />
A new document titled “Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ” was recently
published in Seattle. It says: “We don't consider the practice of asking
Mary and the saints to pray for us as communion dividing … We believe
that there is no continuing theological reason for ecclesiastical
division on these matters.” The Anglican-Roman Catholic International
Commission produced this document.<br />
Historically, Protestants have normally had difficulty with the
Catholic belief embodied in the idea of an Immaculate Conception, in
essence meaning Mary was free from the stain of what theologians call
original sin. Another stumbling block has been the Roman Catholic belief
of her assumption into heaven, body and soul. Most Protestants have
generally contended that there is no biblical basis for this
religious belief.<br />
Now at least one or two branches of Protestanism appear to be putting
the goal of ecumenism before these and other differences—and perhaps
gradually coming around to the Catholic way of thinking. To understand
whether or not Mary is really in heaven, please request our free booklet
<strong> Heaven and Hell: What Does the Bible Really Teach?</strong> (Source: <em> The Guardian</em> [London].)<br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/catholocism">catholocism</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/mary-2">Mary</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/religion">religion</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/doctrinal-beliefs">Doctrinal Beliefs</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/user/jerold-aust"><img alt="Jerold Aust" class="user-profile-thumbnail" height="100" src="https://www.ucg.org/system/storage/serve/68511/aust-jerold.jpg" width="100" /></a><div class="field field-name-name">
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/user/jerold-aust">Jerold Aust</a></h4>
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<small class="odd field-name-field-ucg-position">United Church of God Pastor</small><div class="field field-name-field-biography">
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 45 years, as a public
speaker for 51 years, a published writer for 31 years, and is employed
by <span class="caps">UCG</span>’s Media and Communications Services. He
is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for The Good News Magazine
and also teaches Speech Communication for <span class="caps">UCG</span>’s ministerial online program. </div>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-64857337690403388882016-12-07T07:49:00.000-07:002016-12-07T07:49:20.837-07:00Raymond Ibrahim: Pope Francis vs. Saint Francis on IslamA timely post about from <a href="http://www.jihadwatch.org/" id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2099" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.jihadwatch.org</a> about <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/09/raymond-ibrahim-pope-francis-vs-saint-francis-on-islam">Pope Francis</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/fbi-cant-confirm-that-hate-letters-sent.html">this post </a>about "<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/11/fbi-cant-confirm-that-hate-letters-sent-to-mosques-actually-came-from-outside-muslim-community" target="_blank">hate crimes</a>" against<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/11/fbi-cant-confirm-that-hate-letters-sent-to-mosques-actually-came-from-outside-muslim-community" target="_blank"> Muslims</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/steve-bannon-and-keith-ellison-do.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/11/robert-spencer-in-frontpage-steve-bannon-and-keith-ellison-do-the-democrats-really-care-about-anti-semitism" target="_blank">Steve Bannon</a> and <a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/11/robert-spencer-in-frontpage-steve-bannon-and-keith-ellison-do-the-democrats-really-care-about-anti-semitism" target="_blank">Keith Ellison</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/fight-for-oil-sands-which-our-nation.html" id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2124" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2123" style="color: #2288bb;">this article</span></a>
about American energy independence and preventing money from going to
hostile countries. For more, you can read two very interesting books <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2122" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2121" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE</span></a>.<span id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2120" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">You can follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2119" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_yiv4558807092yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1472043123657_2118" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<header class="entry-header"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline">
<a href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/09/raymond-ibrahim-pope-francis-vs-saint-francis-on-islam">Raymond Ibrahim: Pope Francis vs. Saint Francis on Islam</a></h1>
<div class="entry-meta">
<time class="entry-time" datetime="2016-09-06T16:47:22+00:00" itemprop="datePublished"></time> By <span class="entry-author" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a class="entry-author-link" href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/author/raymond-ibrahim" itemprop="url" rel="author"><span class="entry-author-name" itemprop="name">Raymond Ibrahim</span></a></span> </div>
</header><a href="https://cdn.jihadwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/POPE-FRANCIS-facebook.jpg"><img alt="APTOPIX Italy Pope Epiphany" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-70966" height="405" src="https://cdn.jihadwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/POPE-FRANCIS-facebook.jpg" width="700" /></a><br />
When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the new Catholic pope in
2013, he chose the name of Francis to indicate that his pontificate
would be one of mercy and compassion for the poor and needy—for such is
the reputation of his eponym, Saint Francis of Assisi: “the man of
poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation,”<a href="http://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/pope-francis-explains-why-he-chose-st-francis-of-assisis-name/13243">explained </a>Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, as to why he chose that name.<br />
St. Francis (1182-1226) is indeed known for all those qualities. But
he was known for something else that his modern day namesake fails to
live up to: unapologetically confronting Islam.<br />
According to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/St-Francis-Assisi-Conversion-Muslims/dp/0895558580"><em>St. Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of the Muslims</em></a> by Frank M. Rega:<br />
<blockquote>
Fully aware of the dangers, Francis was determined to go
on a mission to the unbelievers of the Muslim nations. The primary
sources are in agreement that he was now ready to sacrifice his life and
die for Christ, so there can be little doubt that the intent of his
journey was to preach the Gospel even at the risk of martyrdom (p. 43).</blockquote>
Along with saving souls, he sought to save lives as well; to help
bring peace to the turbulent world he lived in, where Christians,
responding to centuries of Islamic invasions and conquests of Christian
lands, had gone to war with Islam, that is, the Crusades:<br />
<blockquote>
Converting the Muslims by his preaching was the ultimate
goal of Francis’ efforts, and a peaceful end to the war would be a
consequence of their conversion. In the words of scholar Christoph
Maier, “Francis, like the crusaders, wanted to liberate the holy places
in Palestine from Muslim rule. What was different was his strategy….
