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As It Was in the Day of Noah

As in the days of Noah"As it was in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all. So it will be in the day that the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:26-30).

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

Put yourself in the sandals of a person back then: "There's that crazy Noah again, building that huge ship! Why on earth does he need such a big boat? There's no water anywhere near here deep enough for it to float in! All we need is a rowboat or a little sailboat to get around on the Euphrates and in the marshlands!" So they decided to get on with their lives: business as usual, preoccupied with everyday, mundane things, getting their sons and daughters married off, partying... until it was too late. And in the days of Lot, they ate and drank, engaged in homosexuality and wickedness: even Lot's own sons-in-law ignored his pleas to flee the city.

"The thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5-8). There was a lot of wickedness in Noah's time, but that is not what Jesus mentioned, as we see in Luke ch. 17. The ordinary tasks of daily life kept them from really thinking about what Noah was preaching and doing. They were so busy with the normal affairs of life that they failed to prepare to meet God. We can be so busy with a thousand and one different things. We have our jobs, families, household activities, education, recreation, entertainment – a whole host of things which occupy our time and interest. It's easy to become busy with so many different things that our spiritual life becomes choked: "That which fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity" (Luke 8:14).

We are so busy with the daily stuff of life that we fail to dig deep and try to understand what is really going on around us. We take our cues from what most of the people are saying and we repeat it, until it becomes an axiomatic truth in our thinking. He who controls the narrative ends up having it written in history books. How many people at Christmas time actually think about the Incarnation of God, His partaking of human nature so that we can become partakers of the Divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)? Compare that to the constant barrage of songs and TV shows about a fat, old Santa Claus in a red suit with white fur trim, flying around the world in a sleigh drawn by twelve reindeer, led by Rudolph with a glowing red nose.

Santa knows who's naughty and nice, and will put a lump of coal or a switch in the stocking of naughty little boys and girls, so "be good for goodness' sake" (that's circular logic – 'be good because it's good to be good" – for sure!). And the jingle about Rudolph ends – "You'll go down in history!" Hardly anybody today knows that Saint Nicholas who stood against the heretic Arius at the First Ecumenical Council is the origin of the Santa Claus myth. So we end up thinking that the story about Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary is just as much a myth as Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Which has gone down in history these days?

Or we get drawn into vast conspiracy theories if we're politically oriented, or mind-boggling theories about the "End Times" and the "Rapture" if we're religiously oriented. At the end of Luke ch. 17, the disciples asked Jesus – "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there will the vultures also be gathered together" (v. 37). What does this mean, anyway? As I understand it, Jesus is saying – "If I were to answer your question, it would be a dead give-away: all sorts of evil birds would swarm around it!" Perhaps that's too folksy an interpretation, but in Matthew chs. 24-25 when He told His disciples parables and teachings about the "end of the age," He said at least three times that nobody can know the day or hour when all these things will take place. Our task is to be always prepared, to pray without ceasing – be in communion with God at all times, and share the Good News.

And yet, some persist in insisting that they have inside knowledge of the "End Times," causing sectarian and heretical splits such as "pre-millenial," "post-millinial," pre-tribulational," post-tribulational," and "dispensational" divisions and denominations. In the first verse of Luke ch. 17, we read that Jesus said to His disciples, "It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come!" That double-negative construction might be a little confusing, so let's look at how Matthew phrased it: "Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!" (Mat. 18:7).

There will always be people who dream up their own distorted doctrines by misinterpreting Scripture or focusing only on a few phrases, ignoring all other relevant passages and what godly men before them have taught. Freedom of speech doesn't mean that any and every idea is just as valid and true as others: that's relativism. The real reason for allowing freedom of speech is so that the truth will ultimately be made clear: "No doubt there must be divisions among you so that the ones who are in the right may be clearly seen" (1 Corinthians 11:19).

In my last essay, "Cancel Culture," I quoted 1 Peter 3:15 – "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect." This is how we should respond to hard times, but then the why follows:

"Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you – not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:18-21).

