Is Jesus God, Or Not?
A basic premise of Islam, modern communism, and today's secular humanism is that Jesus was a myth, or merely a good man, a great moral teacher, or perhaps even a prophet, but not God Incarnate. Islam teaches that He was a prophet, even born of a virgin, but a fundamental confession of Islam is "Allah is one, and he has no son," thus denying the Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Where did this idea or ideology come from? It came from the pit of hell: the Apostle John's first letter states – "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already" (1 John 4:1-3).
Thus we should understand that the Antichrist ideology is not necessarily against morality, against religion, or even against Jesus so much as it is against the fact that He is "God Incarnate, born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man" as we confess in the Nicene Creed. Thus, it is a central doctrine of genuine Christianity. As the Apostle John wrote – "many false prophets have gone out into the world." Many pseudo-Christians, starting with the heretic Arius and continuing with Islam (a direct descendant of Arianism), Theism, Deism, and cults such as Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses all deny the unique deity of Christ. Leaving behind the religious factor, we are faced with the secular state – separation of church and state – and thus allowing Christ-denying secular ideologies to take control of the educational systems all around the world. This programs the next generation to not believe in Christ's deity.
The result is that if you search the Internet for the phrase "Is Jesus God, Or Not?" – you will find an overwhelming majority of sources claiming that Jesus was a myth or a mere man, even some claiming He was married to Mary Magdaline and fathered two children, or "theologians" such as Bart Ehrman who wrote How Man Became God. What does being the majority opinion prove? We have come to believe that the majority is more correct, truer, or better than the minority. But actually, it only proves that the majority is bigger than the minority, that's all.
Another aspect of secularism is the notion that all religions teach basically the same thing: a morality that is rewarded by some kind of deity, sometimes with an eternity in heaven, at other times with health and happiness on earth. This is relativism, that all religions are equally true. After all, we have freedom of religion, don't we? Not quite: the Apostle Paul wrote – "And indeed, there must be differences among you to show which of you are approved" (1 Corinthians 11:19). In other words, allowing for differences in doctrines should be so that the teachers of true doctrines will be approved. The goal of religious freedom is not relativism, but the search for truth.
All humans are created in the image and likeness of God and in that sense we are "of God" and God is the Father. But Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father. Scripture texts that state we are children of God are clarified by other Bible texts that state we are adopted children of God, sons and daughters of Abraham by adoption. Only Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father before all time.
"Freedom of belief" has today morphed into "freedom of choice" – a woman is free to choose whether to have an abortion or not, a man can freely choose to marry another man, or "become a woman" through hormone therapy or surgery (even though every cell in his body still has an "X" and a "Y" chromosome, making him a male), or a woman "become a man." But stangely, the notion of being free to choose doesn't apply to homosexuals who claim they were "born that way" having no choice in the matter, they are predestined to be that way.
Where does this idea of predestination come from? In the early Church there was much debate over predestination versus freedom of the will. St. Augustine accepted St. Jerome's translation of the New Testament from Greek into Latin as "the Gospel truth." But there was one little problem, one little pronoun that was mistranslated: Romans 5:12 in the Latin Vulgate reads: "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, [for] in him all sinned." The word "for" is a supplied word, not in the original Greek text, but it was supplied in order to make sense, in Jereome's thinking, to link Adam's sin to all mankind's sinful nature, in other words, "Because sin entered the world through Adam, therefore all are condemned to be sinners and deserving God's wrathful judgment." From this viewpoint, Augustine developed his doctrine of man's inherited guilt and total depravity, predestination by God's sovereign will, and Christ's limited atonement of only "the elect."
That "one little pronoun" was "that" – mistranslated as "him" – just two letters in Greek that indicates it is the neuter pronoun "that" and not the male pronoun "him" – but Jerome didn't know the difference and Augustine knew even less Greek than Jerome. Romans 5:12 should read – "Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, in that all sinned." So this verse connects the penalty of Adam's sin, death, not sin itself, as what was passed on to all men "in that" or because we all have sinned. This shifts the responsibility from Adam (or from God Who created Adam) or the devil ("the devil made me do it") to each and every one of us. We have moral freedom and with this freedom comes moral responsibility. We are not predestined to sin, God is not some judgmental ogre in heaven that willy-nilly chooses "the elect," a few to go to heaven and the rest – the vast majority of humanity – to be damned to eternal hell fire.
