Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
-2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
-Matthew 24:10-12
Moreover king Antiochus wrote to his whole kingdom, that all should be one people, and every one should leave his laws: so all the heathen agreed according to the commandment of the king. Yea, many also of the Israelites consented to his religion, and sacrificed unto idols, and profaned the sabbath.
-1 Maccabees 1:41-43
People leave Christianity for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they come back. The Bible tells us that Christ goes looking for the lost and that no-one can separate us from the love of God. How, then, do we understand the case of a person who, so far as we know, never came back? Some argue that the person was never a true Christian in the first place. Others say that it is possible, through a free choice, to renounce one’s salvation.
In any event, the Bible teaches that there is such a thing as apostasy. Those who formerly were identified as Christians, whatever that means metaphysically and epistemologically, have ceased to be Christians. Spiritual death is the final result of apostasy: those who do not belong to the Lord will be cast into the fire at the final resurrection, like weeds gathered in the harvest of a farmer’s field.
Ministering and holding one’s own faith in the midst of apostasy are challenges. Life has a way of testing people. The Bible tells us that God does not permit testing beyond what we are able to bear, but this does not entail that everyone passes the test.
Although each one is ultimately responsible for his own choices, humans live in societies. As John Donne once observed, “No man is an island”. The Bible teaches that Christians are part of God’s family; we are brothers and sisters to one another. This means we have a duty of care towards each other, qualified by our awareness and ability to help.
The problem of evil is something that ostensibly has caused apostasy in the Church. The subjective nature of our experience makes it difficult to be certain in this matter, as apostates may give this answer for why they left as a cover to hide deeper feelings and choices.
Nevertheless, it may play a part. This is why it is important for Christians to have an answer to this problem, both intellectually and practically. We must understand that our suffering takes place in a bigger context of free will and love. We must be willing to share in one another’s suffering. We must stoke the fires of faith, admonishing one another to hold on to Christ, to the hope of the Age to Come.
Lastly, we must not set up stumbling blocks: we must not indulge in false teachings that promise comfort of a worldly kind in this life. Such is not guaranteed. Indeed, some of the holiest of God’s people have suffered the most horrifying of experiences. Christ Himself, the Son of God, suffered the Passion.
Apostasy, of course, has other causes and effects, which the reader is welcome to write in the comments below. It is a phenomenon that is happening now and is expected to worsen as the end of the age approaches.
I got this via email and like most of these, I have no idea where it originated. But I thought you might enjoy it. __ Scoop
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving..
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’
Occupy the Anthill stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the Black Lives Matter group singing, ‘We Shall Overcome’
Then Reverend Al Sharpton has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper while he damns the ants. He later appears on MSNBC to complain that rich people do not care.
Former President Obama condemns the ant and blames Donald Trump, President Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Chuck Schumer exclaim in an interview on The View that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2020.
Make sure that you pass this on to other ants.
Don’t bother sending it on to any grasshoppers because they wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Negative Nominal Interest Rates: Highway to a Cashless, Statist Hell”. Read up, Buttercup.
(Originally penned and posted in June ARSH 2014)
I warned about this in part two of my 2.5 hour Economics Video Presentation back in November of ARSH 2012, and, sure enough, it has now happened.
Because, as I have been saying all along, for anyone who knows ANYTHING about ANYTHING having to do with economics, finance and/or banking, and who does not have their brain bucket completely and firmly inserted up their rectal vault, it is obvious what is happening and how the chain of events will unfold. If a mouthy broad with a mere bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry from a land-grant university can see this stuff coming years in advance, what excuse do your so-called leaders and media “experts” have? Oh, yeah. I forgot. They’re all either teetering on the precipice of mental retardation, or are black-hearted diabolical narcissist psychopath whores. Or, as with Nancy Pelosi and countless others, both.
Mario Draghi, chief psychopath of the European Central Bank went full-stupid on June 5th, ARSH 2014 and announced mandated NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES on the excess reserves of European banks held and the European Central Bank (which is the equivalent of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S.). What does this mean? It means that when a European commercial bank deposits excess cash reserves with the ECB, the commercial bank must PAY the ECB to store that money. The commercial bank does not earn any interest income on that money, it in fact has a percentage of its deposit CONFISCATED from its account every month by the ECB.