Note carefully what the Apostle Peter wrote: the Ark is a symbol of baptism, which now saves us. He doesn't say that baptism is merely a symbol. The Ark is the symbol or the type, and baptism is the antitype – the reality of what the symbol or allegory represents. The Scriptural teaching here is that baptism saves us, not by washing the dirt off our flesh, our bodies; but by washing away the sin and guilt of our conscience, dying to the old self in baptism and being resurrected with Christ to a new life, the life in the Spirit. In the Apostle Peter's second letter, he wrote:

"But there also arose false prophets among the people, as among you also there will be false teachers, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their destruction will not slumber. For if God didn't spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved to judgment; and didn't spare the ancient world, but [God] preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:1-9).

Again, Peter alludes to Noah and the Ark, and to Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. About the false teachers he says – "Many will follow their immoral ways." The Church Fathers and Saints (holy, godly men and women) all teach that the primary sin of the flesh is not sexual immorality, but rather gluttony. The former is more blatant – you either do it or you don't – but the latter is less obvious – everybody needs to eat, right? So why not enjoy it, indulge yourself and eat a little more... and a little more? The Fathers and Saints tell us that such yielding to the desires of the flesh little by little, bite by bite, opens us up to the more blatant sins of the flesh such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, and drugs. But the answer is clear: if "God preserved Noah" and He "delivered righteous Lot," He will also "deliver the godly out of temptation" – so entrust your life to Christ and His Body, the Church, the Ark of our salvation, to do it!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

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NOW, THE NEWS:

 

TOMOS OF AUTOCEPHALY OF ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE SIGNED TWO YEARS AGO
from: Ukrinform

Tomos of Autocephaly signed 2 years ago (5 Jan.) On January 5, 2019, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signed the Tomos of Autocephaly of the united Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The signing ceremony took place after a joint prayer service by Bartholomew and Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Epiphanius in the Church of St. George on the territory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul.

A Tomos is a patriarchal charter that officially confirms the canonical autocephalous status of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as one of the 15 local Orthodox churches in the world. This document is issued once and is the basis of the church. It is valid from the moment of its signing. The path toward an independent Ukrainian local church was difficult and long. The first attempt was made 100 years ago, during the Hetmanate and the Directorate. But the birth of the Ukrainian Church was hindered by the Bolsheviks' occupation.

The process was resumed in the independent Ukraine, and the head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, Filaret, played an important role in this. However, Moscow managed to block this process for many years. And only the attempt in 2018 was successful: on October 11, the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate announced that the Russian Orthodox Church lost jurisdiction over the canonical territory of Ukraine, and the mother church of Ukraine is Constantinople. In addition, the anathemas laid on head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Filaret and head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Makariy were declared invalid.

On December 15, 2018, the Unification Church Council was held in the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate established a united local Orthodox Church of Ukraine, approved its charter, and elected its primate – Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

The procedure for granting autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine ended on January 6, 2019 when the Patriarchal Church of St. George hosted the presentation of a Tomos of Autocephaly and the divine liturgy jointly served by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Primate of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Epiphanius. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: We're thankful that Ukrainian Orthodox Christians now have their own self-governing Orthodox Church of Ukraine that is not controlled by an invading foreign power.

 

 

TAJIKISTAN: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SURVEY, JANUARY 2016
by Mushfig Bayram and John Kinahan: Forum 18 News Service

Tajikistan map: RFE (7 Jan.) Tajikistan has a record of violating freedom of religion and related human rights such as the freedoms of expression and association. Among violations documented by Forum 18 News Service are: a ban on all exercise of religious freedom without state permission; severe limitations on the numbers of mosques permitted and activities allowed inside those mosques; arbitrary official actions, including the arrests of Jehovah's Witnesses using police agent provocateurs; bans on the Jehovah's Witnesses and some Islamic and Protestant movements; a ban on all public exercise of freedom of religion or belief, apart from funerals, by people under the age of 18; and state censorship of and bans on some religious literature and websites.

The government's actions imply that it thinks that the real threat it faces is people exercising their human rights outside state control. Tajikistan is the smallest country in Central Asia, and is very mountainous. It has the third largest population in Central Asia, with well over 8 million people, about 80 per cent of whom are ethnic Tajiks. Around 15 per cent of the population are ethnic Uzbeks (who like Tajiks are regarded as being of mainly Sunni Muslim background) with the remaining 5 per cent being made up of small percentages of Slavs (mainly Russians, many of Russian Orthodox or other Christian background), Jews and other groups.