No, God is love, He is all-loving and all-merciful. "God so loved the whole world that He sent His only-begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him might be saved and have everlasting life" (John 3:16). He "wants all mankind to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people" (Titus 2:11). We all have freedom of the will, we must choose to receive Him. With freedom comes the responsibility to make right choices. "Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15).
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:
THE INCREDIBLE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT PREBORN BABIES CAN HEAR, SEE, AND DO
from: LiveAction
(30 Aug.) LiveAction’s Baby Olivia project highlights the remarkable journey of life that takes place before birth. Not only does Baby Olivia show how preborn children develop physically – the heart begins beating at three or four weeks, she can offer a glimpse into how they development mentally.
Brain wave activity first begins at just over six weeks post-fertilization, and as a preborn child’s brain develops in the womb, she will learn the sound of her mother’s voice, and even her parents’ musical taste. After birth, she will be able to recognize these sounds, including lullabies. Studies using ultrasound and magnetic field scanners reveal the consciousness that preborn children have.
A 2017 study from the University of Kansas found that the brain starts building a child's foundation of language while she is still in the womb. Two dozen women and their preborn children participated in the study with a fetal biomagnetometer that fits over the mother's abdomen and more precisely reads heartbeat, breathing, and movements.
Preborn children were read a passage in English and a passage in Japanese at about eight months gestation, and researchers found that the preborn babies' heart rate changed upon hearing the Japanese passage, because the language was so different from their mother’s native English. Their heart rates did not change when the English passage was read to them.
"Fetuses can hear things, including speech, in the womb," explained associate professor of linguistics and lead for the study Utako Minai. "It's muffled, like the adults talking in a 'Peanuts' cartoon, but the rhythm of the language should be preserved and available for the fetus to hear." [watch the video...]
COMMENTARY: The idea of the Right to Life comes indirectly from Christianity, that God created man in His image and likeness. This mutated into Theism that posited a "clockwork deity" that wound up the universe like a clock and then stepped out of the picture, inaccesible and unknowable. The U.S. Declaration of Independence mentions – "All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Even here we see how man began to push God aside and the focus turning to "man" – humanism.
BELARUS: ADMINISTRATIVE, CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR EVICTED CHURCH'S OUTDOOR WORSHIP?
from: Forum 18 News Service
(1 Sep.) Officials are threatening Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko and other members of New Life Pentecostal Church in the capital Minsk with administrative and criminal charges for continuing to hold meetings for worship in the open air in the church car park. The Church has held services outdoors each Sunday in snow, rain and hot sunshine in the more than half a year since officials evicted the congregation from its building on 17 February.
At a 14 July meeting at the Council of the Republic, the upper house of Parliament, officials warned Pastor Goncharenko that violations of the law could lead to prosecution.
This was followed by a 23 July letter from the Administration of Minsk's Moscow District warning Pastor Goncharenko that the Church's worship meetings are illegal. A 5 August letter from the City Executive Committee reminded him of administrative and criminal punishments (of up to four years' imprisonment) for organising and participating in illegal meetings.
The Church will continue to meet for worship every Sunday. "This is risky," Pastor Goncharenko admitted to Forum 18 from Minsk, "but we keep praying as everything can change. We know this from experience." Pastor Goncharenko took the official letters seriously. "The authorities may initiate criminal charges as they told us at the Council of the Republic meeting," he remarked. "This is possible, given that they have gone as far as throwing us out of the building without compensation and imposing debts."
The New Life Church community says it is not going to give up its seized building and will struggle for its rights. Pastor Goncharenko said that the Church will continue to negotiate with the authorities.