He wanted their total submission to the Christian faith” (p. 63).</blockquote>
In 1219, during the Fifth Crusade, Francis and a fellow monk traveled
to the Middle East and sought audience with Sultan al-Kamil—despite
al-Kamil’s vow that “anyone who brought him the head of a Christian
should be awarded with a Byzantine gold piece” (p. 57). St. Francis’
contemporaries also warned him that Muslims “were a mean people who
thirst for Christian blood and attempt even the most brazen atrocities,”
(p. 34). The determined monks continued their journey, only to
experience the inevitable:<br />
<blockquote>
The early documents are unanimous in agreeing that the
two Franciscans were subjected to rough treatment upon crossing Muslim
territory. The men of God were seized in a violent manner by the
sentries, assaulted, and bound in chains. Celano reports that Francis
“was captured by the Sultan’s soldiers, was insulted and beaten” yet
showed no fear even when threatened with torture and death (p. 58).</blockquote>
Eventually brought before Sultan al-Kamil, the monks sought to
“demonstrate to the Sultan’s wisest counselors the truth of
Christianity, before which Mohammed’s law [<em>Sharia</em>] counted for
nothing: for ‘if you die while holding to your law, you will be lost;
God will not accept your soul. For this reason we have come to you.’”<br />
Intrigued by the cheeky monks, “the Sultan called in his religious
advisers, the imams. However, they refused to dispute with the
Christians and instead insisted that they be killed [by beheading], in
accordance with Islamic law (p. 60).”<br />
The sultan refused: “I am going counter to what my religious advisers
demand and will not cut off your heads… you have risked your own lives
in order to save my soul.”<br />
During their disputation and in reference to “the centuries-old
Muslim conquest and occupation of lands, peoples, and nations that had
once been primarily Christian,” Kamil sought to trap the monks with
their own logic: if Jesus had taught Christians to “turn the other
cheek” and “repay evil with good,” he inquired, why were “Crusaders …
invading the lands of the Muslims?”<br />
Francis quipped by also quoting Christ: “If your right eye causes you
to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to
lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into
hell.”<br />
Francis then explained: “That is why it is just that Christians
invade the land you inhabit, for you blaspheme the name of Christ and
alienate everyone you can from His worship”—a reference to <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2014/03/24/western-ignorance-of-the-conditions-of-omar/">Islam’s dhimmi rules</a> which, along with debilitating Christian worship, make Christian lives so burdensome and degrading that <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2015/08/31/how-the-islamic-world-was-forged-an-exercise-in-common-sense/">untold millions had converted to Islam over the centuries to ease their sufferings</a>.<br />
There are more interesting aspects concerning St. Francis’ encounter
with Sultan Kamil, including those that find parallels in the modern
world, such as Sharia’s strict bans on blasphemy against Islam and
evangelizing for Christianity (often seen as one and the same) and call
for the execution of apostates from Islam. They are discussed in <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2009/06/30/st-francis-of-assisi-fr-zakaria-botros-and-islam/">this brief article</a>.<br />
For now, consider some important differences between St. Francis and his modern day namesake, Pope Francis.<br />
While the saint accused Islam of persecuting Christians, and sought
to bring them succor—to the point of putting his life on the line—Pope
Francis refuses to confront Islam. When he has the attention of the
world he habitually fails to condemn or even shed light on <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2016/08/29/christians-as-target-practice-muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2016/">the nonstop Muslim persecution of Christians</a>, including millions of Catholics.<br />
Last year he delivered a nearly hour long speech before the United
Nations. Only once did Francis make reference to persecuted
Christians—and he merged their sufferings in the very same sentence with
the supposedly equal sufferings of “members of the majority religion,”
that is, Sunni Muslims. In reality, of course, Sunnis are not being
slaughtered, beheaded, enslaved, and raped for their faith; are not
having their mosques bombed and burned; are not being jailed or killed
for apostasy, blasphemy, or proselytization. That’s because the
terrorists—whether al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, or ISIS—are Sunnis.<br />
And before that Francis issued <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2015/06/25/wheres-the-popes-encyclical-on-christian-persecution/">his first encyclical</a>—an important document meant to be relayed to the world’s Catholics—with no mention of persecuted Christians.<br />