After gaining independence the country fought a civil war between 1992 and 1997. During this the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP), Central Asia's only legal religious-based political party, was banned. The IRP fought against the government in the civil war, but was re-legalised afterwards before its 2015 re-banning. Clan and ethnic loyalties were the main factors in the civil war. Poverty is widespread and the economy is very weak, with corruption often being reported. Many people of working age have left the country to seek employment elsewhere, mainly in Russia and Kazakhstan.

President Emomali Rahmon, a former Soviet Communist Party official, has been head of the government since 1992 and President since 1994. His rule has been marked by multiple human rights violations, little sign of the rule of law, and hostility to democracy including electoral fraud. Parliamentary lower house elections on 1 March 2015 were found by an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Election Observation Mission to feature violations including "multiple voting and ballot box stuffing. The disregard of counting procedures meant that an honest count could not be guaranteed."

In April 2009 a new Religion Law came into force, which made all exercise of freedom of religion or belief with others without state permission illegal. The Law broke the country's international human rights commitments. Its passage was marked by a lack of public consultation, parliamentary debate or explanations of the reasons for its introduction. Among the restrictions imposed by the Law are: a ban on religious activity without state permission and obstacles to gain state registration; restrictions on the number and type of permitted mosques; tight controls on religious education; and the imposition of censorship.

Even before the 2009 Religion Law was passed, the authorities closed down and demolished Muslim, Christian and Jewish places of worship, including the country's only synagogue which was bulldozed despite community protests. No compensation was paid for the demolitions. Very unusually, in March 2009 the Jewish community received a building that they can use as a synagogue. However, it was not the Dushanbe city authorities which provided the building, but Hasan Asadullozoda, President Rahmon's businessman brother-in-law.

Officials continue to implement the 2011 Parental Responsibility Law. For example, the SCRA wrote to various Protestant churches in December 2014 warning them not to allow children to be at meetings for worship. But threats to suspend the churches' activity have yet to be carried out. The Supreme Court's then-Deputy Chair Ashurov did not answer when asked what Tajikistan intends to do to remove the contradiction between its international human rights obligations and the Religion and Parental Responsibility Laws. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Several of the central Asian countries including Tajikistan that made up the former USSR are now governed by soviet-style dictators who sign treaties pledging to abide by international laws but then they routinely neglect those international obligations.

 

 

332-YEAR PAN-ORTHODOX CHURCH CONSCIENCE FOR ORTHODOX CHURCH OF UKRAINE
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

Patr. Bartholomew signing UOC Tomos. (8 Dec. 2020) The territorial boundaries of each Patriarchate and each Autocephalous Church are defined in the Tomoi granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Thus, the boundaries of the canonical jurisdiction of the Russian Patriarchate were defined according to the territorial boundaries of the Kingdom of Greater Russia and the far northern parts of 1589. The church tradition of two millennia gives content to the strict canonical description of both the territorial boundaries of each Autocephalous Church, and the consequences of any arbitrary or non-canonical transgression.

Patriarch Joachim of Moscow and Tsar Peter the Great asked the Ecumenical Patriarch Dionysios IV to bring the new areas under the jurisdiction of the Russian Patriarchate. The Ecumenical Patriarch, of course, rejected the request and instead, by virtue of the Synodal Act of 1686, granted to the Patriarch of Moscow by "economy" the "permission" to ordain and enthrone the Metropolitan of Kyiv elected by the clergy-laity assembly, subject however to the condition that the Metropolitan of Kyiv will commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch in every Divine Liturgy. The commemoration of the Ecumenical Patriarch ensured the inviolability of the canonical exarch jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate throughout the Kyiv Metropolis.

The syntagmatia referred to by the Russian Patriarchate can in no case have the validity of a Tomos or a Synodal Act. After all, the Russians themselves did not take them into account since, in its reply letter to the invitation of Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory VI (1868) for the Great Synod to be convened in Constantinople to deal with the Bulgarian issue, the Holy Synod of the Church of Russia said that "Kyiv is the most neutral place for this matter." In other words, he did not consider the Kyiv Metropolis to be an area under its jurisdiction, according to the syntagmatia, but a "neutral area."

