How Christianity Invented the Hospital

From Christianity.com (Aug. 17, 2022):

Far from being an otherworldly religion, Christianity teaches both the importance and goodness of life in this world. In fact, from Jesus’ healing ministry to the work of modern missionary doctors, a consistent feature of the work of the Church in the world has been to care for the sick and needy, and not just point them to the life to come.

The early Church understood Jesus’ ministry to be a paradigm for their own work. So, just as Jesus set believers free from their bondage to sin, early Christians purchased slaves specifically to free them. Whereas Jesus used miraculous power to heal people from physical effects of the Fall, Christians used more ordinary tools to care for the sick and disabled. These activities are not merely good deeds in themselves but serve to advance the Kingdom. Though the Gospel is a message and must be proclaimed, the early Church saw works of mercy and preaching the Gospel as two sides of the same coin.

The first major epidemic faced by the Church was the Antonine Plague (A.D. 166-189). In fear of their lives, the Romans threw the sick out of their homes to die in the streets. Galen, the most prominent physician of the age, knew he could neither heal its victims nor protect himself. So, he fled Rome to stay at his country estate.

Recognizing that all persons were made in the image of God and that Jesus came to make all things new, body and soul, many Christians ran the other direction. They fought the Fall by tending to the sick, at risk (and often at the cost) of their own lives.

Since even basic nursing care can make a significant difference during an epidemic, Christian action saved lives. Their courage and self-sacrifice contributed to the rapid growth of Christianity. For example, when Irenaeus arrived in Lyon from Asia Minor, there were very few Christians. By the time the plague ended, there were 200,000 believers in Lyon. [read more]

Interesting history of the early Church.

Science 'Pleads the 5th'

From AFA.net (Aug. 10):

First and Second Samuel were originally a single book in the Hebrew Bible, known simply as Sefer Shmuel [Book of Samuel] and remained undivided in the Masoretic manuscript tradition. The book was divided into 2 parts when translated into Greek as part of the Septuagint, probably during the 2^nd century B.C.

Although the human authorship of 2 Samuel remains unknown, its vivid description of Absalom may preserve the testimony of someone familiar with David’s royal court, perhaps a prophet such as Nathan or Gad, or a royal chronicler whose records were later incorporated into the Samuelan tradition.

Second Samuel 14:25 records Absalom’s extraordinary physical beauty:

“But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.”

The next chapter reveals how Absalom converted physical appearance, insincere concern, and calculated flattery into personal loyalty. As 2 Samuel 15:6 concludes: “So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”

In his classic The Life of David, written in the 1930s, A.W. Pink observes that Israel’s admiration for Absalom revealed the Nation's low spiritual condition. He possessed neither piety, wisdom, nor justice, yet the people were captivated by his handsome appearance. His wickedness was overlooked while his physical beauty was celebrated, feeding the arrogance that eventually brought about his ruin.

Pink saw the same spiritual disorder in his own generation: physical beauty and outward prowess were valued more highly than moral virtue and spiritual grace. He argued that Christendom had fallen into decline because it had become increasingly attracted to whatever appealed to the flesh. Churches wanted full pews and full treasuries; preachers wanted to retain the young; evangelists wanted visible results. Consequently, worldly attractions and high-pressure methods were employed to manufacture the appearance of spiritual success.

Such is seemingly the spiritual state of the Union in 21st-century America: a mile wide and an inch deep.

Which brings us to the ruse of the Gibeonite-like deception surrounding COVID-19 and Anthony Fauci, and the American people’s profound lack of spiritual discernment. The official narrative was advanced by a decadent secular culture and its antagonistic cultural Marxists, deeply entrenched across the spiritual, intellectual, educational, economic, and vocational mountains of influence and power in America.

Yet the Gibeonite deception reveals an even deeper failure. Joshua 9:14 tells of the fatal mistake of trusting physical evidence instead of seeking God’s guidance: “The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord.”

The evidence appeared persuasive: the worn garments, patched wineskins, old shoes, and moldy bread. Everything had been carefully arranged to produce the desired conclusion. Israel examined what the Gibeonites presented but failed to inquire of the One who could expose what appearances concealed.

In Gleanings in Joshua, A.W. Pink explains that Satan opposes the people of God in 2 distinct forms: openly, as a roaring lion seeking to devour, and covertly, as a subtle serpent practicing deceit. Pink contends that Scripture and Church history demonstrate that deception is far more dangerous and successful than open persecution. When force cannot exterminate or intimidate the faithful, Satan turns to secret schemes.

Whereas the roaring lion is easily recognized, the subtle serpent seldom is. Open persecution may awaken the Church, but deception enters quietly, clothed in authority, credentialed by experts, amplified by institutions, and presented as unquestionable truth.

That is the great warning running from Joshua through 1 & 2 Samuel and into 21st-century America: God’s people are rarely defeated by superior strength alone. More often, they are defeated when they fail to seek the Lord’s counsel, mistake appearance for character, and surrender spiritual discernment to the prevailing authorities of the age.

The COVID-19 crisis was therefore more than medical or political. It was spiritual, a test whether the American Church could distinguish the voice of truth from the whispers of the guileful serpent.

The postgame accounting must now be lawful, factual, public, and unsparing. Every relevant document should be released. Every financial interest should be disclosed. Every misleading statement should be examined. Every abuse of governmental authority should be exposed.

The actions of Dr. Fauci, NIH officials, pharmaceutical companies, media organizations, government agencies, and communications platforms should be subjected to full-scale, rigorous public examination. Wherever the evidence establishes deliberate deception, concealment, censorship, or unlawful conduct, those responsible must answer for it; not as an act of vengeance, but as a vindication of truth and a warning against its repetition.

Century-old family businesses were bankrupted. Employees and military personnel lost their livelihoods under mask and vaccination mandates. Churches were shuttered, and in places such as California, congregational singing was prohibited. Loved ones died alone in sterile hospital rooms.

These were not abstractions. They were grievous harm inflicted upon real people, real families, churches, and the Nation itself.

Yet the deepest scandal of COVID-19 was not merely that powerful institutions may have misled the American people. It was that a spiritually undiscerning Nation had become so enamored with titles, appearances, credentials, and institutional power that it no longer knew whom - or what - to believe.

Absalom stood before Israel in all his external splendor, captivating and without visible blemish. The Gibeonites stood before Joshua wearing old garments and carrying moldy bread. In both instances, appearance concealed reality.

And therein lies the warning to America: the serpent seldom announces himself with a roar. He comes handsomely dressed, impressively credentialed, officially approved, and carrying precisely the evidence he wants us to see.

The question now is not merely whether America was deceived.

The question is whether the church has recovered enough spiritual discernment to seek the counsel of the Lord, and prevent it from happening again.

Gideons or Rehabs have begun to stand. [source]

Science is about discovering the Truth. When it loses that purpose and becomes politicized and weaponized then trust becomes an issue. I hope and pray that day never comes.

Is DEI biblical?

From Ben Kissling on Christian Post.com (Feb. 2, 2024):

Christian academic institutions have fallen on hard times. I get it. I have three relatives/close friends who until recently worked at such institutions. Two of them were laid off. One because his entire college closed its doors for good. The other left her position in part due to the heavy workload she was being expected to handle.

So, I understand in a very personal way why the leaders of such institutions as the one I currently attend, Biola University, might decide it’s a bad time to pick a fight with a powerful state government over Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

When I was in high school, my church went through a split with my family on the losing side in the sense that we had to leave the church that I’d grown up in, a church whose building I literally helped build with my own two hands. For several years, our elders had decided to use volunteer labor to save money on our new building. My dad volunteered more hours on that thing than anybody but the pastor, and I spent a lot of 12 to sometimes 16-hour Saturdays helping him. Long story short, the elders and the pastor split, and the elders were faced with a choice of either taking the pastor to court over the by-laws or leaving the church. They chose to leave because of a single verse in the Bible which said we are not to take our fellow brothers in Christ to court. And just like that, everything we worked for and donated money towards for years was gone because of one verse.