More recently, after a journalist <a href="http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/full-text-of-pope-francis-in-flight-presser-from-poland-70432/">asked</a> Pope Francis about the <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2016/07/26/eject-western-traitors-beat-islamic-terrorists/">slaughter of an 85-year-old priest in France</a>, and how he was clearly “killed in the name of Islam,” the pope disagreed and proceeded to offer <a href="http://www.raymondibrahim.com/2016/08/02/pope-francis-a-fool-or-liar-for-islam/">a plethora of absurd and silly rationalizations</a> in defense of Islam.<em> </em><br />
Nor did St. Francis preach passivity before aggression:<br />
<blockquote>
A foremost expert on Francis and the Fifth Crusade,
Professor James Powell, wrote: “Francis of Assisi went to Damietta
[Egypt, where Sultan Kamil was] on a mission of peace. There can be no
question about this. We should not however try to make him a pacifist
or to label him as a critic of the crusade.” Another leading crusade
scholar, Christoph Maier, was even more explicit: “Francis thus accepted
the crusade as both legitimate and ordained by God, and he was quite
obviously not opposed to the use of violence when it came to the
struggle between Christians and Muslims.” At one time Francis had
remarked to his friars that “… paladins and valiant knights who were
mighty in battle pursued the infidels even to death…” Francis admired
the deeds of such brave men because “… the holy martyrs died fighting
for the Faith of Christ” (p.70).</blockquote>
This is why those who know the true biography of St. Francis deplore
his modern day transformation into some sort of Medieval “hippy”—or, in
Pope Francis’ words, “the man of peace, the man who loves and protects
creation.” In 1926 Pope Pius XI issued the following statement:<br />
<blockquote>
What evil they do and how far from a true appreciation of
the Man of Assisi [St. Francis] are they who, in order to bolster up
their fantastic and erroneous ideas about him, image such an incredible
thing … that he was the precursor and prophet of that false liberty
which began to manifest itself at the beginning of modern times and
which has caused so many disturbances both in the Church and in civil
society!</blockquote>
In the context of confronting Islam, Rega laments that, “for the
revisionists, the ‘real’ Francis was not a bold Evangelist, but a timid
man, whose goal was to have the friars live passively among the Saracens
[Muslims] and “to be subject to them” (p.95).<br />
A final important point: while St. Francis did not mock
Muhammad—though apparently not enough to dissuade the pious from calling
for his head—he unequivocally portrayed the Muslim prophet’s message as
false. Unlike the diplomatic Pope Francis, who never seems to preach
Christ to Muslims but rather confirms them in and validates their
religion, the sincere saint was actually more concerned with the souls
of Muslims, to the point of putting his own life on the line. This used
to be one of the chief concerns of all popes, the “Vicars of Christ.”
But apparently not for Pope Francis.<br />
In short, there’s a fine line between St. Francis’ compassion and
Pope Francis’ cowardice—or worse, complicity. When it comes to
confronting Islam and standing up for the faith and persecuted
Christians, Pope Francis woefully fails to live up to the brave monk
whose name he appropriated.<br />
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-14234383926550808252016-12-06T07:59:00.000-07:002016-12-06T07:59:07.254-07:00Peace on Earth?<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/peace-on-earth">Pearl Harbor</a>. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/world-news-and-trends-huge-bankruptcy.html"> this post</a> about<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-huge-bankruptcy-rise-among-seniors" target="_blank"> bankruptcy</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-christmas-really-honor-christ.html" target="_blank">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ" target="_blank">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/peace-on-earth">Peace on Earth?</a></h1>
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<span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/dean-rammelsberg" title="View user profile.">Dean Rammelsberg</a></span> <span class="reading-time no-break"> Estimated reading time: 2 minutes</span> </div>
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A World War II vet considers how the days of infamy and victory remind us of this world's crying need for peace. </div>
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A few years back I called several newspapers on December 7, and asked
if they knew what day it was. The reporters didn't know it was Pearl
Harbor Day. Of course, even fewer remember Victory in Europe (<span class="caps">VE</span>) Day or <span class="caps">VJ</span> Day or other days of remembrance.<br />
How contradictory that the world seeks peace by waging war. The horrors
of war were made painfully clear with World War I and World War <span class="caps">II</span>.