The publicly stated rationale behind this negative interest rate paradigm is “stimulus”. If the banks have to pay to store cash, they will instead lend their excess cash out to customers rather than have a percentage confiscated every month. This is utter bee-ess on multiple levels. These top-tier central bankers know that negative interest rates have NOTHING to do with stimulus, and will, in fact, lead to exactly the opposite. In fact, they know that the inevitable outcome of negative interest rates is the complete nationalization of the banking sector and total governmental control of all capital flows – which means today a CASHLESS ECONOMY. Yup. If you’re interested, I’ll walk you through the chain of events and differentiate between the propaganda that will be used to justify this evil and the reality of how the world actually works.
Banks today are sitting on huge cash reserves because the economy sucks and banks have rightly discerned that lending money into a sucky economy is NOT IN THEIR BEST INTERESTS. If the economy sucks, then lending money to Joe Schmoe to start a business is likely going to end up in default. So, if YOU were a bank and your choice was between losing one percent by depositing money at the Central Bank at negative interest, or losing FIFTEEN percent on your loan portfolio because the economy sucks and a high percentage of your borrowers would default on their loans, which would you do? Well, duh. You would opt for the SMALLER loss of ONLY one percent, and you would continue to hold cash reserves and be VERY stingy with your loan portfolio.
Okay. That’s easy to understand, right? Well, the propaganda coming from the Banksters and willingly regurgitated by the useful idiot (Beta Narcissist) class is that negative interest rates will absolutely, positively result in increased lending by banks and thus “economic stimulus”. And bear in mind, they have been bleating EXACTLY the same line of crap in regards to “quantitative easing”. They have been saying for YEARS that all of the money printing done by the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank would provide “stimulus” in the form of increased lending. And, as we all know, that didn’t happen. All that has happened is that the Banksters have taken the “new money” printed by the Central Banks and pumped it into the stock and derivatives markets, thus blowing a massive, unprecedented bubble. But Joe Schmoe still can’t get a loan to open a business. The evil, malignant Banksters KNOW that the whole stimulus meme is a lie. The useful idiots (Beta Narcissists and Effeminates) are so indescribably stupid that they can’t comprehend simple logical progressions even when they have a current experiential dataset right in front of their faces that clearly demonstrates the fallacy: not only does QE and other forms of synthetic “liquidity boosting” NOT stimulate the economy, it actually depresses it even more.
So now banks will be even more incentivized to offload cash by plowing it into relatively “safe” paper that has a higher interest yield than the negative rate at the Central Bank. What does this imply? Increased demand for Sovereign debt (bonds issued by nations), and derivatives on Sovereign debt. Now here is where it gets positively sick. Very soon, banks will be able to borrow money from the “discount window” at the Central Bank at either zero, or at a NEGATIVE rate. Think about that. The Central Bank, because the interest rate is negative, actually pays banks to borrow money from them. And this utter PERVERSITY is the root of the whole satanic mess. The first mover in all of this is the evil, perverse Central Bank. The Central Banks are completely content to pay banks to borrow money – a perversity – because the Central Bank doesn’t give a shit. It can just “PRINT” as much money as it “needs”. And, as we have discussed at length, the “printing” of money, money being a proxy for the human capacity to labor and create through time, is simply the leveraging of HUMAN LIFE, specifically at this late hour not just the life of every man, woman and child alive today OUTSIDE the oligarch class, but now generations upon generations of human beings who DO NOT YET EXIST, and are thus utterly powerless to object or mount a counter-revolt.
Okay, so now Bank A goes to the discount window and borrows “new money” from the Central Bank at NEGATIVE one percent, which means the loans generates a yield TO THE BORROWER. Then, Bank A turns around and plows that money, which is already generating a yield in and of itself, into French Sovereign bonds that yield 1.5%. Bank A does this because it is certain that France will never be allowed to default – the Central Bank will just keep printing money and printing money to keep France (or any other country) from defaulting on its debt. So, What is the total yield to Bank A? The one percent yield on the money borrowed at negative interest from the Central Bank, PLUS the 1.5% yield on the French bonds = +2.5%. Do you see why this dynamic INCREASES DEAMND for sovereign debt? It incentivizes governments not to PAY DOWN their debt, but to in fact EXPAND their balance sheets by going deeper into debt. And because the demand for sovereign debt is increased because there is more money chasing after it, the interest rates are driven DOWN (a lower interest rate is the same thing as higher price on bonds), and thus the politicians tell the people that not only is more government debt good, it is extremely good because “the interest rate is so low”. And the glassy-eyed sheeple nod passively and return to their tee-vee shows. Because actually learning and thinking about something that affects everyone on the planet directly is HAAAAAARD.