What lessons do you think that taught me as a young believer? Maybe that our faith is worth sacrificing for. 

Is DEI compatible with Christianity? This is a different question than whether it violates some essential doctrine of the Christian faith. Not taking a brother to court is not an essential doctrine either, but I believe it is the right thing to do. The question is not “Can an individual be a Christian and also adhere to DEI?” The question is whether or not over time, adherence to the assumptions inherent in DEI will undermine Biola as an orthodox Christian institution. I believe the answer to the latter question is yes, and in the long run that is a far more serious question for Biola than the current financial situation.

There are some very basic, intuitive contradictions between DEI and Christianity, specifically Christian morality. Christianity is already inherently anti-racist, and as a Christian institution Biola does not need DEI. But it is worse than that, because DEI is not simply benign either. It is not simply an institutional program to combat racism. DEI is a moral system whose foundations are different than Christian morality, and as a result lead to different moral judgments than Christianity does. Once accepted by a Christian institution, DEI will replace the Christian morality of any institution which accepts its premises, which Biola has already done in March 2021 when President Corey instituted the Division of Diversity and Inclusion.

The key difference between DEI morality and Christian morality is simply that DEI flips the worldly, socio-economic standard upside down, while Christianity replaces it with an entirely different, other-worldly standard. In James 1:9-10, we see a clear example of the relation between Christian morality and socio-economic status: “Now the brother or sister of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; but the rich person is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away” (NASB). At first glance, it might seem like James is reversing the socio-economic standard. After all, he says the poor are in a high position while the rich are in a low position, when presumably judgments according to a socio-economic standard would have the rich high and the poor low. But why would James say each one should glory in their respective positions if one is truly high and the other truly low? If the rich actually were in a low position, then they cannot glory in that position. They should rather be ashamed of their low position and seek a higher one! But that is not what James says for them to do. [read more]

DIE is based on Marxism. Marxism is atheistic. So, the answer is no. Good article.

6 signs of power hungry leaders

From Joseph Mattera on Christian Post.com (Jan. 26, 2024):

God-ordained public service should never be about a person’s desire for power but should arise out of a servant’s heart to meet the needs of the people they represent.

Jesus modeled this when He washed the feet of His disciples and when He said that the greatest in the kingdom of God are those who serve (John 13; Mark 10:43). Of course, we have power-hungry leaders in every sector of society — not just in politics — and this includes the church.

I believe power-hungry people are the cause of numerous problems and divisions within the marketplace and church, and we need to be honest with them and speak to them when necessary, lest they sabotage great organizations.

Since their drive for power will stop at nothing to achieve their ends, more mature leaders must counter their dangerous ambitions instead of continually feeding into them.

(I believe all leaders, because of our fallen nature, have to deal with some or all of the following issues at times in our lives. But some have totally given in and live out these issues as a lifestyle of choice.)

1. Power-hungry leaders only relate to other ‘power’ people

Power-hungry people are constantly going to social events, parties, conferences and frequently joining boards of powerful organizations that will connect them with the most influential people — irrespective of whether they truly have the time or talents for it or genuinely want to connect with these people on a deep human level.

They are always looking for the next person who can do something to help them climb the social ladders in their spheres of influence, which causes them to use people instead of serving people.

2. Power-hungry leaders constantly drop names to impress

There are certain leaders whom I have heard speak several times, and every single time they have spoken, either to me in private or in public gatherings, they have mentioned prominent academic institutions where they received their degrees or dropped the names of high-level leaders with whom they have access.

After a while, it becomes obvious they are attempting to flout their power and accomplishments so they can receive accolades or respect from others instead of it being a sincere attempt to give their audience context for their life narrative.

3. Power-hungry leaders compete with other peer leaders

Power-hungry leaders are always jockeying for positions, fighting with other leaders they deem a threat to their influence or attempting to marginalize others with faint words of praise or outright gossip and slander.

(Street-wise Christian leaders usually don’t engage in outright slander but tend to marginalize others subtly when in the company of those they don’t know well.)

Essentially, power-hungry leaders will not rest until they become the “big dog” in the organization.

4. Power-hungry leaders are all things to all people

Power-hungry leaders often are like chameleons who adapt to the color of their environment. For example, I have met political leaders who speak as biblical Christians when they are speaking in churches, but when they are with secular humanists, they speak about their antibiblical values.

The only thing power-hungry people value is their own power. When they are with Christians, they speak religious lingo, and when they are with secularists, they speak secular lingo. I don’t think even they know what they truly believe!

Unfortunately, many sincere Christians get fooled by these people’s surreptitious words and believe anything they hear. After such people are elected, these Christians are shocked by what they really stand for!

5. Power-hungry leaders are driven by selfish ambition

Though they may work many hours visiting their communities and churches and being among their people, their ultimate goal is to be in power, not to meet the needs of the people.

This is more obvious when it comes to candidates for an elected office. But pastors and church leaders have also fallen into this syndrome and act this out in the context of their own denominations or congregations.

6. Power-hungry leaders love the praises of men

At the end of the day, power-hungry people live to hear other people sing their praises. They have such low self-esteem that they need to continually feed their egos by being the center of attention in every event, party, and gathering they attend.

Consequently, they are easily insulted when they deem others not bowing down to kiss their rings and can quickly turn on these people. [read more]

Sounds like the elite Left. Definitely the anti-Christ will probably exhibit most of the signs.

The Art of Virtue and the Virtue of Art

From Margarita Mooney Clayton on The Public Discourse.com (Sept. 18, 2023):

The idea that art is related to moral virtue will strike many as odd. Art, understood as self-expression or enjoyment, is a spontaneous realm apart from the calculating, choosing, and sacrificing of virtue. Art as self-expression or enjoyment must therefore allow for total freedom to explore one’s desires. By contrast, the hard-won perfection of moral virtue requires restraint and discipline. Moral virtue, in contrast to pure subjective expression, is a means of human perfection. Moral virtue is doing good; it requires effort, perhaps sacrificing something short-term for a greater material or spiritual benefit. But how does this relate to art?

Modern Romantic notions of art have emphasized the subjectivity of human creativity, purportedly to free human instincts in order to reach their fulfillment. But by separating art from reason, Romanticism opened the way for what we see today: much of the art produced today is kitsch (excessively sentimental) or transgressive (seeking to shock or produce outrage).

But in his book The Shape of the Artistic Mind, Father Brad Elliott provides a crucial philosophical grounding that will connect art to moral virtue. Rethinking the relationship between art and virtue leads to very different answers to the questions: What is art for? and What is moral virtue for?

Through a thorough review of Thomistic principles, Elliott moves from considerations about art as an imitation of God’s creation to art as a virtuous participation in God’s governance. For Elliott, both art and moral virtue are ways that humans imitate God; by imitating God, we therefore participate in his governance, as he draws all things back to himself. To some finite degree, all creation, from small living organisms like molecules to inanimate things like stones, participates in God’s being. But Elliott emphasizes that only the rational human person participates in God’s governance through the activity of acting and making.

By bringing new things into being, humans co-create with God. Yet apart from virtue, the power to bring new creations into being will be disordered. As Elliott writes, “art and morality are merely two aspects of man’s participation in the reason and creativity of God.” Hence, art seen as a practical virtue extends God’s governance over creation. Humans move toward their proper ends and contribute to their own governance through co-creation with God.