The failure by the Russian Patriarchate to comply with the obligations provided for the 1686 Synodal Act was pointed out in a strong way in the Autocephaly Tomos of the Polish Orthodox Church in 1924, where it becomes clear what had happened; "it is written that the initial detachment of the Metropolis of Kyiv from our Throne and its dependencies, Orthodox Churches of Lithuania and of Poland, and their attachment to the Holy Church of Moscow was not carried out in accordance with the canonical regulations while the agreement on the full autonomy of Metropolitan of Kyiv with the title of Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne was not respected."

The proclamation of the Autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate confirmed the canonical status of the Patriarchal Exarchate of the Kyiv Metropolis and excluded any legal relationship with the Russian Patriarchate before or after the 1686 Synodal Act. It is noteworthy that, although at first, the Russian Patriarchate refused to recognize the autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church, in 1948 it recognized and accepted everything that was stated in the Tomos, like all other Autocephalous Orthodox Churches had done before. Therefore, the claim that, according to the pan-Orthodox church conscience, Ukraine belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church is unfounded. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This article details the historical and legal precedents for granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Claims by the Russian Orthodox Church that Ukraine is part of its canonical territory are unfounded: it was only granted supervision of that territory by "economy" - i.e., out of practical necessity, which according to canon law does not establish a legal precedent.

 

 

PROGRAM HELPING PEOPLE LEAVE INSTITUTIONS RENEWED AFTER YEARS IN LIMBO
from: Disability Scoop

(description of photo) (Jan. 11) Following years of uncertainty, federal lawmakers are giving new life to a popular Medicaid program that moves people with disabilities from institutions into the community.

The program called "Money Follows the Person" has been renewed for three years under legislation approved in late December. The Medicaid program gives states extra funds to provide employment, housing and other services to help people transition from nursing homes and other institutions to homes in the community.

The development caps off a tumultuous few years for the program. Money Follows the Person officially expired in 2016 and Congress has approved eight short-term extensions — including one as brief as seven days — in order to keep it alive since then. However, the uncertainty led many states to stop making transitions and shutter their programs as money ran out.

The renewal, which came as part of a broader government spending bill, should bring some stability to the effort by committing $450 million annually to the program through September 2023. What’s more, lawmakers included tweaks to allow all states to participate and to shorten the amount of time a person would have to stay at an institution before they qualify to transition to the community from 90 days to 60 days, according to Nicole Jorwic, senior director of public policy at The Arc.

“While we were pushing for permanence, three years of funding available to all states, not just those with existing programs, will be very helpful in the face of the pandemic to move people with disabilities out of large congregate settings like nursing homes and institutions and back into their homes and communities,” Jorwic said.

A recent report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicates that between 2008 and 2019 Money Follows the Person helped 101,540 people leave institutions for community-based settings. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: More and more states are finding out that home health care is not only less expensive but also safer because it reduces the risk of exposure to disease carried by other patients in nursing homes and it allows patients to be near their loved ones who are not able to care for them 24/7 because of work and family responsibilities.

 

 

HUNGARY TO REBUILD PRIMARY SCHOOL IN PETRINJA AND CHURCH IN ŽAŽINA
from: Croatia Week

Croatian church damaged in earthquake (13 Jan.) Hungary will rebuild an earthquake-devastated primary school in Petrinja and a church in the nearby town of Žažina, the Hungarian secretary of state for religious and ethnic relations said on Wednesday.

During a visit to Petrinja last week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced that Hungary would rebuild a school and a church and that more details would be known during a visit by the secretary of state. He made the announcement during the delivery of the first two of 56 container homes donated by the Hungarian energy company MOL.

Secretary of state Miklos Soltesz said on Wednesday that the remaining containers would be delivered by 20 January. He said that Hungary would rebuild Prva Osnovna Skola primary school in Petrinja, which is attended by 450 pupils. He added that it was up to local authorities to decide whether it would be built on the same site or elsewhere.

The Hungarian government will also rebuild the Church of SS Nicholas and Vitus in Žažina, in which the organ player was killed in the earthquake. “We hope that the reconstruction of the school and the church will help ensure that people stay in this area,” Soltesz said, adding that after living together for centuries and very good relations between the two countries, it was natural for Hungary to help Croatia.