This will also increase demand for derivatives on sovereign debt (i.e. repurchase agreements and credit default swaps), again, because the banks are quite confident that the Central Banks will never permit a sovereign default. And who, pray tell, are the main counterparties on almost all sovereign debt derivatives? J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs (Ted Cruz’s wife is a GS executive – just sayin’) and Deutschebank. Uh-huh. And where do ALL of the people come from who populate the Central Banks, both in the U.S. and in Europe? J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs (Ted Cruz’s wife is a GS executive who formerly was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations – just sayin’) and Deutschebank. Uh-huh.
Kids, this isn’t terribly complicated. Really.
Now, to YOU, the people who PAY FOR ALL OF THIS.
Negative interest rates will be a cost to YOU in two ways. First, the obvious: you will have a confiscatory tax levied on your bank deposits every month – that’s what a negative interest rate is, sweetie. It is a TAX on the PEOPLE, NOT the banks, because the banks will pass through to the customers the cost for the bank to store reserves at the Central Banks PLUS a margin.
Next, in an economy that is perceived to be relatively stronger or safer (of which the former United States is still at the top of the list because of its size, both economically and militarily) capital will flow IN to that economy, thus causing ASSET BUBBLES and CONSUMER PRICE INFLATION. Been to the grocery store lately? Looked into buying any farm ground lately? Uh-huh. So when consumer prices inflate, what do banks do to interest rates in order to cover the resulting increased risk in lending to consumers who now are having a much more difficult time making ends meet? Yep. They RAISE interest rates to borrowers. And so therefore a negative interest rate at the Central Bank not only does not stimulate the economy, it increases the contraction and deepens the depression (because let’s face it, if your economy is at the point that the Central Bank is going NEGATIVE on interest rates, honey, yo’ a$$ is already in a DEPRESSION, not a recession).
Now to the big ugly. Since the Central Bank is, despite any and all lying propaganda to the contrary, a government entity backed fully by the government and thus ultimately backed by the people, and since the Sovereign bond market is also a pure function of the government and thus ultimately backed by the people, when banks receive payment on both their capital borrowed from the Central Bank at negative interest AND receive a positive interest yield on their government bond holdings, that means that THE PEOPLE are PAYING THE BANKS… ON BOTH SIDES.
This is a backdoor way of confiscating collateral from the people and using it to RECAPITALIZE THE BANKS. And also pay the bankster oligarchs’ eight and nine-figure salaries and compensation packages, which, let’s be honest, is their top priority.
So now you may be thinking that this will cause a feedback loop to occur and rates will continue to be driven more and more negative. Yes. Absolutely. Because the Central Bank will have to keep adjusting its rate down to stay “more negative” than the Sovereign bond and other money markets.
What happens when customer deposit rates go sufficiently negative so as to compel normal people to withdraw their cash from the banks and hold it in cash? The answer is, the oligarchs will enact government policies outlawing the use of cash. Think I’m crazy? Have you tried paying your car insurance bill with cash lately? Cash. As in hundred dollar bills. How about your phone or utility bill? Guess what. You can’t.
One of the big reasons why I had to move into the “Van Down by the River” was because I simply COULD NOT FUNCTION using cash. When I was foreclosed upon because I could not provide the bank with a tax return (because I have declared a tax strike), I began investigating possible rental scenarios in preparing to move. Kids, you CANNOT rent an apartment “above the table”, pay the utilities on said apartment, insure a vehicle and scores of other necessary expenses in the former U.S. using cash today. Between IRS liens and mortgage foreclosures, my credit score is destroyed, which also disqualifies above-board rental. If you think that cash controls and the move to outlaw the use of cash is crazytalk, just stop and think about all of the myriad ways that IT IS ALREADY IMPOSSIBLE to pay with cash. We’re already 90% of the way there.
So, there would be increased economic depression causing new lending to crater and thus squeezing commercial banks’ margins and causing them to demand a way to dump ALL consumer debt, including business loans, car loans and credit cards, off on the government in the form of guarantees (this is precisely what already happened in the real estate market with almost all mortgages being bundled and dumped onto Fannie and Freddie). Couple this with the confiscatory tax on deposits AND the paying of banks to borrow from the discount window by the government (aka the people) in order to recapitalize the banks, and what you have is nothing less than the COMPLETE NATIONALIZATION OF THE BANKING SECTOR. This will inevitably require the outlawing of sovereign currency (cash), which will inevitably lead to the REJECTION of the sovereign currency, and the emergence of a “black” alternative. We are talking, ladies and gentlemen, about nothing less that the final, complete destruction of the economy, which will inevitably lead to the total collapse of the extant government and what scattered vestiges remain of the Rule of Law.