But the world continues to seek peace through conflicts and armed
battles. Aren't we all looking for the day when the whole world will
have a truly peaceful environment in which to live a happy,
enjoyable life?<br />
Rather than relying on peace treaties, what if all the world followed
the Golden Rule? It certainly appears there would be a much, much more
peaceful world if all the “war lords” would use the Golden Rule as a
daily guide and settle their differences in more peaceful ways.<br />
General Douglas MacArthur understood the answers to these questions at the end of World War <span class="caps">II</span> when he spoke aboard the <span class="caps">USS</span> Missouri September 2, 1945: “Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.”<br />
He declared: “We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some
greater and more equitable system, our Armageddon will be at our door.
The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual
recrudescence, an improvement of human character that will synchronize
with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all
material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It
must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.”<br />
In all, we need to honor God on these days of remembrance—Pearl Harbor Day, <span class="caps">VE</span> Day, <span class="caps">VJ</span>
Day, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and Armistice Day—because of His
giving us victory. We also honor the tremendous sacrifices Americans
have made to try to bring about peace and keep America and the rest of
the world free. Each time we remember these days of war and victory, we
can remember the words of General MacArthur and the fact that war
doesn't really make a peaceful world. More than that, we can look to the
Book that teaches the Golden Rule and the true way to peace.<br />
<em> Dean Rammelsberg served aboard the <span class="caps">USS</span> Goshen in the Pacific from December 13, 1944, until the end of the war.</em> <br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/ww-ii">WW II</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/uss-missouri">USS Missouri</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/pearl-harbor">Pearl Harbor</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/general-douglas-macarthur">General Douglas MacArthur</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/restoration">Restoration</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/conflicts-and-war">Conflicts and War</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/news-and-prophecy">News and Prophecy</a></div>
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</footer>Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-27606374621195467692016-12-06T07:51:00.000-07:002016-12-06T07:51:04.953-07:00Vote on Refugee funding and H-2Bs this week!<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv8240276254yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471006098946_2067" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;">A timely post from <a href="http://www.numbersusa.com/">www.numbersusa.com</a> about budget funding for <a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/sendfax?id=17417">Refugees</a> and <a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/sendfax?id=17417">H-2B visas</a>. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/ask-trump-not-to-appoint-amnesty-backer.html"> this post </a>about <a href="http://www.alipac.us/f8/rep-michael-mccaul-accuses-americans-legal-immigration-slander-fox-news-341103/" target="_blank">Rep. Michael McCaul</a>. </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3075" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Remember, “Amnesty” means ANY non-enforcement of existing immigration laws! This follows <a href="http://briansnewone.blogspot.com/2013/06/contact-these-nc-house-reps-h786.html?showComment=1371340409102#c3000924856013028097" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2004" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473943984590_2003" style="color: #0072c6;">this comment</span></a> and <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/reporting-illegal-aliens-how-to-do-it.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3101" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3100" style="color: #2288bb;">this post</span></a> about how to <b id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471957977604_2443">Report Illegal Immigrants</b>! Also, you can read two very interesting books <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2288bb;">HERE</span></a>.</span><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br />
</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3095" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Please follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3097" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3096" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.numbersusa.com/sendfax?id=17417"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_yiv5646476207x_yiv4666444910yui_3_16_0_1_1470660818069_3095" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><span class="rpHighlightAllClass rpHighlightSubjectClass" role="heading" tabindex="-1">Vote on Refugee funding and H-2Bs this week!</span></span></a><br />
<br />
<h3 class="x_main-title" style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px; margin: 0; padding-bottom: 16px;">
Obama Admin. demands more refugee funding -- including to resettle
border surgers -- in short-term spending bill. Tell GOP Leaders to
reject!</h3>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0 0 16px 0; text-align: left;">
Dear friends,</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0 0 16px 0; text-align: left;">
Last week, we told you about the Obama Administration's last minute