Elliott contrasts this view with that of Plato, for whom human creativity could only ever represent a shadow of the ultimate reality. For Plato, no human advancement in knowledge or art could ever get us out of the cave—we are forever seeing only shadows of reality. Elliott, on the other hand, contends that our rationality is not purely speculative or abstract. Rather, the human person has the unique capacity to take an idea and impress it upon the external world, making what we create something that shares in the spark of God’s reason. As he explains, building on St. Thomas Aquinas, Etienne Gilson, and other Catholic thinkers, “by learning to imitate nature and her laws through skill or craft, the human intellect is also learning to imitate the Divine creator. . . . Simply put; God, nature, human intellect, and art all relate by a mysterious pattern of imitation spanning the whole range of the cosmos.”

By emphasizing the intellect as a commonality between art and moral virtue, Elliott does not disregard human enjoyment or self-expression. The problem is that not all things that humans create, think, or do are good. If we are fallen and wounded creatures, why would we expect all art to be morally good? And why do so many people seem to think that there is no objectivity in what we enjoy or how we express ourselves?

Elliott’s Christian anthropology underlies his argument. Human beings are a unity of body and soul; we have the capacity to make things and to contemplate. Elliott brilliantly describes how humans imitate God in a finite manner by bringing the outside world into the mind through contemplation and then turning outward through art. As he writes:

This bringing the outside world into the inside world terminating in the perfection of the inside, the intellect’s perfection of knowing, is the intrinsic operation of which St. Thomas speaks. By this action, the created intellect imitates God-as-artist in an unprecedented way, by imitating, in a finite manner, the oneness and unity of its creator. . . . Art or craft is the mode by which the perfection of the inside world (the act of knowledge) impresses its likeness on the outside world; perfective action moving from the inside out.

If moral virtue is imitating God’s goodness, and artistic creation is imitating God’s creation, then co-creating through art is one of the ways we participate in God’s governance. Art understood as a practical virtue makes visible the invisible inner world of the human person and the goodness of God. By participating in God’s governance, art understood as a practical virtue contributes to the right ordering of creation.

In spite of our woundedness as evidenced by laziness, idle curiosity, and self-centeredness, we can grow in virtue through art. Elliott provocatively states that “it is the virtue of art that emerges as the supreme master coordinator between man’s internal and external worlds.” The very act of writing this short essay is an expression of art as a practical virtue: I’ve fought many distractions as I read and pondered Elliott’s words and crafted my own thoughts into words to share with readers.

Art is not moral; it is not a command about how to act. Rather, art can “indirectly influence morals by providing an ‘aptness’ to act well.” Like books and articles that encapsulate ideas into form, music, paintings, and other forms of human creation invite us to contemplate God’s goodness, form our inner lives, and grow in moral virtue. By co-creating with God, we imitate his goodness, participate in his governance, and bring more of creation into the divine unity. [source]

Amen. The Good, the True, the Beautiful. Art should show the Beautiful.

Humanity Isn't a Problem to Solve: Technology Needs a Telos

From Breakpoint.org (Sept. 21, 2023):

Pixar’s Wall-E has proven to be among the most profound and prophetic films of the last 20 years. After hopelessly polluting the Earth and leaving an army of robots to clean up the planet, humans now live aboard a giant ship built by a company that promises to take care of all its passengers’ needs. Thus, humans are left with nothing to do but amuse themselves and eat a lot.

Many Christians wrote off the Pixar classic because of its hyper-environmentalist message. However, the film’s commentary on human exceptionalism and vocation, specifically the inability of our machines to do our most important work for us, was spot-on. In the world of Wall-E, human beings have a purpose, or a telos that cannot be reduced to maximizing comfort, safety, and convenience.

In the biblical account of reality, humans exist to glorify and love God, and to serve as His special representatives and co-rulers in creation. Human inventions should help towards achieving those ends, extending our abilities, and mitigating the effects of the Fall. Wanting to replace ourselves with our devices assumes that humanity is the central problem of the world that needs to be solved.

Recently in First Things, Matthew Crawford argued that an anti-human worldview like the one parodied in Wall-E now dominates our tech and governing classes. Those who are behind everything from smartphone apps to pandemic policy share a basic belief that human beings are inferior to machines. We are, as he puts it, “stupid,” “obsolete,” “fragile,” and “hateful.”

Crawford opens his essay with an example of a driverless car created by Google that froze at a four-way stop. Apparently, the drivers around the car didn’t behave as it had been programmed to expect. However, rather than admit the limits of the car’s “artificial intelligence,” one Google engineer remarked that what he’d learned from the incident is that humans need to be “less idiotic.” The premise is that humans are not the crown of creation but problems to be solved.

Of course, it is quite possible that, once they’ve worked out all the bugs, driverless cars will lead to less accidents and road deaths. However, one of the bugs to be worked out are the programmers who hate humans, which makes the point of this essay ring true. So much of our high-tech culture, from the social media algorithms that tell us what we want to the transhumanist fantasies about uploading our consciousness to computers, assumes that humanity is an obstacle to be overcome.

Much of our public life also assumes the basic idiocy and inadequacy of humans: take health officials more concerned with controlling people than limiting the spread of a virus or legislation quashing parental rights in order to “affirm” gender-confused minors.

C.S. Lewis saw this impulse decades ago and recognized how it would grant growing power to certain people over and above others. In his masterpiece The Abolition of Man, Lewis warned of those he called “conditioners,” who considered themselves above such common human frailties. Of course, as Lewis pointed out, the conditioners are also human, but in denial that they too are vulnerable to the same frailties as everyone else. Their danger lies in the fact that they are oblivious about their frailties, especially their moral frailties.

It is good that humans have bodies that limit us to one location and the need for food, sleep, and friendship. These limits are part of our design. Because we are designed, we must be guided by values and not merely algorithms. It is good that we take time to learn, to appreciate beauty, to feel wonder, and to have burning questions about what is behind all that we see. God made us this way, so that, eventually, our seeking would lead back to Him. Though He intends to redeem us from the ravages of sin, He never intends to optimize us into efficient machines. Apparently, He considers being human as something “good,” even “very good.” So much so, in fact, He took on flesh Himself.

Wall-E got it (mostly) right. Technology is good but needs a telos—a purpose for existing. That purpose cannot be to replace, transcend, or circumvent God’s good design for human beings.

In short, technology and public policy should be human-shaped, not the other way around. [source]

Amen.

Would the Discovery of Alien Life Disprove Christianity?

From Breakpoint.org (Jan. 18, 2024):

Among the unexpected stories of 2023 was a renewed interest in all things extraterrestrial: from images of alien corpses; to retired high-ranking military officials claiming secret government programs launched to capture UFOs; to a strange encounter with Las Vegas police officers. The public interest in whether there’s anything out there is as high as ever. But what would the existence of alien life mean for Christianity?

That’s the question tackled in a brand new video, part of the What Would You Say? series, called “What Does the Bible Say About Aliens?”

Many people assume that if any evidence were to be discovered for extraterrestrial life, it would be devastating to the Christian worldview. However, according to my colleague, Shane Morris, that’s not necessarily the case. In fact, according to Shane, “There’s nothing in the Christian view of the world that excludes the possibility that God created life on other planets.” In this video, Shane offers three things to keep in mind. First, that “despite the hype of science fiction and decades of searching, there is currently no evidence for life on other planets.”

[A]fter decades of looking and listening and exploring the heavens for that life, we’ve come up empty-handed. So much so, in fact, that physicists and astronomers have named the emptiness the Fermi Paradox, which refers to “the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence.” In other words, if life happens easily, “Where is everybody?”