The Head of the Ideology, Religion and Ethnic Affairs Department of Minsk City Executive Committee, Anna Koronevskaya, refused to comment on the situation with New Life Church. Nor would she answer why officials are threatening the Church and whether they intend to shut it down. "The church leaders have all the information, and I am not allowed to give comments on the phone," she told Forum 18 from Minsk on 19 August. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: It is noteworthy that the official response is from "the Head of the Ideology, Religion and Ethnic Affairs Department of Minsk City Executive Committee." Belarus is the only former-USSR republic that openly espouses an "ideology" and is the only former-USSR republic that has not bothered to change the name of their federal police/spy agency from "KGB" to something less ominous. The USSR's KGB actively persecuted the Church.
PRIME MINISTER SIGNS THE DECREE TO PREPARE THE TRANSFER OF ST. NICHOLAS CHURCH TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
(9 Sep.) Today, members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations made a respective statement.
The decree was signed on September 7, several sources familiar with the situation said LB.ua.
St. Nicholas Church is a Roman Catholic Church in Kyiv, one of two built in the city before 1917. It is located in the center, on Velyka Vasylkivska street. The church was built in 1899-1909 in the neo-Gothic style by architect Vladislav Gorodetsky. Since 1980, the building has been used as a concert hall of the House of organ and chamber music.
Now the church houses the state organization "National House of organ and chamber music of Ukraine." At the same time, there is a community of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has limited opportunities for worship in the church. The parish community of St. Nicholas Church have been asking the state for 30 years to return the church, which believers are now forced to rent. For more than 10 years, the church has been in disrepair and requires urgent thorough restoration.
On September 3, a short circuit occurred in the church organ, which led to fires and the destruction of tools. According to estimates of the Ministry of Culture, the restoration of the church will require 75 million hryvnias. As of September 6, almost 26 million rubles were raised by joint efforts of citizens and businesses.
On September 8, Roman Catholics launched a prayer marathon in Kyiv on the rosary with the intention of returning the Church of St. Nicholas to the community. On September 9, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations issued a statement stating that the Church of St. Nicholas in Kyiv should be transferred to the permanent free use of the Catholic community.
"We are watching with concern the events that are taking place around the issue of returning the Church of St. Nicholas Church to the Roman Catholic parish in Kyiv," the AUCCRO said in a statement. "It is well known that according to the decree of the president of Ukraine No. 329 of 18.08.2020 and decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1203-R of 16.09.2020 Church of St. Nicholas was to be transferred to the permanent gratuitous use of the Catholic community." [read more...]
COMMENTARY: St. Nicholas is very popular among Ukrainian Christians, and it's not because of Santa Claus. The real St. Nicholas was one of the bishops at the First Ecumenical Council: the bishop who rebuked Arius and the heresy named after him, Arianism. He struck Arius on the face! Arius then perished in a latrine when his intestines came out. Arianism denied the divinity and pre-eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ, teaching that He was merely a godly man, a prophet (much like today's secular humanism). When Arians were exiled from the Greco-Roman Empire, they settled in Arabia, and an Arian priest taught this doctrine to Mohammed.
DISABILITY SERVICE PROVIDERS SHUTTERING IN MANY STATES
from: Disability Scoop
(10 Sep.) Over half of states are reporting that Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) providers have closed since the start of the pandemic, with many seeing multiple types of services shut their doors.
In a survey of Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services programs in 41 states that was conducted through mid-July, 25 reported that at least one provider had permanently closed. The findings come in a report released recently from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Adult day programs were the most likely to have closed followed by in-home care providers, supported employment and group homes, the report found. In 16 states, closures affected multiple types of Home and Community-Based Services providers.
Survey results showed that the pandemic exacerbated existing workforce shortages at group homes and for services provided in individuals' homes, but there were also impacts on providers from people with disabilities and their families declining to allow workers into their homes due to coronavirus concerns.
Meanwhile, the report indicated that closures to comply with social distancing measures affected day programs and supported employment. Many states said that they used retainer payments – which allowed providers to continue billing for approved services during temporary closures – to try to keep providers afloat, but limitations meant that this was insufficient for some.