Soltesz said that the Hungarian religious community, the Croatian community in Hungary and Hungarian athletes were also helping earthquake victims. He said that Hungary would organise accommodation for 200 children on the shore of Lake Velence during summer holidays this year. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: It's encouraging to learn about this cooperation between countries of Central Europe that were formerly often at odds with each other. Thank God for Hungary's gracious response to this crisis!

 

 

IOPS CHAIRMAN SAYS HE IS 99% CERTAIN THE ALEXANDER METOCHION IN JERUSALEM WILL BE RETURNED TO RUSSIA THIS YEAR
from: Interfax-Religion

Interfax Religion (13 Jan.) Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS) Chairman Sergey Stepashin said he hopes the Alexander Metochion in Jerusalem will be returned to Russia this year.

"Most likely, I am 99% certain, I think God will help us, we are returning [the Alexander Metochion] to our country this year, which is very important. And we do hope that our patriarch will hold a service in the Church of Alexander Nevsky, in Jerusalem, after the return. I think it would be very symbolic," Stepashin told reporters in Vladivostok on Wednesday.

The 800th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Nevsky and the 130th anniversary of the Alexander Metochion, where the Church of Alexander Nevsky is located, are marked this year, he said. The issue of the return of the Alexander Metochion has been actively raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said. "I want to thank Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]. For the first time, one and the same issue was probably raised four times, the last time was before the New Year," Stepashin said.

"In actual fact, we received a registration number that it is Russian property, property of the Russian state, that's how it was. IOPS is a legal successor of that Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, but litigation is taking place now. It turns out we have a new IOPS in Israel, a new thing, in New York, in Germany. I am confident, I am convinced that it will return to Russia this year because it was made for Russians, not for those abroad. Can you imagine, this society is now led by a person called Worontsow-Hoffmann, but what does Hoffmann - I am sorry, I am not a nationalist - have to do with Orthodoxy," Stepashin said.

The Alexander Metochion is situated in the Old Town of Jerusalem, in close proximity to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It is an archeological and architectural compound standing on land bought by Emperor Alexander III of Russia in 1859. The compound was built by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in 1896.

The controversy surrounding its ownership began after the 1917 revolution. In 1918, the head of the society, Prince Alexey Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, fled Russia, as most of the society's members did at that time. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov arrived in Berlin, and the society resumed operating there. At present, the compound is managed by a society led by German citizen Nikolay Worontsow-Hoffmann. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This is just another example of Russia trying to control territory outside of its geographical borders. With a shrinking population, why does Russia need more territory?

 

 

OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:

 

CHINESE PASTOR SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS FOR REFUSING TO REMOVE CROSS FROM CHURCH
from Christianity Daily

AZERBAIJANI ARMED FORCES BEHEADED TWO ELDERLY CHRISTIANS, ONE 69 YEARS OLD AND THE OTHER 82
from Christian Persecution

WHAT 2020 TAUGHT ME ABOUT DISABILITY IN THE UK
from Disabled World

RUSSIAN PRIESTS HELD SERVICES IN TURKISH CITIES THAT ARE UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine

CHRISTIANS REACH PAGAN AREAS OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST WITH THE GOSPEL
from Mission Network News

HAGIA SOPHIA'S CONVERSION INTO MOSQUE IS PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW'S DIVINE RETRIBUTION – RUSSIAN PATRIARCH
from Interfax-Religion

PATRIARCH KIRILL GIVES CHRISTMAS INTERVIEW TO ROSSIA TV IN DEFENSE OF THE UNITY OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate

SYRIAN CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES RECEIVE WHEELCHAIRS FROM RUSSIAN CHURCH
from Orthodox Christianity

BISHOP WITH ATTITUDE THREATENS TO SHAKE UP SERBIAN POLITICS – ANALYSIS
from Eurasia Review

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW RESPONDS TO RUSSIAN CHURCH CLAIMS OVER UKRAINE AUTOCEPHALY
from Archons.org

 

 

NOW, OUR VIEWS:

 

 

building the ARC

Can You Help Us?