[Peter] Ward and his co-author, Donald Brownlee, argue in Rare Earth that life doesn’t happen that easily, and assuming that it does is the real mistake. At least a dozen special conditions found on our planet are probably necessary for the existence of intelligent life, including a precise orbital distance from our star, heavy elements, liquid water, a moon, a magnetic field, not too much gravity, a nearby gas giant, and having a star like our Sun, which, as it turns out, is anything but “ordinary.”

Shane’s second point is that “even if intelligent life were found elsewhere in the universe, it wouldn’t necessarily present a problem for Christianity.”

Before Star Trek or Star Wars existed, C.S. Lewis wrote his Space Trilogy. In it, he famously imagined alien races that never fell into sin. And in a few essays, Lewis wrestled with whether the existence of real-life extraterrestrials would threaten Christianity. According to Lewis, the Bible never says God created the vast cosmos only for humans. …

For Lewis, intelligent aliens created and loved by God posed no problem, nor would they contradict the Bible. In the same essay, he cautioned that the Bible was not intended to satisfy our curiosity about such things but as an instruction manual for salvation. But he also warned that humans are in no position to tell God what He can and cannot do with His vast universe.

And finally, Shane states that “the Bible teaches that there are other beings in the universe, but they’re not what materialists expect, and they do not always come in peace.”

Some biblical scholars, like the late Dr. Michael Heiser, have suggested that some alleged alien encounters may be the result of demonic activity and possession. After all, in 2 Corinthians 11:14 Paul warned that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

This means that Christians need not believe every story of alien abductions or close encounters, but we need not immediately dismiss them as jokes or conspiracy theories. Christianity teaches that we are not alone in the universe, that it is full of intelligent entities, both good and evil, and that all were created by and remain under the power of God.

The existence of extraterrestrial life is still speculation, but the Christian worldview has more room for mysteries than our secular, materialist age does. It offers a bigger, more thorough, and more satisfying explanation for the universe.

That was Shane Morris answering the question, “What Does the Bible Say About Aliens?”

To see the whole video and to share it with others, go to whatwouldyousay.org. Or, you can look up the What Would You Say? channel on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe to be notified each time a new video is released. [source]

Food for thought. Alien life is always a possibility.

Christian NGO Welcomes Release of Pastor Held in Southern China

From Newsmax.com (July 5):

ChinaAid, a Christian NGO, said on Sunday it welcomed the release of Zion Church Pastor Jin Mingri, who had been held in detention centers in the southern Chinese ‌city of Beihai since last October ​and arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Eighteen leaders of the major underground church, including Jin, ⁠were arrested last November and charged with ​the crime of "illegally using information networks."

Jin's daughter Grace ⁠told Reuters on Sunday that eight members of the Zion Church are still detained in China.

"ChinaAid welcomes with profound gratitude ‌the release of imprisoned Chinese house church ​pastor Ezra Jin, ‌who arrived safely in Los Angeles on July 4, 2026," the ‌NGO said in a statement that used Jin's English first name.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment ‌sent outside work ⁠hours.

President Donald Trump had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping ⁠for ⁠Jin's release during his May trip to Beijing, Grace Jin said.

"We know ‌that this could not have happened without the direct intervention from Chairman Xi Jinping. We hope this is ‌a signal ​of a positive ‌turn for people of faith in China and relations between our two nations," said a ​separate family statement shared with Reuters. [source]

That is great news!  Welcome back home!

True Authenticity

From Breakpoint.org (Sept. 11, 2023):

A year ago, The Economist urged readers not to bring their “whole selves” to work. While some corporate gurus suggest that we make work feel more like home, the authors beg to differ.

Your professional self displays commitment to the job and eats lunch at a desk. Your whole self is planning the next holiday and binges ice cream on the sofa. Your professional self makes presentations to the board and says things like: “Let’s get the analytics team to kick the t[i]res on this.” Your whole self cannot operate a toaster and says things like: “Has anyone seen my socks?” Pretending to be someone you are not is not a problem; it’s essential.

That description speaks to what lies at the heart of the modern re-definition of “authenticity.” From counselors pushing transgender ideology on kids, to Christians deconstructing faith, to the recent trend of “quiet quitting,” many people today think that true authenticity is the only means to real happiness. It means always expressing our feelings, always feeling completely supported in whatever we say or do, and rejecting any relationship that asks us to do otherwise.

The problem, as the late Tim Keller once illustrated, is that this understanding of authenticity is based on a faulty premise.

Imagine an Anglo-Saxon warrior in Britain in AD 800. He has two very strong inner impulses and feelings. One is aggression. He loves to smash and kill people when they show him disrespect. Living in a shame-and-honour culture with its warrior ethic, he will identify with that feeling. He will say to himself, That’s me! That’s who I am! I will express that. The other feeling he senses is same-sex attraction. To that he will say, That’s not me. I will control and suppress that impulse.

Now imagine a young man walking around Manhattan today. He has the same two inward impulses, both equally strong, both difficult to control. What will he say? He will look at the aggression and think, This is not who I want to be, and will seek deliverance in therapy and anger-management programmes. He will look at his sexual desire, however, and conclude, That is who I am.

As Keller concluded, none of us simply choose to “be ourselves” in a vacuum. We constantly sift through contradictory feelings and evaluate them in the light of our values, which are often absorbed from our cultural setting.

The modern vision of “authenticity” is not born merely from an alternative understanding of morality, but from an alternative understanding of anthropology. In a world that has largely rejected God and objective truth as external realities, people increasingly turn inwards in deciding who they are and what they should do.

Any true understanding of self must begin by looking outward and upward, not inward. In the end, we may find conflict between what is true and how we feel. We must choose what is true. As Biola professor Erik Thoennes put it,

There’s this idea that to live out of conformity with how I feel is hypocrisy; but that’s a wrong definition of hypocrisy. … To live out of conformity to what I believe is hypocrisy. To live in conformity with what I believe, in spite of what I feel, isn’t hypocrisy; it’s integrity.

In her latest book Live Your Truth and Other Lies, author and apologist Alisa Childers points out another problem with a feelings-first version of authenticity: I can’t love myself if I’m fooling myself about who I actually am. If I deny that there is something wrong with humanity (and thus, myself), the kind of love I will offer myself will be the opposite of authentic. It will be artificial authenticity.

While it is completely out of step to think this, Scripture is clear that “the heart is deceitful above all things.” Today’s worship of authenticity requires that we lie to ourselves about this difficult reality. If we do, however, we will never truly know who we are and how we should live. [source]

Good advice to take to heart.

My truth, your truth, or the truth? How wokeness undermines the concept of truth itself

From Breakpoint.org (Jan. 19, 2024):

In an interview with The Harvard Crimson, the disgraced plagiarist and ex-president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, used some interesting language about “truth” — language that should make any Christian’s eyebrows pop up.

She said, “What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged …Substantively, I failed to convey what is my truth.”

But the use of the phrase “my truth” isn’t only found among the progressive left these days. In one of the Republican presidential primary debates, Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador, outlined her (rather weak) position on abortion and claimed to be pro-life. Later, when facing criticism for not being pro-life enough at a candidates forum in Iowa, she said “What you heard me say at the debate was very much my truth.”

This raises a serious question: Since when did truth become something that needs to be modified with a personal possessive pronoun?

Christian apologist Frank Turek, perhaps having witnessed these strange personal modifications to the concept of truth, recently asked on X (formerly Twitter), “What do you say to people when they talk about ‘their truth?’”

Ryan Helfenbein, Executive Director of the Standing for Freedom Center, gave an excellent answer:

“There is no ‘your’ truth or ‘my’ truth. There is only ever one universal and absolute truth. The language of postmodernity and indeed Wokism, is a total affront and assault on truth.

Jesus said, ‘I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ John 14:6. Appreciate this question from @DrFrankTurek.”