This, and nothing less than this, has been, is, and will continue to be the explicit goal of the oligarchy that has already overthrown the former United States. This is part and parcel of the Cloward Piven Strategy. And it is all happening RIGHT NOW, and given the ignorance and cowardice of the broad populace will not be stopped excluding supernatural intervention, of which we are utterly undeserving. Get ready, and don’t you dare say you weren’t warned. And please, spare me any droolingly stupid emails telling me how lending money at interest is evil. A positive interest rate is ESSENTIAL. What is immoral, and what actually constitutes the lion’s share of USURY, is UNSECURED lending with no collateral against it. Well, actually there IS collateral against an unsecured loan: the future LIFE and productive capacity of the borrower. THAT is usury. All Central Bank money printing is therefore USURIOUS because, as we discussed above, it is simply the leveraging of the lives of the people, both present AND future, who comprise the sovereign entity that backs the money of said nationstate. In other words: YOU and your descendants for multiple generations hence.
I hope this helps you understand the utterly critical and thoroughly evil concept of negative interest rates.
This short video is well worth watching. A few years ago I read Paul Copan’s book mentioned in the video, and agreed with much in it. As I recall he was a Calvinist at the time of writing (though I could be mistaken). Nevertheless, the book is a product of a sharp mind, reflecting his excellent philosophical skills. I would recommend reading it, if at all possible.
This short video on recent developments in UK politics is worth watching:
I have little to add except to say we must pray that the Lord will overcome those who would be tyrants . At the risk of drawing opprobrium, I say to Christians who are members of or in any other way support the Labour Party: Withdraw NOW. You must have no more to do with that party – now is the time when you must make your choice. Choose wisely.
The citizens of the UK will defy any attempt at tyranny that the Labour Party may bring.
The Seventy Weeks prophecy is often (though not exclusively) interpreted as meaning that the countdown began with Artaxerxes’ permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and that the “anointed one” who is “cut off without nothing” is Jesus the Messiah at the crucifixion. Chris White, drawing on the work of Charles Cooper, presents a different model of interpretation here (though the final week is analysed in much the same way as the earlier model).
The reader is advised to consult the article if he wishes to examine the reasoning involved in the theory. However, since the article is thirty-four pages long, a summary of the main points are presented here, for the sake of brevity. While I enjoy reading Charles Cooper’s work and, like him, subscribe to pre-wrath eschatology, I do not necessarily agree with all his views or those of Chris White. For example, I do not agree with Chris White regarding his interpretation of Mystery Babylon or his response to the central theses of the Islamic Antichrist paradigm. Nor do I have a settled position regarding the interpretation of Daniel 9 presented here. Rather, the position is put forward as worthy of consideration in its diligence of reasoning and engagement with the Hebrew language.
Summary
The decree to rebuild the city and sanctuary, which commences the seven weeks, is the decree of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem and its Temple, not a decree issued under Artaxerxes or any other Persian ruler. The seven weeks end with the coming of Nehemiah to complete the decree’s tasks. Nehemiah is the anointed prince: a governor of Yehud (Judah), anointed by God for the purpose of rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple.
The sixty-two weeks, in which Jerusalem is troubled, existing with a moat and city squares, is the period from Nehemiah to the destruction of the city and Temple in 70 AD. The prophecy states that this destruction comes after the sixty-two weeks have expired, which is the case according to certain calculations given in the article: the city was sacked around two months after the expiry of those weeks. The “flood” reference in the prophecy does not mean that Jerusalem was destroyed by water. It is a simile: Jerusalem was destroyed with the suddenness and devastating power that characterise floods. This is an accurate reflection of the sack, which happened in a short space of time, and utterly ruined the city.
The reference to cutting off an anointed one refers not to Christ’s crucifixion, but the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. The Temple is an anointed place (and the Seventy Weeks are described as being about anointing a holy place, among other things). God cuts off the Temple, through the agency of the Romans and rebellious Jews, as a consequence of their breaches of the covenant. “Cut off” here means to end: the Temple no longer exists or functions; it is removed from Israel (and Israel from it). The destruction of the Temple in 70 AD is analogous to the former Temple’s destruction at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar’s armies (this is the position of Josephus).
The “people of the prince who is to come” are the destroyers of the Temple. The prince is Titus, a Roman general and son of Emperor Vespasian. He commanded the armies that sacked Jerusalem. The emphasis is on the people (or host), because the army destroyed the Temple, in its frenzy and hatred, against the wishes of Titus, who wished to preserve it, as Josephus describes.