(Maybe you've read this before and you're wondering, "Why am I seeing this again?" But millions of other Christians haven't seen it! So please help us by clicking on the title above, then use the "share" buttons to share it with your social media friends. Thanks!!)

In my previous message, I told how at age 15, while taking care of lawns at an apartment complex, God gave me a vision: I saw a map of the Soviet Union in the sky and a voice said: "Remember this apartment complex plan - you'll build it when you're an old man." After serving behind the Iron Curtain and in Russia for 20 years, leading a small mission support agency for 20 years, and teaching online in Russian seminaries for 10 years, I'm now in my mid-70s, so I guess I'm old enough to start this new project!

I wrote earlier about our *free* 1-year, 6-course training program "Social Ministry of the Church" in English and Russian to train people how to care for the sick and disabled. The purpose of these courses is to prepare people for "Building the ARC" - an Agape Restoration Community - a Christian housing co-op with a built-in community room/chapel. Most of the units will be wheelchair-accessible because of the aging of the "Baby Boomer" generation: 70 million people born between 1946 and 1965 have reached or are reaching retirement age (10,000/day = 3,650,000/year!), at which time 45% of these people are already disabled.

And as they continue aging, 70% of them will be disabled and require accessible housing or home healthcare before they pass away. This is a huge social concern: 70% of 3,650,000 people = 2,550,000 disabled people per year for the next 20 years = over 50 million people! About 2/3 of all retirees depend on Social Security for over half of their income, and about 1/3 of retirees depend on it for 90% to 100% of their income. But can they continue depending on it? Medicare will be insolvent by 2026 and Social Security will reach insolvency by 2034, the trustees of these funds report, so they will have to cut 'way back: they won't be able to care for all these people at current levels. We need to "Think Forward" ... starting now!

Our basic problem, however, is that like most people, we don't want to think about such things until it's too late. Psychologists call this "the normalcy bias" - our brains work in terms of past experience, so we assume that everything will simply keep on going on "just like normal" as it has in the past. As King David wrote - "Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves. But man, despite his riches, doesn't endure. He is like the animals that perish" (Psalm 49:11-12). In everyday layman's language it's called "whistling past the graveyard." We don't want to think about unpleasant things such as growing old, disability, and death... so when it happens, we're unprepared and too feeble to respond adequately, thus we become a burden on the government. But some states are already passing laws allowing euthanasia and assisted suicide to conserve public finances. So it's imperative that we as Christians be proactive and retake our social ministry responsibilities!

Christ commanded His disciples to "Bring in the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind, go into the highways and the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that My house may be full" (Luke 14:21-23). This defines our ultimate target audience and our goal, but how can we "compel them to come in" unless they can come in? Why aren't the churches full? In many cases the "maimed, the lame and blind" can hardly get out of their homes, and getting transported to church is difficult or flat-out impossible.

Also, many church buildings aren't very wheelchair-accessible. Solution: "Build the ARC": this is an 8-to-10-living-unit building that forms an accessible, affordable Christian housing co-op including a community room/chapel, with most living units being wheelchair-accessible by including a ramp from the entrance, plus there are parking spaces just outside wide enough for wheelchair use right next to the building. And our "Social Ministry of the Church" courses will train the healthier residents as "home healthcare workers" to care for those who need it.

How Many Disabled?Most homes, condo and townhouse communities in our greater Pittsburgh area, on the northern edge of the Allegheny Mountains, have at least 1/2 to 1 flight of stairs, often 2 or 3 flights, creating a nearly-insurmountable problem for people with disabilities. Our hearts go out to the 6% of children who are disabled! But 16% of working-age adults and 45% of seniors have disabilities too. 16% + 45% = 61% of disabled people are adults: only 1/10th as many (6%) are children, so shouldn't we pay a bit more attention to those ten-times-as-many disabled adults?

Why not an elevator or a stair lift? In an emergency such as a fire or when the electricity goes out or the elevator breaks, they could be trapped if depending on an elevator or a stair lift. Disabled people can't use the stairs and it's awfully hard to carry them in a wheelchair down the stairs - we've learned that the hard way! With most older couples it's the man who ages first and becomes disabled: he very likely weighs more than his wife who often injures her back or knees trying to lift or carry him. Also, we've met many older people - able-bodied and disabled - who have been trapped in an elevator so now refuse to ride them. Armed with such experiences, we aim to change the built environment for these people!