There is no “your” truth or “my” truth. There is only ever one universal and absolute truth. The language of postmodernity and indeed Wokism, is a total affront and assault on truth.

Jesus said, “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through… https://t.co/kCNfgAluj9

— Ryan Helfenbein (@RHelfenbein) January 3, 2024

Ryan is right. There is only “one universal and absolute truth.” And there is only one being in the universe who has a right to make a personal claim on that truth — the Triune Creator God.

But in today’s increasingly secular world, the concept of truth has become blurred. The rise of postmodernism and its offspring, wokeness, have contributed significantly to this confusion. As Christians, it is essential to understand the implications of these ideologies and how they impact our understanding of truth. Let’s explore the concept of this sort of subjective truth from a Christian worldview and examine how wokeness undermines the very idea of objective truth.

The Christian understanding of truth

The Bible, as the foundation of the Christian faith, provides a clear understanding of truth. In John 14:6, as Ryan referenced, Jesus declares, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” This statement reveals that Jesus is the embodiment of truth and that truth is not a concept or an abstract idea but a fixed reality determined by God and miraculously embodied in Jesus Christ through the incarnation.

Moreover, the Bible teaches that truth is not relative but absolute. In John 8:32, Jesus says,

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

This statement teaches us in no uncertain terms that there is a single, objective truth that can be known and that this truth has the power to liberate us from the chaos and confusion of the world — and, more importantly, from our sin and rebellion against the God of truth. [read more]

Wokeness like Marxism (which wokeness is a variation actually) is a mental virus which needs to be eliminated.

Why Young Americans Are Not Taught About Evil

From Real Clear Politics.com (August 29, 2023):

Most of our schools teach almost nothing of importance, and nothing is more important than the study of good and evil. In the United States today, nearly all schools, from elementary through graduate, concentrate on teaching about racism, sexism, preferred pronouns, homophobia, transphobia, LGBTQIA+, climate change, diversity, equity, inclusiveness and white guilt. In other words, most of our educational institutions, including the most prestigious, do not educate.

Here are a few proofs.

It is almost certain that the great majority of American high school and college students (with the obvious exceptions of Christian students) could not name the Four Gospels (presuming they even know what they are); five of the Ten Commandments (presuming they know what those are); or the names of two Shakespeare plays. Most American students know little about the American Revolution, let alone about the French or Russian Revolutions. The same holds true for the Constitution and every other American founding document. It is doubtful that, other than Washington and Jefferson having owned slaves, American students know anything about these men or could name two other Founders.

When it comes to evil, the ignorance is enormous, often almost total. For example, according to Pew, about half of Americans ages 18-39 cannot identify Auschwitz or any other Nazi death camp. And there is every reason to assume that much fewer than half could identify the Gulag Archipelago (20 million-plus murdered); the Ukrainian forced famine (5 to 6 million murdered in a little over a year); Mao's Great Leap Forward (about 60 million murdered); or Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (about one in every four Cambodians murdered).

As noted, almost no one outside of Russia has ever heard of the Russian Civil War, let alone knows anything about it. One reason is that the winners, the communists, had no desire that people know about it. Yet, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, about 10 million people, the great majority noncombatants, were killed.

Why don't students know about evil?

The first reason is that nearly all the genocides of the 20th century were committed by communists, and the Left, which runs virtually all educational institutions, has always had a soft spot for communism. If people were to recognize that communism has been the greatest source of evil in the modern age in terms of numbers murdered, number of lives destroyed, liberty stolen, and the sheer amount of human suffering inflicted (greater by those metrics than those of the Nazis before they were forcibly stopped), the Left would lose much of its appeal.

Another reason is the foolish notion that people are basically good. This has been a left-wing belief since the French Enlightenment leader Jean-Jacques Rousseau came up with the idea. As he wrote in his book, "On Philosophy, Morality, and Religion," "Man is a naturally good being, loving justice and order; there is no natural perversity in the human heart... All the vices imputed to the human heart are not natural to it."

This nonsense had been foreign to the Western mind. Its view of humanity was rooted in the Bible, and neither Bible-based religion -- Judaism or Christianity -- affirmed the goodness of the human heart. As Genesis states, "The will of man's heart is evil from his youth," and the rest of the Bible repeatedly warns us against following our hearts.

However, as the West began to abandon the Bible, including belief in the God of the Bible, Westerners began to believe in man. As Marx put it, "Man is God." People had no choice. For if there is no God to believe in, one must believe in man -- or one has literally nothing to believe in. Therefore, belief in man's inherent goodness became both psychologically and philosophically necessary.

A third reason follows from the second. With the exception of the mass murder of the Armenians (which was committed by Muslim Turks), the genocides and the other horrors of the 20th century were committed by secular regimes. Given the centrality of secularism to leftism, this fact has been kept from young people. Likewise, the fact that all these genocides were committed by big governments is not taught to young people because big government is also central to left-wing ideology. In other words, a true depiction of the evils of the 20th century would mean the end of the two pillars of left-wing ideology: secularism and big government.

If you want to make a more moral world, you must begin with the study of evil. But, for the reasons enumerated here, the Left is not -- and cannot be -- interested in fighting real evil. So, the Left fights made-up evils: American systemic racism, transphobia, capitalism, carbon emissions, sexism and former President Donald Trump, to name a few.

This is why young people know almost nothing about evil. The Left doesn't want them to know about it. Because knowledge of evil inevitably leads directly to rejection of the Left. [source]

Great points. Dennis Prager's last comment sums his essay up quite nicely: "This is why young people know almost nothing about evil. The Left doesn't want them to know about it. Because knowledge of evil inevitably leads directly to rejection of the Left."

Transhumanism is a Christian Heresy (and a False Gospel)

From Break Point.org (Aug. 1, 2025):

One of the clearest proofs that Christianity addresses the fundamental problems of humanity is the bizarre lengths to which non-Christians will go to address those same problems without Christ. For example, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, former CEO of PayPal, recently went on Ross Douthat’s “Interesting Times” podcast to discuss AI, Mars, immortality, and other light topics. The conversation was genuinely interesting, especially when Douthat asked, “Should the human race continue?” Thiel paused and said “um” and “I don’t know” quite a few times.

“This is a long hesitation!” observed Douthat, laughing nervously.

Finally, Thiel explained that humanity should survive, but that there are problems in need of solving. Chief among those is death, he said, which transhumanists have long hoped to conquer via a “radical transformation” of the human body into an “immortal body.”

The problem with efforts like transgenderism, in Thiel’s opinion, isn’t that they change bodies too radically, but not radically enough: “[W]e want more transformation than that. … We want you to be able to change your heart and change your mind and change your whole body.” Thiel then pointed to Christianity and its doctrines of Redemption and Resurrection as precedent for the transhumanist idea of total self-transformation and conquest of death. Maybe, he hinted, the two philosophies aren’t so different.

Douthat, a Roman Catholic, pushed back, pointing out that according to Christianity, God does the transforming. “The person,” Douthat said, “who tries to do it on their own with a bunch of machines is likely to end up a dystopian character.” Do-it-yourself immortality is, at best, “a heretical form of Christianity.”

Theil’s fundamental assumption, which is foreign to the Bible and Christianity but common among tech futurists and transhumanists, is that our minds are more important and fundamental than our bodies. Our “true selves” are our minds and separable from who we are physically.

Not only is this assumption a rehashed version of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, it also creepily resembles the philosophy of the evil National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (or N.I.C.E.) from C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength. In the story, Dr. Filostrato hopes to cleanse the world of organic life, replacing trees, birds, and even human bodies with machines. He even proposed something akin to uploading human consciousness.