"The pandemic has brought new attention among policymakers and the public to the longstanding unmet need for HCBS and direct care workforce shortage, driven by low wages, high turnover and limited opportunities for career advancement," the report finds. "Maintaining and increasing the HCBS provider infrastructure is key to meeting enrollee need and expanding access to these services as pandemic recovery efforts continue and beyond." [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Similar to those with comorbidities (pre-existing health problems) in nursing homes and extended care facilities, this article shows that those who receive Home and Community-Based Services are among the first to be negatively affected or die because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even before this pandemic, I have personally counseled some of these home healthcare workers who tell of the difficulties – long work hours, no reimbursement for the time and costs of travel, etc. – of this type of work. Home and Community-Based Services are a good way to allow disabled people to stay in their homes, but when the government money dries up, it's time for Christians to recover this ministry that they defaulted on and left to the state.
ESCAPING OPPRESSION: YEONMI PARK – NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR, OR DOUBLE AGENT?
from: PragerU
(8 Sep.) Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector, says she suffered unimaginable horror on her journey to freedom. Desperate from starvation and oppression, she managed to escape to China, but discovered she had been sold into sex slavery.
Several years later, as she recounts, she escaped through the Gobi Desert into Mongolia and then finally to freedom in South Korea. Once at university in America, she recognized the same propaganda tactics of North Korea. She has an incredible story that PragerU brings to you.
This video is about an hour long, but very much worth watching! Yeonmi Park describes in the first person how she was driven by survival instinct to risk her life in order to escape communist opression. After being sold into sex slavery by the very person who helped her and her sister defect, she says she was set free by an older Chinese man, then was evangelized by Chinese Christians and believed in Christ.
That group of Chinese Christians also instructed her and seven other North Korean escapees how to walk through the Gobi Desert into Mongolia but she was the only one to survive that perilous journey. The South Korean embassy in Mongolia vetted her for weeks to insure that she wasn't a spy, then flew her to South Korea. From there, she came to the U.S. and enrolled in Columbia University, only to face the same kind of "hate America" propaganda being taught there. [watch the video...]
COMMENTARY: Yeonmi Park, who says she was 13 when she fled North Korea, was thoroughly brainwashed: she had no concept in her mind of religion, faith, or freedom even was, she only knew that she was starving. This survival instinct eventually led her to faith in Christ and freedom in the U.S. But here she met university students and professors who are thoroughly propagandized into the same sort of Marxism as in North Korea, only sugar-coated with the name of "progressivism." Her presentation is emotionless, just matter-of-fact, which has led many people to question her veracity. But if she were a double agent, why would she say such terrible things about North Korea and the crypto-Marxists in the U.S. – to perhaps infiltrate conservative organizations?
METROPOLITAN HILARION COMPARED PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW TO A ROBBER AND A THIEF
from: Interfax-Religion
(6 Sep.) The Russian Orthodox Church called the recent visit of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to Ukraine shameful.
"In connection with this visit, I would like to recall the words from the Gospel of John: "Whoever does not enter the sheep's yard by the door, but climbs over it, is a thief and a robber, and whoever enters by the door is a shepherd for sheep," Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations, said on the program the Church and the World on the Rossiya 24 TV.
He noted that Patriarch Bartholomew came to a country where the majority of Orthodox believers don't recognize him as their pastor, and literally had to go through the back door to the Verkhovna Rada, because the main entrance was crowded with believers who protested against his visit.
"This visit was made at the invitation of the state authorities and at the invitation of schismatics, but the majority of Orthodox believers not only ignored this visit, but very clearly showed that Patriarch Bartholomew is not a pastor for them," the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate said.
According to him, Patriarch Bartholomew, "trying to pass off wishful thinking, comes to a group of schismatics and says: here is a real Church, and there are just some titular bishops." As a result, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church which has more than 12 thousand parishes, more than 250 monasteries, more than a hundred bishops and millions of believers "is simply ignored by Patriarch Bartholomew because he pretends that it doesn't exist," the metropolitan added [read more...]