The seventieth week is still future. It will probably commence with the confirmation of an already existing treaty. In the middle of the seven years specified in the treaty, the Antichrist will desecrate a rebuilt Jewish Temple, making it desolate. The Antichrist, though not given a name or noun or pronoun, is the subject of “confirm”, which does not refer back to the “people” (the Roman armies) or “the prince who is to come” (Titus). This verse cannot, therefore, be used to settle questions about the ethnicity of the Antichrist or the possibility that he will rule a “revived Roman empire”. Other parts of Scripture must be employed regarding those and related questions.
The Temple desecrated by the Antichrist will be destroyed at the Parousia. It will be replaced with a new Temple (the one described in the closing chapters of Ezekiel), which is to be anointed with oil, as per the beginning of the Seventy Weeks prophecy.
These times call for prayer. It is my hope that AATW will become an online house of prayer. My dream is to see a prayer posted here everyday, from as many contributors as possible, with Amens in the comments below. This dream does not mean excluding regular posts – indeed, it might be better to set up a separate prayer-feed tab – but I hope that we will pursue it and draw closer to God and to each other.
Dear Lord,
Today we bring before you the individual congregations of which we each are a part. We ask that You will bring fresh vision and energy to our congregations, mending what needs mending and pruning what needs pruning.
Please build us up in the unity of the Holy Spirit, with a hunger and thirst for Your presence. Grant that we may seek You with our hearts in prayer, meditation, and any means You may wish to use.
The following prayer is controversial. I ask those of you who believe in what is written to write “Amen” in the comments below (and anything else positive and supporting, should you wish – including further prayers). I was inspired to write this by a recent piece at NEO and some prophetic words shared at Richard’s Watch.
Heavenly Father,
May Your holy Name be exalted throughout the earth. We acknowledge that these are times of trial and change. We seek to discern your will and purpose in this change. We confess that we have not always been diligent in prayer, confession, or repentance. May we, by Your Spirit and the ministry of Your Son, Jesus Christ, grow closer to You. May we learn Your will and delight in it. May that delight turn into co-operation with and service to You.
We pray for our political leaders, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We declare that these are men chosen by You for such an hour as this, men with anointings, after the fashion of Cyrus, David, and Esther. We acknowledge the spiritual heritage of our nations and thee links these men have with You through baptism, confirmation, and other rites and practices. We thank You that You have placed Christians in the circles of acquaintance around these men. We pray that these leaders will grow close to You and have a saving, transformational faith in Jesus the Messiah. May You place wisdom and courage in these men’s hearts and minds. May You give them the power and authority from Christ to perform Your will.
We ask that through these men and other servants of Yours You will reform Your Church in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, and reform our nations as a whole in every respect: socially, economically, legally, politically, culturally, and spiritually – in every context: the individual, the family, the business, the association, the church, and the state.
We ask that You will deliver our nations from dangerous liaisons with other nations, individuals, and groups, through Brexit and other processes. We ask that You would raise up our nations to resist the coming Antichrist, Mystery Babylon, and all the spiritual and human forces of wickedness. We ask that through revival in our countries You would increase our missionary roles to the rest of the world, and through true Christian unity, would make Your Church around the world one in itself and with You.
We ask that You would encourage and help us to bless Your people Israel, including witness to the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is their God and Messiah. May You open the eyes of Israel and preserve a righteous remnant through the time of Jacob’s Trouble, as You promised through the Prophets and through Your Son, Jesus the Messiah.
Grant us this day a fresh zeal for Your presence and for transformation, that we might dwell in Your throne room and pray in truth and power, believing with faith, hope, and love, in You and Your Kingdom. Grant us rest, revelation, and renewed purpose and vision.
In the name of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, in whom You are pleased to let Your fullness, power, and authority dwell, we ask these things.
But is it? I am more of the opinion that ignorance is complacency and a defeatist satisfaction in being indifferent to that which resides outside of one’s safe space or comfort zone. It is by far the easiest of worlds to live in and there is a much broadersphere of like-“thinking” folks to surround oneself with. In other words it is easier to take the blue pill and assure oneself that you, being the majority, are ready and willing to follow the lemmings that march in locked step toward their own inevitable end in life.
But to seek reality as it is with an insatiable desire to seek Truth no matter where it leads, though it may cause discomfort or make one unpopular or even derided in one’s life is the only way to find True and Everlasting Bliss. For bliss is happiness and joy that can only be imagined by those who realize that it cannot be fabricated by public opinion and must be found within objective truth with the hope that in Truth, Justice, Mercy that a lasting joy might be found.