That’s not to say that transhumanists like Thiel are involved in an intergalactic conspiracy run by demons speaking through a disembodied Head, as in the book. At least not knowingly. But the transhumanist’s urge to overcome human limits, become more machine-like, and live forever is eerily similar. As is their rhetoric.

It’s also notable that, unlike anti-humanists on the Left, transhumanists assume the human race is worth preserving. Elon Musk, for example, thinks it’s our duty to have as many babies as possible, by any means necessary. He also thinks that humans should be the ones to colonize other planets. In a sense, he acknowledges that humans are exceptional, in a way at least similar to how Scripture describes humans.

Yet, his view of human exceptionalism has a “you will be like God” promise to it, and a sense that all human problems are technical glitches to be overcome by innovation and engineering. So, our mortality can be solved through “radical transformation” of our bodies. Our fragile fertility can be solved through IVF. Our lack of knowledge can be solved through AI, and our limits can be overcome by the technologies pioneered by Thiel and others like him.

Theil’s company Palantir was named, without any apparent irony, after the “seeing stones” in The Lord of the Rings that corrupt all who gaze into them.

Humans were made in the image of God and, as such, were made to be like Him and live forever. Death is “the last enemy,” and our longing for immortality is core to who we are. Perhaps this is why transhumanist promises are so compelling. However, we were made to do and receive all this through God, not our own ingenuity.

Transhumanism, it turns out, is indeed a Christian heresy, an ideology that rightly identifies the problems of a fallen world. But it seeks to overcome them with a false gospel of technological godhood, rather than the true gospel of salvation through Christ.

God willing, Thiel’s openness to Christianity and his conversations with Christians will move him to accept his need for Christ. Until then, believers should be fully aware that the transhumanist gospel is a false one. Only Christ can change our hearts, change our minds, and change our whole bodies … not a tech billionaire. [source]

Transhumanists fear death. Their ego (living forever) might come into play too.

Another article on transhumanism:

Our Transhumanist, Sci-Fi Future Has Arrived. But You’re Not Going To Like It

Transhumanism is a Christian Heresy (and a False Gospel)

From Breakpoint.org (Aug. 1, 2025):

One of the clearest proofs that Christianity addresses the fundamental problems of humanity is the bizarre lengths to which non-Christians will go to address those same problems without Christ. For example, tech billionaire Peter Thiel, former CEO of PayPal, recently went on Ross Douthat’s “Interesting Times” podcast to discuss AI, Mars, immortality, and other light topics. The conversation was genuinely interesting, especially when Douthat asked, “Should the human race continue?” Thiel paused and said “um” and “I don’t know” quite a few times.

“This is a long hesitation!” observed Douthat, laughing nervously.

Finally, Thiel explained that humanity should survive, but that there are problems in need of solving. Chief among those is death, he said, which transhumanists have long hoped to conquer via a “radical transformation” of the human body into an “immortal body.”

The problem with efforts like transgenderism, in Thiel’s opinion, isn’t that they change bodies too radically, but not radically enough: “[W]e want more transformation than that. … We want you to be able to change your heart and change your mind and change your whole body.” Thiel then pointed to Christianity and its doctrines of Redemption and Resurrection as precedent for the transhumanist idea of total self-transformation and conquest of death. Maybe, he hinted, the two philosophies aren’t so different.

Douthat, a Roman Catholic, pushed back, pointing out that according to Christianity, God does the transforming. “The person,” Douthat said, “who tries to do it on their own with a bunch of machines is likely to end up a dystopian character.” Do-it-yourself immortality is, at best, “a heretical form of Christianity.”

Theil’s fundamental assumption, which is foreign to the Bible and Christianity but common among tech futurists and transhumanists, is that our minds are more important and fundamental than our bodies. Our “true selves” are our minds and separable from who we are physically.

Not only is this assumption a rehashed version of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, it also creepily resembles the philosophy of the evil National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (or N.I.C.E.) from C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength. In the story, Dr. Filostrato hopes to cleanse the world of organic life, replacing trees, birds, and even human bodies with machines. He even proposed something akin to uploading human consciousness.

That’s not to say that transhumanists like Thiel are involved in an intergalactic conspiracy run by demons speaking through a disembodied Head, as in the book. At least not knowingly. But the transhumanist’s urge to overcome human limits, become more machine-like, and live forever is eerily similar. As is their rhetoric.

It’s also notable that, unlike anti-humanists on the Left, transhumanists assume the human race is worth preserving. Elon Musk, for example, thinks it’s our duty to have as many babies as possible, by any means necessary. He also thinks that humans should be the ones to colonize other planets. In a sense, he acknowledges that humans are exceptional, in a way at least similar to how Scripture describes humans.

Yet, his view of human exceptionalism has a “you will be like God” promise to it, and a sense that all human problems are technical glitches to be overcome by innovation and engineering. So, our mortality can be solved through “radical transformation” of our bodies. Our fragile fertility can be solved through IVF. Our lack of knowledge can be solved through AI, and our limits can be overcome by the technologies pioneered by Thiel and others like him.

Theil’s company Palantir was named, without any apparent irony, after the “seeing stones” in The Lord of the Rings that corrupt all who gaze into them.

Humans were made in the image of God and, as such, were made to be like Him and live forever. Death is “the last enemy,” and our longing for immortality is core to who we are. Perhaps this is why transhumanist promises are so compelling. However, we were made to do and receive all this through God, not our own ingenuity.

Transhumanism, it turns out, is indeed a Christian heresy, an ideology that rightly identifies the problems of a fallen world. But it seeks to overcome them with a false gospel of technological godhood, rather than the true gospel of salvation through Christ.

God willing, Thiel’s openness to Christianity and his conversations with Christians will move him to accept his need for Christ. Until then, believers should be fully aware that the transhumanist gospel is a false one. Only Christ can change our hearts, change our minds, and change our whole bodies … not a tech billionaire. [source]

Transhumanists fear death. Their ego (living forever) might come into play too.

Another article on transhumanism:

Our Transhumanist, Sci-Fi Future Has Arrived. But You’re Not Going To Like It

Preach Christianity’s Weird Stuff

From Breakpoint.org (Dec. 10, 2020):

An agnostic historian just offered some interesting advice to Christians who want to be heard in a skeptical culture: “Preach the weird stuff.”

In a recent video interview with Glen Scrivener of Speak Life, Tom Holland, the award-winning historian of the ancient world and author of the book Dominion, said that Christians shouldn’t shy away from the things that make the Faith unique. For example, the idea that Jesus of Nazareth is both God and man, said Holland, “sets everything on its head.” In fact, it is the Incarnation that provides what Holland calls Christianity’s “strange singularity.”

Christians, especially in light of modern sensibilities, are tempted to downplay the supernatural dimension of the faith. Yet Holland asserts that Christians should insist on things like angels, demons, and miracles. Not only are these beliefs non-negotiable within historic, confessional Christianity, they are foundational to much of the world’s great art and literature. Christianity’s greatest contributions, the ones that literally transformed the world, as Holland documented in Dominion, are grounded in “the weird stuff” of Christianity.

Even better, these truths have stood the test of time. Perhaps that’s because they’re true!

In the early third century, the church father Tertullian wrote that the death and resurrection of Christ “is entirely credible, because it is unfitting . . . [and] it is certain, because it is impossible.” Tertullian understood that Christianity makes claims that people will find, at best, weird, and, at worst, offensive.

Even back then, people tried to make Christianity more palatable to contemporary ears. For example, the Gnostics, thinking the Incarnation and bodily resurrection were philosophical non-starters for the pagan world, remade Jesus into a sage and dispenser of hidden wisdom, and His physical resurrection into a spiritual one.