We've been functioning since 1998 as Agape Restoration Society, a donor-advised fund of WaterStone.org, a foundation through which people can channel their benevolent donations but only to other non-profits. In 2017, we incorporated as Agape Restoration Society Inc., an IRS-recognized non-profit corporation, so that we can disburse funds to for-profit architects and builders. We are listed with Charity Navigator and GuideStar. We've hired an architectural firm in Pittsburgh and have located a property to build on so that our architects can create drawings specifically for that property. Here are our sketches for the proposed building.

Can you help us? What we really need is for 500 or 1,000 or 2,000 people to chip in at one of these levels by going to our DONATE page and signing up for:
$100/month for 10 months: that's $1,000 - a huge help, or
$50/month for 10 months: that's $500 - a great gift, or
$25/month for 10 months: that's $250 - a big boost, or
$10/month for 10 months: that's $100 - practically painless!

Will you be praying for and pulling for us in this project? Thanks for your time and attention, if you've read this far!

Yours sincerely,

"Dr. Bob"

Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., D.Min.

 

 

 

The Fix Is In, Part 2

I'm writing this on 17 January, 2021. The past ten days will go down as a tragic chapter in the history of the United States: it appears that conservatives were out-organized and out-manoeuvered by the liberals and leftists who went all-out to get out the vote via mail-in ballots for the November 3 election. It is well-known that mail-in ballots, once they are separated from the envelopes they are mailed in (which wasn't being well-monitored), are virtually impossible to audit and verify. They can be re-counted and re-re-counted, but there is no way to tell who sent them in. This has caused a great deal of suspicion among conservatives, which sadly culminated in violent protests in our nation's capital.

 

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How did we get to where we are today? A few days ago, I heard something about the timeline not making sense, but not until yesterday did I take time to dig deep and try to map out the timeline. After scanning dozens of articles on the internet, here's what I discovered buried on pages 4 and 5 of my searches: There is little doubt that some of the crowd listening to the speech on January 6 were later drawn into the mob violence. But the timeline doesn't uphold the narrative that the speech itself incited the mob to violence: read "Did Trump Incite Violence? Raheem Kassam Demonstrates The Timeline Doesn’t Work." It shows that the first protesters arrived at the Capitol at 12:40 p.m.; at 1:00 p.m. Capitol police were attacked; at 1:09 p.m. the Capitol Police Chief called for the National Guard; and only at 1:11 p.m. did the president end his speech and attendees began walking toward the Capitol which is about a mile away, estimated to be a 40- to 45-minute walk for such a crowd. By 1:50 p.m. the Capitol was already breached; and only by 1:56 p.m. did most of the crowd from the rally reach the Capitol, some being drawn in with the rioters. Even the liberal Washington Post agrees the "first wave of protesters arrived at the Capitol about 1:56pm." or about 56 minutes after the Capitol police were first attacked. Anyone who has studied mob behavior knows that's how mob psychology works: the instigators egg on the followers whose mentality changes to an uninhibited mob mentality, then the instigators blend into the crowd and try to disappear.

None other than NPR in this article confirms this timeline: "1:11 p.m. President Trump's speech to supporters on the Ellipse outside the White House ends." The article confirms that the crowd arrived at the Capitol around 2:00 p.m. and the "mob" broke into the building at 2:07 p.m. But another source, KTLA News from Los Angeles, reports – "It was about 1:15 p.m. when New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas, a Democrat, said Capitol Police banged on his door and 'told us to drop everything, get out as quickly as we could.'" He told the AP – "It was breathtaking how quickly law enforcement got overwhelmed by these protesters." So the "mob" began attacking the police at 1:00 p.m. and legislators were warned to evacuate at 1:15 p.m. or 25 to 45 minutes before the crowd from the speech arrived. Another article, "Incitement Timeline: Year of Trump's Actions Leading to the Attack," confirms this: "January 6, 2021: The attack on the U.S. Capitol begins at approximately 1:15 PM."