request to double refugee spending in the upcoming spending bill and the
possibility that Congress may continue an expansion of the H-2B guest
worker program.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0 0 16px 0; text-align: left;">
Funding for the federal government runs out at the end of this week, so
Congressional action on both of these items is likely to come over the
next few days. <strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #b00000;">We need your urgent activism today!</span></strong></div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0 0 16px 0; text-align: left;">
Obama's requested increase in refugee funding wouldn't only fund the
extra refugees that he wants to bring to the United States, but it would
also be used to help house and resettle the thousands of aliens who
have illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months and have
been allowed by the Administration to claim asylum even though most
don't qualify under existing law. </div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0 0 16px 0; text-align: left;">
Additionally, pro-H-2B advocates are pushing for an extension of a
provision that exempts returning workers from the annual caps,
potentially quadrupling the number of H-2B foreign workers in the
country for 2017. This is the same provision that Congress included in
last year's December spending bill that generated so much outrage.</div>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0 0 16px 0; text-align: left;">
During last month's election, voters delivered a clear message -- they
want to gain control of the refugee situation, secure the border, and
reduce the number of foreign workers entering the U.S. each year. What
will Congress do? Will it side with the voters or stick with the status
quo?</div>
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Call GOP Leadership</td>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;">HERE'S A LIST OF CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS AND THE CHIEF APPROPRIATORS:</strong></div>
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<strong style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #0050a9;">HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN -- (202) 225-0600<br />
<br />
HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER KEVIN McCARTHY -- (202) 225-4000<br />
<br />
HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP STEVE SCALISE -- (202) 225-0197<br />
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HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE CHAIR McMORRIS RODGERS -- (202) 225-5107<br />
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HOUSE APPROPS. CHAIR HAL ROGERS -- (202) 225-4601<br />
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SEN. MAJORITY LEADER MITCH McCONNELL -- (202) 224-3135<br />
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SEN. MAJORITY WHIP JOHN CORNYN -- (202) 224-2708<br />
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SENATE GOP CONFERENCE CHAIR JOHN THUNE -- (202) 224-2764<br />
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SEN. APPROPS. CHAIR THAD COCHRAN -- (202) 224-5054</span></strong></div>
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Please call EVERYONE on the above list! And when you've finished, you
can also call your own Members of Congress using the Capitol Switchboard
at <strong style="font-weight: bold;">(202) 224-3121.</strong> </div>
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When the staffer answers, tell them that <strong style="font-weight: bold;">voters
sent a clear message to Washington during last month's elections. Urge
Congress to reject the White House's demand for increased refugee
funding and to reject increases to the H-2B low-skilled visa program</strong>.</div>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-88488287955664030902016-12-05T08:11:00.000-07:002016-12-05T08:11:44.735-07:00Editorial: Michael Slager, BLM, and Due Process<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/editorial-mexico-still-meddling-in-us.html">Editorial</a><br />
<br />
If you haven't been following the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/breaking-news-jury-in-michael-slager-show-trial-is-deadlocked-walter-scott">Michael Slager</a> case, this is one of the most clear cut cases of a police officer being railroaded by the <a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/breaking-news-jury-in-michael-slager-show-trial-is-deadlocked-walter-scott">BLM</a> movement. In this particular case, the judge is meddling in the jury's verdict in order to get the predetermined outcome. Crime shows on TV have nothing on the drama in this case!<br />
<br />
For the latest on this trial see here:<br />
<a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/fake-news-at-cbs-on-slager-trial-deadlock-is-black-judge-trying-to-force-conviction">http://www.vdare.com/posts/fake-news-at-cbs-on-slager-trial-deadlock-is-black-judge-trying-to-force-conviction </a><br />
<br />
and for the background on this story you can see these links:<br />
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/why-dont-they-just-crucify-officer-michael-slager-and-have-done-with-it">Why Don’t They Just Crucify Officer Michael Slager And Have Done With It?</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.vdare.com/articles/the-case-of-michael-slager-not-just-lynching-a-crucifixion">The Case Of Michael Slager: Not Just Lynching, A Crucifixion</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.vdare.com/letters/a-retired-30-year-lawman-comments-on-the-federal-civil-rights-case-against-michael-slager">A Retired, 30-Year Lawman Comments on the Federal Civil Rights Case Against Michael Slager</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/n-week-three-of-the-show-trial-of-white-policeman-michael-slager-for-shooting-black-petty-criminal-walter-scott-dead-cops-old-supe-he-was-a-very-good-officer">Week