Fifteen hundred years later, in the so-called “Age of Enlightenment,” Christian ideas like the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, miracles, and the authority of Scripture were deemed to be insurmountable stumbling blocks for sophisticated minds, so, attempts were made, once again, to reinvent Jesus and Christianity to suit the spirit of the age: Jesus was a great teacher but not Divine, miracles had “reasonable” explanations, and Scripture could be scientifically scrutinized but still teach good morals.

Of course, the Jeffersonian attempts to remove the supernatural left no reason to accord Jesus a higher status than any other moral teacher or philosopher, despite the best attempts of people such as Friedrich Schleiermacher to win the intellectual approval of Christianity’s “cultured despisers.”

In other words, reimagining Jesus and Christianity to appeal to skeptics and unbelievers is nothing new. The result is always the same: We end up with a Jesus who looks nothing like the Jesus of history but looks an awful lot like the person doing the reinventing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, many American churches attempted to become “relevant” by embracing fashionable political causes while downplaying and even denying historic Christian orthodoxy. These churches have been hemorrhaging members ever since. Today, many have chosen to reimagine Jesus into the image of a social revolutionary or as a champion of the sexual revolution. Many of these churches face extinction.

Scholars may debate (and they do) whether or not the loss of members is caused by these attempts to be relevant, but a church that merely repeats the New York Times doesn’t give anyone a compelling reason to get out of bed on Sunday morning. Why sit through a boring sermon when there’s NPR?

What’s relevant to the larger culture will always be a moving target. As William Inge, the Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, once put it, “Whoever marries the spirit of this age will find himself a widower in the next.” Trying to win the approval of non-Christians by changing the message of Christianity is as much of a waste of time as it was in Tertullian’s day. Plus, the message of Christianity is True, which means we don’t have to make it relevant. It already is relevant—to reality!

Tom Holland is right. Let’s preach the Truth. God exists. Miracles happen. Jesus is God incarnate. He actually rose from the dead. Teach that He cares how we live, that He’s coming again to judge both the living and dead. You know, all that “weird stuff.” [source]

Amen. Jesus is interesting and fascinating. Don’t make Him ordinary. Don’t assume your audience will want to understand/know Him that way.

'Trap from the 'devil': Priest warns Christians not to play 'Holy Spirit' Ouija board game

From Christian Post.com (Apr. 14, 2023):

A new board game marketed as a “Christian” version of the Ouija board has been criticized as satanic and a "trap from the devil."

Named “The Holy Spirit Board by Holy Spirit Games - Christian Religious Talking Board for Séance with Planchette,” the game advertises itself on Amazon as a way to help people talk directly to "our lord and savior Jesus Christ!"

“GET THE ANSWERS YOU NEED! — The Holy Spirit Board can answer all of life’s most important questions, straight from the man himself!” the board's description adds. "Unlike other spirit boards that are often used to contact ghosts and demons, this is a one way ticket straight to heaven."

While the board's layout looks similar to a Ouija board, it differs by including an image of Jesus crucified on the cross, three angels, a dove and a cross to be moved around on the board.

In a recent interview with EWTN's "News Nightly," Roman Catholic Father Ernesto Caro of the Diocese of Monterey, Mexico, who's also an exorcist, criticized the board game as a “trap from the devil.” 

“The devil is always looking for different ways he can trap all the victims that he can take for him. And this is one,” Caro said in the segment. “Ouija games and all this are forbidden in the Bible.”

Caro said the Holy Spirit Board was created to deceive Catholics and Christians by using religious imagery they're familiar with. He warned that it's no different than a Ouija board deployed to capture believers. “Ouija games ... and all this are forbidden in the Bible.”

The priest further warned that the board could potentially start “opening a door that could be dangerous for you" and that a player might "think that it is God who is talking with you, but it’s not. If the [Ouija board] triangle is moving by itself, be careful. It’s not God who is moving; it’s the devil,” Caro added.

The Catholic Church rejects and condemns the use of Ouija boards labeling it an occult participation and divination, according to No. 2116 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

"All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all … contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone," states the Catechism.

When host Tracy Sabol asked Caro what people should do if they have bought the game, Caro said they should dispose of the board as quickly as possible, go to confession and “repent and ask God for liberation” through a priest’s blessings for protection. [source]

Probably not a good idea. A person might conjure up an evil spirit or even a demon like the Zozo. You never really know.

Walking miracle: Man falls 400 feet in Hawaii, survives and now at MIT

From Jerry Newcombe on Christian Post.com (Mar. 24, 2023):

Recently I met a man who is a “walking miracle.” A survivor of a horrible accident, 55-year-old Danny Yamashiro, a pastor’s son and native of Hawaii, is grateful for every day of life.

Danny’s website tells what happened: “At 18, he survived a deadly 400 foot fall from the famed Pali ridge in Hawaii. Rescuing his girlfriend from a 20 foot fall, Danny slipped and fell head first 300 feet and later another 100 feet. He suffered traumatic brain injuries (skull fractures, torn scalp), a shattered ankle, smashed organs, extensive lacerations, and being comatose. A spiritual awakening impacted his recovery.”

Danny’s story is highlighted in an article in Listverse.com about 10 people that survived precipitous falls from great heights: “Despite being severely injured, Yamashiro clung to life while rescue workers attempted to retrieve him. As the rescuers moved down the mountain, Yamashiro shifted his weight on the ledge causing him to fall another 30 meters (100 ft).”

They add, “While he did survive both falls and go on to make a full recovery (as well as a successful career in televangelism), the ordeal didn’t leave him unscathed. Yamashiro sustained an array of life-threatening injuries.”

How could someone survive such an accident?

I got to interview Danny on the radio recently. We pick up right after he was rescued in 1985 from the fall: “The doctors told my parents, ‘It doesn’t look good. If he makes it through the night, surely he will be in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.’ And that was my turning point where the Lord intervened. I needed to learn to walk, talk, eat right. I couldn’t even breathe on my own at the time.”

I asked him to walk me through his eventual healing. “The recovery took a long time. I went through a deep period of several years of dark depression. I had major swings in my emotions. The Lord took me through that. It was a real breaking time — breaking emotionally, psychologically.

“But Biola University in Southern California played a very big role in my healing process, and at the same time grounding me in the Word. I was a biblical studies theology major.”

However, there were certainly times of doubt. Danny told me, “During my college years, there were times when I would actually ask the Lord, ‘Why did you save me? Why did you not just take me?’ It was so painful. And I was so confused. And I remember the Lord whispering to me, ‘Danny, one day I’m going to release you.’ And what I got by that was a sense of hope.”

Danny remembered the Scripture verse that says, “He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” And that and other Scriptures (such as Isaiah 43:18-19) greatly encouraged him.

He says, “We talk about going to school and getting educated. But the brokenness was a different kind of education that has allowed me in a very unusual way to connect with people. I don’t even have to say things, and people get a sense where I know what they’re going through. It’s like my brokenness, my suffering allows me to relate with others where they are in their deepest, darkest times.”

He adds, “I think about our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief,’ and I think, ‘Wow, there’s some profound thoughts that go along and the relatability when we go through that kind of suffering.’”

Since his complete recovery, Danny has been involved in preaching the Gospel in Hawaii, in Africa, in Asia, the Middle East, and in Latin America. He has earned a Ph.D. at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. About 10 years ago, he went on to advanced studies at Harvard, where he received a standing ovation when he spoke upon graduation.

Today, he serves as an evangelical chaplain at M.I.T., where he is the co-chairperson of the Cambridge Roundtable on Science and Religion. They engage in dialogue with the faculty on science and religion. This includes participants from M.I.T. and Harvard.

He views these dialogues as “gateways to share the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Danny also hosts a regular Christian radio program based in the Boston area.

Any student of early American history knows that there were many examples of God’s Providence shining on this nation. George Washington said that Americans in particular should be grateful for the way God miraculously helped become a nation.