COMMENTARY: One can usually cherry-pick some verses or phrases from the Bible to rationalize almost any behavior, for example: "Judas went out and hanged himself" with "Go thou and do likewise." It is a sad day when one's inferiors in Russia cause a schism in the Orthodox Church by themselves creating a schism, separating themselves from their superior, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the whole Orthodox Church, then blaming the schism on Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. The real issue is that Moscow considers itself to be "the Third Rome, and a Fourth there shall never be"– the true head of the Orthodox Church - according to an old Russian Orthodox story.
OTHER NEWS HEADLINES:
WHAT DO WE OWE VICTIMS OF DEMENTIA OR BRAIN INJURY?
from BioEdge
CHINA: CHRISTIANS COMPELLED TO PRAY FOR THE MARTYRS... OF THE RED ARMY
from Christian Persecution
PANDEMIC LEAVES UK DISABLED BEHIND ON BILL PAYMENTS AND SKIPPING MEALS
from Disabled World
THE UNITED STATES ONCE AGAIN CALL ON RUSSIA TO STOP THE PERSECUTION OF CRIMEAN TATARS AND THE OCU IN CRIMEA
from Religious Information Service of Ukraine
COVID-19, POLITICAL RESTRICTIONS NOT HINDERING CHINESE CHRISTIANS
from Mission Network News
LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT PROMISES NOT TO ALLOW LGBT HISTORY TO BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS
from Interfax-Religion
PATRIARCH KIRILL: THE EVIL FORCES ARE TEARING APART THE UNITY OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHES
from Russian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate
MONTENEGRO: CETINJE AUTHORITIES TO DISCUSS TRANSFERRING ORTHODOX MONASTERY TO SCHISMATICS
from Orthodox Christianity
w.eurasiareview.com/category/life/religion/" target="_blank"> Eurasia Review
FIGHT OVER TEXAS ABORTION BAN REFLECTS SEMANTICS, SOCIETAL DECLINE
from Daily Signal
NOW, OUR VIEWS:
Help at Home
(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!!)
Agape Restoration Communities are designed to help residents and others get needed assistance so they can live at home, either in our wheelchair-accessible ARCs or other housing. Our state, Pennsylvania, offers various social services for citizens age 60 and up, as shown in the photo. Then "Home Health Care" and "Meals on Wheels" can go a long way toward keeping you at home – that is, if your home is suitable for this when you need it to be.
The basic problem, however, is that most people 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 "like normal" just as it has in the past. But when we stop and think about it (if we ever do take time to stop and think...), we realize deep-down that someday we're going to die, and more likely (70% probability!) first will come the slowing down, having a hard time climbing up or going down stairs, feeling exhausted after walking 50 or 100 feet, needing a walker or a wheelchair, etc. – the old heart, back, legs, etc. are getting tired and worn out. Are YOU going to be pro-active and stop to think about it now, or will you wait until it's too late to choose which accessible housing is best for you? Then you'll have to depend on relatives – who are busy with their own lives – to take time out to do it for you.
What is an ARC – an Agape Restoration Community? Perhaps first of all we should say what an ARC is not: it is not a nursing home, a personal care home, or an assisted living center. Think of an ARC as a Christian community, an independent living facility where you have your own living unit, can move about, come and go as you please without the physical barriers of stairways, steps at porches or decks, or narrow hallways and doorways that hinder movement by people with mobility impairments. An ARC also provides common spaces for worship and other group activities so you're not cooped up at home alone.
Why an ARC? See the article "The Changing Demographics of Nursing Home Care: Greater Minority Access… Good News, Bad News": as our population ages, more and more elderly people of minority groups are being placed in nursing homes as an increasing number of white Americans move into high-end independent living or assisted living facilities that they can afford. Will you be able to afford thousands of dollars per month for such hotel-like accommodations? What we need is moderately-priced "walkable" housing for empty-nesters and other people with mobility issues!