Three Of White Policeman Michael Slager’s Show Trial For Shooting Black
Petty Criminal Walter Scott Dead, Cop’s Old Supe: “He Was A Very Good
Officer”</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.vdare.com/posts/the-michael-slager-show-trial-is-effectively-over-racist-black-judge-has-handcuffed-the-defense">Michael Slager Show Trial Effectively Over: Racist Black Judge Handcuffs Defense</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<br />Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-29237454867222589612016-12-05T07:59:00.000-07:002016-12-05T07:59:58.427-07:00Wendy Davis Slams New Texas Law Making Abortion Clinics Bury Aborted Babies Instead of Selling Them<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2011" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting story from <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2017" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2016" style="color: #0072c6;">www.lifenews.com</span></a> about <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2016/12/02/wendy-davis-slams-new-texas-law-making-abortion-clinics-bury-aborted-babies-instead-of-selling-them/">Texas's new abortion laws</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/black-lives-matter-35-of-aborted-babies.html">this post </a>about<a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2016/11/28/black-lives-matter-35-of-aborted-babies-are-black-even-though-blacks-are-13-of-the-population/" target="_blank"> Black abortions</a>. For two very interesting books click <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-books-to-read-domestic-policy.html" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yui_3_16_0_1_1475586207993_1961" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yui_3_16_0_1_1475586207993_1960" style="color: #0072c6;">HERE</span></a>. </span><br />
<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2044" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Please follow me <a href="http://https/www.google.com/friendconnect/signin/home?st=e%3DAOG8GaCNnGOYgfJG3VgppSNKec%252BZhi43G1ZG4RnGAuWLBFiYGP2xDKunEKSSg8AKj1%252B7JD%252BmAGsoiS%252B1VmGOn3mS5fhm1oTGgr%252F27%252Bu57cKZBH0da8LoaGze%252FxzDwkF2kHUysP2qr3roFDYgSQW0KL9txTQbqHfO8s2yUj2zQTCVExzTefd1Fx0ONvSO%252BvfsNLbdVa9ORx0SKwWiLMOp2y3fLSoUjuRqnFUQNmDz5dFHZ4U%252BdMBvzY8%253D%26c%3Dpeoplesense&psinvite=&subscribeOnSignin=1" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2046" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv3493651768yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1471265956471_2045" style="color: #0072c6;">here</span></a>.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2016/12/02/wendy-davis-slams-new-texas-law-making-abortion-clinics-bury-aborted-babies-instead-of-selling-them/">Wendy Davis Slams New Texas Law Making Abortion Clinics Bury Aborted Babies Instead of Selling Them</a></h2>
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<span class="categoryname"><a href="http://www.lifenews.com/category/statenews/">State</a></span> Steven Ertelt Washington, DC </div>
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<span id="more-84072"></span>Wendy
Davis loves abortion. In fact she must love abortion so much that she
is slamming a new Texas law making abortion clinics provide proper
burials for aborted babies instead of selling their body parts for
profit.<br />
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New Texas rules requiring a dignified burial of aborted babies’
bodies will go into effect on Dec. 19, state health officials said this
week.<br />
The new rules, introduced in July by the Texas Health and Human
Services Commission, require that abortion facilities, hospitals and
other medical centers either cremate or bury the remains of aborted and
miscarried babies. State officials said the rules do not apply to
miscarriages or abortions that take place at home.<br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.mailermailer.com/u/signup/1056801L">Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com</a></b></i><br />
But Wendy Davis is not happy.<br />
<blockquote>
Davis, the former Texas state senator and former
gubernatorial candidate whose 13-hour filibuster of the Texas abortion
bill garnered national attention in 2013, told ATTN: via email:<br />
“Once again, Governor Abbott and his political appointees are
demonstrating a greater interest in scoring cheap political points than
they are in governing in the best interests of the state. This rule will
no doubt create an undue burden on women seeking abortion in our state,
yet another thinly veiled attempt to assert a ‘legitimate state
interest’ when the real objective is closing off access to
constitutionally protected abortion care.”</blockquote>
Never mid that the rules have nothing to do to access to abortion —
they only concern what happens after the abortion has claimed the life
of the baby.<br />
John Seago, Legislative Director of Texas Right To Life, previously
told LifeNews that the rules are strong attempt to restore the dignity
to the victims of abortion. However, he noted that they are just one
small step toward the ultimate goal of protecting unborn babies’ lives
from abortion.<br />
“Texas Right to Life is in favor of the proposed rules to clarify the
manner in which abortion clinics handled the bodies of these victims of
abortion,” Seago said. “However, Texas Right to Life strongly believes
that the pro-life movement must go far beyond simply regulating the
disposition and donation of these bodies after abortion. Texas must take
positive steps to stop the horrific injustice of elective abortion
instead of just regulating the aftermath.”<br />