One may live comfortably or one can live with hope and anticipation that is beyond temporal delights; seeking something more precious than riches and the happiness of this world; something far beyond the temporal but instead rooted in that which resides, in tact, beyond the boundaries of space and time. It is our eternal goal not just a placation to be embraced from day to day – a happy-go-lucky existence that is indifferent to controversies, inaccuracies and novel ideas that run contrary to reason. Such a life is a life that signifies nothing. To reject that for reality no matter the results are the brave who reject the cowards insatiable desire for comfort. And these folks are those, in Matrix-speech, have embarked on the road of taking the red-pill.
Who do you want to be? Comfortable and complacent in your ignorance which is made up of a non-existent utopian world where all is rightin the world? Or do you have the fortitude that comes with the uncomfortable truths that disturb our peace of mind but allows us to see that which is True . . . following logic to its conclusion no matter the consequences?
We do have a choice . . . and it is becoming increasingly clear that fewer people prefer to live their lives for objective reality than those who would prefer a life of ignorant complacency rather than find the bravery to confront that which is not true.
Questions for us all to think about.
Do we value free speech or have we now succumbed to the siren’s voice that offers us free stuff and peace at the expense of freedom of thought?
Are we comfortable with the loss of our rights as our ‘democracies’ begin to look more and more like banana republic dictatorships where free speech is banned and hate speech is determined by a dictatorial regime that pushes their own agenda?
Are we quick to accept every excuse given as way to placate us, for obvious, objective wrongs?
Is all right in the world . . . as long as we are content in the message that 2+2 no longer equals 4?
If, like cattle most of the people are bullied into a false set of ideas that we are constantly being fed, are we simply letting ourselves get swept downstream to the bottomless ocean where there is no hope for rescue?
Is this condition that we wish to live and die by?
Is this the freedom and liberty for which men have given their lives for; the future that given us by their sacrifices?
And sadly, today is a letter, that should shame the UK for their rapid departure from a democratic nation which used to defend free speech. Why such a letter even needs to be sent is warning enough. Though the UK will defend murderous aliens who hate the country and all other religions (and they are protected) while the people who would defend or would like to fight this war by mere dialogue and words are banned from Britain. I leave you with the latest letter from Michael Savage’s lawyer to Boris Johnson. I fear you have lost your freedom and liberty and I have little hope that freedom will be restored without violence. I do hope that I am wrong . . . as this totalitarianism is beginning to sweep throughout the civilized world.
RIGHT HONOURABLE BORIS JOHNSON,
PLEASE REMOVE MICHAEL SAVAGE
FROM THE UK TRAVEL BAN
Dear Prime Minister Johnson,
I am writing you to petition for redress of a grave injustice.
On May 5, 2009, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith published a list of individuals to be banned from entering the United Kingdom owing to their posing a threat of some kind to the people of your country.
Amongst the terrorists and other undesirables on the list were two individuals of upstanding character and accomplishment . One of them, Geert Wilder of the Netherlands, managed to have his name removed through a formal process undertaken that year.
The other, Dr. Michael Savage of the United States of America, is still on that list. You wrote in response to that announcement:
“America still has a constitutional protection of free speech, and I have been amazed … to see how few people in this country are willing to stick up for that elementary principle … a country once famous for free speech is now hysterically and expensively sensitive to anything that could be taken as a slight.”
And writing in The Guardian, Catherine Bennett stated: The Guardian, “The ban on Savage is so far from being a comprehensible act, so staggeringly capricious and stupid, as to defy evaluation.”
Dr. Savage has been President Trump’s frequent guest at the White House, it is anomalous that he is banned from your house, the entirety of Great Britain.
The ban has stood in place for a decade. Now is the time to lift the ban and take a stand for the rights of free speech that have come under assault in the land of the Magna Carta.
Matthew 16:2-3Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
2 But he answered and said to them: When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.3 And in the morning: To day there will be a storm, for the sky is red and lowering. You know then how to discern the face of the sky: and can you not know the signs of the times?
Speaking of mirrors it seems that the following ideas are interesting and mostly for Catholics:
“Whatever you do, do it with your whole heart.” ( Colossians 3: 23 ) - The blog of Father Richard Peers SMMS, Director of Education for the Diocese of Liverpool
“… We would say that, through some mysterious crack—no, it’s not mysterious; through some crack, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God." __ Pope Paul VI