 

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So, how did the violence begin, and by whom? It wasn't spontaneous, or incited by just a speech. Fringe groups on both sides of the political spectrum were already prepared and ready to act. The press had set up their cameras and mics in advance there, waiting for something big to happen. The only way the American people could have seen this riot take place "spontaneously" would be if the TV crews were set up and ready to broadcast it live. According to this Washington Post article, "FBI report warned of 'war' at Capitol, contradicting claims there was no indication of looming violence", the FBI claims to have notified Capitol Police on January 5, but the latter denies being notified. The FBI actually arrested John Sullivan, a BLM/Antifa organizer: "FBI Arrests Leftist Activist Who Stormed Capitol And Agitated Crowd (Video and FBI Doc. Embedded)" who previously had been arrested on June 20, 2020, in Utah for leading a BLM riot. A later photo shows him in the Capitol wearing a "Trump 2020" camo cap pulled down almost over his eyes but the rest of his face matches the June photo. He's also wearing the typical BLM black neckscarf and black jacket. He was recorded at the Capitol shouting – "You guys are f—–g savage. Let’s go!" as rioters climbed the outside walls. Inside the Capitol, he told the protestors, “We gotta get this s–t burned. It's our house, m———–s" and "we are getting this s–t," according to court papers. So it was at least partly a false-flag operation, egged on by at least one Antifa/BLM operative, a set-up to incite and thus discredit conservatives.

Jade Slacker, a CNN reporter who penetrated the Capitol with Sullivan, cheered – "We did it!" – then she asked if he was recording it and he said he would delete it, but he didn't get to. So it appears that CNN was in on the plot:. "Left-wing activist charged in Capitol riot after saying he was there to 'document'" – according to Fox News, which calls him "a left-wing activist posing as a journalist" and recorded on video egging protesters at the Capitol – "We're about to burn this down." So, what happened to this BLM/Antifa person, John Sullivan? He was released without bail by claiming he was only there as a journalist: "Freedom of Speech," – our First Amendment rights, you know.

The lessons to be learned here are: 1) conservatives need to be better-organized in preparing for the whole election process, from promoting and electing Secretaries of State who have the legal authority to oversee the election process, to electing state legislators who will pass laws requiring voter-ID for mail-in and in-person voting, to signing up for and serving at the polling stations and providing trained election observers as well as getting out the vote, and 2) controlling the fringe elements who give a bad name to conservatives by their extreme speech and actions that threatens and sometimes spills over into violence. Too often, conservatives take a passive role in politics, some even believing that "good Christians shouldn't get involved in dirty politics" – leaving politics to the dirty politicians. On the other hand, politics for liberals and leftists is often their entire worldview, their "religion" ...it's their ultimate meaning in life, so they devote much of their time and money to the political process.

(In case you haven't read Part 1, please go to: The Fix Is In.)

With this, I'm announcing that I will be taking an indefinite hiatus from researching the news sources, writing Hosken-News, and posting on social media. It has been a huge drain on my soul and pain in my heart. I need to devote the next months to researching, writing, and submitting my master's thesis.

 

 

Prayer and Praise:   For a daily reminder to pray for the items below, go to My Daily Prayer Guide and click on the "H-N pr." link!

Sun. - Pray that Christians worldwide will be preserved from false teachers and the Lord will deliver the godly out of temptation by being in the Ark.
Mon. - Thank God for Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signing the Tomos of Autocephaly that gave Ukraine its own independent Orthodox Church.
Tue. - Ask the Lord that Turkmenistan will honor its international commitments for religious freedom so that its people can seek and find the true God.
Wed. - Thank God for historical & legal precedents followed by the Ecumenical Patriarch in granting autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Thu. - Praise Him that the "Money Follows the Person" program has been renewed, paying for people with disabilities to be cared for in home settings.
Fri. - Thank God for Hungary rebuilding an earthquake-devastated primary school and a church in Croatia where many Hungarians still are living.
Sat. - Pray that Russia will allow the Alexander Metochion in Jerusalem to be visited by Orthodox Christians from all canonical jurisdictions.

 

Map of former USSR   Please remember to pray for Christians in Secularized Countries, and for...

  Your fellow-servants,

  Bob & Cheryl

  p.s. Why did the mouse get trapped? Because it thought the cheese was free.