<a href="http://lifenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wendydavis33.png"><img alt="wendydavis33" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-81623" height="412" src="https://lifenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wendydavis33.png" width="684" /></a></div>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-50367324283939833072016-12-05T07:51:00.000-07:002016-12-05T07:51:46.643-07:00Weekend Box Office: Manchester By the Sea (America, Hillary-Style)<span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2012" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Here is an interesting article from </span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/" id="LPlnk815818" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0072c6;">http://www.debbieschlussel.com/</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2011" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows<a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/wknd-box-office-magnificent-seven-queen.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> </a></span><span style="color: #0072c6;">this post</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/wknd-box-office-magnificent-seven-queen.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> </a>about some of the movies from last week and </span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/three-day-weekend-movie-rentals.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">THIS POST</a></span><span id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2007" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This <u>all</u> follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-to-pick-good-movie.html" id="x_x_yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474894661313_2015" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this post</a> about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch <u>yourself</u>!</span><br />
<br />
<h1>
<a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/83750/weekend-box-office-manchester-by-the-sea-america-hillary-style/" rel="bookmark" title="Permalink to Weekend Box Office: Manchester By the Sea (America, Hillary-Style)">Weekend Box Office: Manchester By the Sea (America, Hillary-Style)</a></h1>
By <b><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/" target="_blank">Debbie Schlussel</a></b><br />
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I took off the last week or so for Thanksgiving and some good stuff I
plan to announce soon. As for movies, I’ll try to put up my review of
recent past movies. The only new one this weekend is “<b><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034228/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank">Manchester by the Sea</a></b>.”<span id="more-83750"></span><br />
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This movie is a dog (with apologies to canines for the comparison
with this tripe-on-film). We’re taking Gitmo torture material . . .
though I’m not sure we can torture anymore because Trump’s James “Mad
Dog” Mattis says we can’t torture terrorists.<br />
Most movie critics are raving and gushing over this piece of crap
(and heaping the awards on it) because it’s an anti-American,
pretentious, tragic bore. And they eat up that stuff. When it’s not
incredibly long, slow, boring, and the cure for insomnia, this movie is
incredibly miserable and dreadful. If you don’t like that kind of
stuff, most film critics dismiss you as a simpleton and not
sophisticated enough. The movie critic emperors wear no clothes.<br />
This film is a Hillary-Clinton-style attack on working-class American
life (and, frankly, all American life). The movie basically says that
the working class in America have horrible lives filled with tragedy,
boredom, poverty, drudgery, and mishaps. It all sucks and is completely
hopeless, the filmmakers want you to know. Yeah, that’s the ticket,
Hollywood . . . to selling fewer tickets. Anybody who reads my review
and then pays to see this anyway is a glutton for punishment. You would
have more fun literally flushing the ten-bucks-plus you’d have paid to
see this, down the toilet. Oh, and it stars the poor man’s Ben Affleck,
Casey Affleck (although I would argue that Ben Affleck is also the poor
man’s Ben Affleck).<br />
The story: Affleck is a janitor in Massachusetts. He is the
maintenance man at an apartment complex and is miserable. All of the
women come on to him (why is not apparent–he ain’t all that). And,
then, he gets a call that his older brother (Kyle Chandler) is dead.
His brother had a heart condition (or something–I was so bored an
annoyed by this excuse for a movie that I didn’t care enough to pay much
attention). And his brother had a will making Affleck the guardian of
his brother’s son a/k/a his nephew. The nephew is a sleazy jerk of a
high school student who is sleeping around with several female students.
The nephew is also disrespectful to everyone, including his hockey
coach whom he attacked and swore at. <br />
Affleck doesn’t want to be his nephew’s guardian. He’s selfish. He
doesn’t want to change and upend his life and he doesn’t want to move to
Manchester By The Sea, the Massachusetts town where his brother lived
and where his nephew lives. He’s divorced and, we later learn, was
befallen by a great tragedy involving his children–a tragedy of his own
accidental making. His nephew’s mother cannot be found or reached for
most of the movie. Then, she is reached, and we find out she is now a
devout Christian–something the movie mocks intensely, because that’s
what Hollywood does to Christians (but <i>never</i> Muslims).<br />
On top of that, the movie is filled with annoying, distracting flashbacks–more than enough to give you a headache.<br />
This movie was incredibly grey (not fifty shades of it, just
one–which is more than enough) and depressing and a totally pointless
waste of time. It’s like a bad reality show of someone’s awful life.