The elderly of minority groups and the poor tend to rely more on Medicare and Medicaid that have strict limits of what it will provide only if medically necessary: a basic double-occupancy room with two TVs, three meals a day, limited-staff nursing care, a shower once a week, and perhaps some physical therapy to keep in shape. Picture yourself in a room with two TVs and both residents want to watch and listen to (loud!) their favorite programs... one late at night and the other early in the morning!
But this doesn't mean that more and more nursing homes are being built: quite the opposite, in fact! Because of Medicare's and Medicaid's stricter limits on how much and what they will pay for, thousands of nursing homes have shut down in the past thirty years: see "In the Nursing Home, Empty Beds and Quiet Halls" -
"Thirty years ago, 90 percent of Medicaid dollars for long-term care flowed to institutions and only 10 percent to home- and community-based services. Now, the proportions have flipped, and nursing homes get only 43 percent of Medicaid’s long-term care expenditures.
"A report from the federal Government Accountability Office earlier this year pointed out, for example, that Medicaid covers assisted living for 330,000 people. A demonstration program called Money Follows the Person has moved more than 75,000 residents out of nursing homes and back into community settings.
"It's good news for consumers — but not so good for nursing homes. The 31 largest metropolitan markets have 13,586 fewer nursing home beds now than in late 2005, the investment center reports.
"This could prove a temporary crisis. When the baby boomers enter their 80s and need residential care, occupancy could pick up again."
But will the beds be there when the baby boomers need them? Another article, "The Need for Long-Term Care Continues to Grow", tells of the 10,000 "Baby Boomers" retiring every day: they were born from 1946 to 1965 and number seventy million people, about one-fourth of the entire U.S. population. Most retirees don't need accessible housing right at age 65: disability usually begins around age 75, so the tsunami of disabled "Baby Boomers" will likely begin in 2021. We need to be ready!
As more and more of the "Baby Boomers" leave the workforce to retire, fewer and fewer people will be paying into Social Security and general public funds while more will be drawing from these funds. This article states – "An estimated 70% of people currently turning 65 will require long-term care in their lifetime, and they will receive care for an average of 3 years." This is obviously a danger, but also an opportunity... for Christians to form "intentional communities" to show compassion by providing accessible housing and care for the elderly and infirm.
And a fourth article, "Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees Out of Nursing Homes", relates how people who think they have plenty to retire on find out that it's used up after just a few years, maybe even less, together with hospital bills. It tells about Alice Jacobs, age 90, who once owned a factory and horses, but eventually exhausted her savings at an assisted living center and now "relies on Medicaid to pay for her care at Dogwood Village, a nonprofit, county-owned nursing home." Wouldn't it be wiser to get "Home Health Care" and "Meals on Wheels" while living in an ARC and not burning through those savings? Enroll in our free courses to see how YOU can do diakonia-ministry!
Our last Other News Headline, "FIGHT OVER TEXAS ABORTION BAN REFLECTS SEMANTICS, SOCIETAL DECLINE," explains how the secular humanists on the left have been trying to control the narrative about the right to life of preborn babies, calling them "lumps of cells" and "fetuses" instead of babies and negatively labeling the right to life movement as "anti-abortion" instead of "pro-life" while calling the anti-life movement "pro-abortion." The term "secular humanist" is supposed to denote persons who do not believe in God but still have in their hearts "the milk of human kindness" – to quote Shakespeare. But they are actually unkind, hypocritical people who care mainly about themselves, not about preborn babies, the disabled, and the elderly. If they would only practice on themselves what they preach, we wouldn't be having this foolish discussion.
Some of the other news articles and news headlines above tell of the continuing tug-of-war struggle between the Ukraine and Russia. Religion has become a pawn to serve the power politics of state. Ukraine has been struggling for hundreds of years to regain its own autonomous Orthodox Church which was lost when the Russian Empire conquered Ukraine. Pray for both countries to find a peaceful and fair resolution to this disagreement that has boiled over into war.
Please remember to pray for Christians in Secularized Countries, and for...
Your fellow-servants,
Bob & Cheryl
p.s. God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.