Why would you want to pay to go see that when you can see it every day
on the streets and other locales of America?<br />
Like I said, this is the stuff of high-quality Gitmo torture material
(plus it fulfills their view of America as a miserable place and
American life as something to be condemned–so it might make a great ISIS
recruitment video). I’d show it to the Muslim terrorists over and over
again. They’d beg for mercy pretty quickly.<br />
This is garbage.<br />
<b>FOUR MARXES PLUS FOUR ISIS BEHEADINGS</b><br />
<img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="karlmarxmovies.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/karlmarxmovies.jpg" width="50" /><img alt="plus.jpg" height="50" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/plus.jpg" width="23" /><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg"><img alt="isisbeheading" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74359" height="54" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg" width="50" /></a><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg"><img alt="isisbeheading" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74359" height="54" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg" width="50" /></a><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg"><img alt="isisbeheading" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74359" height="54" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg" width="50" /></a><a href="http://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg"><img alt="isisbeheading" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-74359" height="54" src="https://www.debbieschlussel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/isisbeheading.jpg" width="50" /></a>Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4274234795560091850.post-4104214675116715282016-12-02T08:01:00.000-07:002016-12-02T08:01:24.474-07:00 World News and Trends Huge bankruptcy rise among seniors<span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470919881109_3294" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">An interesting article from </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3488" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.ucg.org/about" id="LPlnk230253" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3487" style="color: #2288bb;">http://www.ucg.org/</span></a></span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> about<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-huge-bankruptcy-rise-among-seniors"> bankruptcy</a>. This follows <a href="http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2016/12/does-christmas-really-honor-christ.html">this post</a> about <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ">Jesus Christ</a> and <a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/does-christmas-really-honor-christ">Christmas</a>.</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3449" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> For a free magazine subscription or to get the books recommended for free click</span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3446" lang="EN" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.gnmagazine.org/litreq/" id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3448" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3447" style="color: #2288bb;">HERE!</span></a> </span><span id="x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_yiv1428523462x_yiv4247815246yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470833549494_3445" lang="EN" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">or call 1-888-886- 8632.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-huge-bankruptcy-rise-among-seniors">World News and Trends</a></h1>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/the-good-news/world-news-and-trends-huge-bankruptcy-rise-among-seniors">Huge bankruptcy rise among seniors</a></h2>
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<span class="authors">by <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/jerold-aust" title="View user profile.">Jerold Aust</a>, <a class="username" href="https://www.ucg.org/user/john-ross-schroeder" title="View user profile.">John Ross Schroeder</a></span> <span class="reading-time no-break"> Estimated reading time: 1 minute</span> </div>
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With rising prices of health care bills and basic living costs, the elderly are facing troubled economic times. </div>
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From 1991 to 2007, the rate of personal bankruptcy among those ages 65 or older jumped by 150%, according to <span class="caps">AARP</span>
[the American Association of Retired Persons]. The most startling rise
occurred among those ages 75 to 84, whose rates soared 433%” (<em> <span class="caps">USA</span> Today,</em>
June 18, 2008). Medical bills are a huge factor. Experts believe that
health care is the biggest factor in increasing bankruptcies among
elderly Americans. A major health problem in old age can wipe out a
person's savings and put one deeply in debt.<br />
Many senior citizens, instead of entering retirement in good financial
shape, are loaded with debt. Social security payments often are simply
not high enough to meet rising costs of food, medicine and housing.<br />
It's never too late to begin to get your personal finances back on
track. If you do your part, according to the financial principles laid
down in the Bible, God will help! He has resources at His fingertips
that we cannot even imagine. (To see how, request our free booklet <strong> Making Life Work</strong> .) (Source: <em> <span class="caps">USA</span> Today.</em> )<br />
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/elderly">elderly</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/united-states">United States</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/world-regions">World Regions</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/governments">Governments</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/economics-0">Economics</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/news-and-prophecy">News and Prophecy</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/finances-1">Finances</a> <a href="https://www.ucg.org/tags/marriage-and-family">Marriage and Family</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ucg.org/user/jerold-aust"><img alt="Jerold Aust" class="user-profile-thumbnail" height="100" src="https://www.ucg.org/system/storage/serve/68511/aust-jerold.jpg" width="100" /></a><div class="field field-name-name">
<h4>
<a href="https://www.ucg.org/user/jerold-aust">Jerold Aust</a></h4>
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<small class="odd field-name-field-ucg-position">United Church of God Pastor</small><div class="field field-name-field-biography">
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 45 years, as a public
speaker for 51 years, a published writer for 31 years, and is employed
by <span class="caps">UCG</span>’s Media and Communications Services. He
is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for The Good News Magazine
and also teaches Speech Communication for <span class="caps">UCG</span>’s ministerial online program. </div>
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Brian Leehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568826747412521452noreply@blogger.com0