Dr. Danny Yamashiro, a walking miracle, experienced new life out of near death. I happened to meet him during Lent, which may be viewed as a season of miracles. After all, at this time, we celebrate the crowning event of all time, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. [source]

Indeed. That is a miracle.

Chinese province’s new ‘Smart Religion' app makes Christians register to attend worship services

From Christian Post.com (Mar. 11, 2023):

Christians in China's populous Henan province are now reportedly required to register on a government app to attend worship services and must make online reservations before taking part in worship, according to a report from a U.S.-based human rights group.

The app, called "Smart Religion" and developed by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Henan Province, asks believers to give personal information, including their name, phone number, government ID number, permanent residence, occupation and date of birth to receive approval to attend a service, ChinaAid reported this week.

It's a requirement not only for churches but also mosques and Buddhist temples, states the group, which documents religious persecution in China and supports Chinese prisoners of conscience.

Henan has one of the largest Christian populations in China. Local Christians say the cumbersome application procedures have reduced the number of believers attending churches. According to the Texas-based nongovernmental organization, many elderly people and those less tech-savvy may find it challenging to access the app. However, officials say such people will be assisted.

Once allowed into a place of worship, believers must also have their temperature taken, the group said, commenting that the app may be related in some way to COVID-19 restrictions.

ChinaAid contends these management measures were not implemented to protect people's religious rights but rather as a means to achieve political purposes.

"This so-called 'Smart Religion' online application has been officially launched in some parts of Henan. In August 2022, the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Puyang County in Henan and the Henan Billion Second Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. signed a project contract for the 'Construction of an Independent Command Platform for the Management of Smart Religion,'" China Aid Special Correspondent Gao Zhensaithe wrote.

"According to the official website of the Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs of China, as early as July 2020, at the symposium on the construction of a religious big data management platform held in Henan, several platform projects, such as the construction of 'Smart Religion,' were inspected. The digital platform is the foundation of the religious affairs management improvement project, and the China Construction Bank of the Henan Branch provided technical support."

China only recognizes five religious groups that submit to the government's influence. Christians from unregistered churches bear the brunt of the persecution.

In a report released last month, ChinaAid said the Chinese Communist Party intensified the persecution of churches and Christians leading up to the 20th Party Congress in 2022.

"Fraud" charges being brought against house church pastors and leaders in mainland China had increased, with the traditional practice of tithing and offering in churches being seen as an illegal activity, the report said.

The authorities allegedly used the updated "Measures for the Financial Management of Religious Activity Venues," implemented last June, to fabricate charges against house churches.

"We are gravely concerned about how the Communist regime also treats the State-sanctioned church," ChinaAid's President and Founder Bob Fu said in a statement. "Previously, they asked for sole allegiance to the Communist Party, but since the 20th National Party Congress, they shifted their emphasis to aligning with Xi Jinping."

"Their goal," he added, "is not only to curate a 'socialist-friendly' church; they hope to erase it. The international community needs to know about these trends and developments as China continues to rise on the global stage."

The Chinese Communist Party remains focused on religious sinicization.

"Before, during, and after the opening of the Congress, China's state-run religious groups lavished compliments and praise on Xi with more extravagant words and phrases than China's state-run media, showing that religious Sinicization is evolving from supporting the CCP to worship and allegiance to Xi Jinping," the report added.

The Chinese government also implemented strict regulations against religious content on the internet, which ChinaAid contends was aimed at "removing Christianity from cyberspace." The group stresses that Christians have faced "unprecedented" online censorship since the implementation of the "Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information and Services" in 2022.

China is ranked as the 16th worst country when it comes to Christian persecution, according to the 2023 Open Doors World Watch List.

"Tightening restrictions and increasing surveillance are putting Christians in China under intensifying pressure, as the Communist Party seeks to limits all threats to its power," Open Doors, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, states in a factsheet. [source]

Just terrible, then that’s the Chi-Coms for you. Always persecuting.

Romans 13 and the American Revolution

From The Public Discourse.com (May 14):

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Christians are once again debating the moral significance of the American Founding. Was the American Revolution an act of justified resistance, or a failure of obedience?

On a first reading, Scripture seems to leave little room for ambiguity; Romans chapter 13 declares, in no uncertain terms: “be subject to the governing authorities.” This came at a time of Roman oppression and persecution of Christians, yet Paul still describes Caesar and the government as a magistrate intended to maintain order, “the one in authority … God’s servant for your good.”

Many American Christians nevertheless have long believed the Revolution, the ultimate act of resistance to the crown’s authority, was not only permissible, but righteous. But the Revolution, and in connection, the Founding, did not conform to one single theological vision. It produced competing views, some grounded in rights, others in order, and still others in providence. The tension between these three approaches creates downstream questions, like the role of faith in public life. How should Christians engage in public life, and to what extent is the American experiment a godly enterprise? Revisiting the Founding’s approaches can clarify what faithful political judgment requires today.

Rights First

The rights-first approach aligns most closely with the political philosophy of John Locke. This approach views liberty as a birthright and upholds the concept of government by consent. This approach is exemplified by John Allen’s Oration Upon the Beauties of Liberty, which was delivered from a distinctively Baptist-separatist standpoint. Allen stresses the right of everyone to freedom, “according to their own sphere of life,” and the crown’s actions taking away the birthright of its citizens as being “contrary to the spirit of the law and the rights of an Englishman.” For Allen, monarchy is legitimate only insofar as it rests on the will and consent of the people; for him, it exists primarily to secure individual freedoms.

Allen invokes Scripture in suggesting law as the prerequisite and standard for government, arguing that “where there is no Law, there is no transgression.” Though framed in biblical language, Allen’s argument is unmistakably Lockean: liberty grounded in rights, consent as the basis of authority, and resistance justified by arbitrary power, with tyranny constituting an effective dissolution of political obligation. Instead of submitting Scripture to sustained exegesis, Allen isolates particular themes to the detriment of Romans 13:5’s insistence that subjection is owed “not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.”

In America’s Appeal to the Impartial World, congregational minister Moses Mather uses similarly Lockean language of God-given natural rights, stating: “Free agency, or a rational existence, with its powers and faculties … is the gift of God to man … hence man hath an absolute property in, and right of dominion over himself.” This leads to an argument for government based on consent and a general principle of non-coercion, whereby “whatever is absolutely the property of a man, he cannot be divested of, but by his own voluntary act, or consent, either expressed, or implied.” This lays the groundwork for civil authority as by the “voice and consent” of the people.

This view sits uneasily with Romans 13, placing ultimate authority in the people’s consent alone. Mather ultimately urges colonists to “withstand and repel the attacks of tyranny,” once again baptizing Lockean categories more than offering a distinctively Christian account of political resistance. [read more]

Happy 250th Birthday, America! 😊💓🎆

Iranian Christians join protests over woman’s beating death: Reports

From Washington Times.com (Oct. 21, 2022):

Five weeks of street protests in Iran have attracted and emboldened the Islamic republic’s Christian minority, human rights advocates said Thursday.

More than 300 Iranian Christians took the unusual step of releasing a public letter protesting the regime as a “bloodthirsty infection” on the nation, Lela Gilbert, senior fellow for international religious freedom at the Family Research Council, told a webinar sponsored by the group Save the Persecuted Christians.

Ms. Gilbert said Christian believers are stepping forward to join protests over the treatment of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, who died last month in the custody of Iran’s “morality police” after being detained for reportedly wearing the mandatory headscarf incorrectly in public.

Ms. Gilbert said the protest letter “is the first time the Christian community, not just women, men and women, has made a statement against the regime.”

She estimates that “at least a million Christians” in Iran have converted from Islam, although others believe the number is far greater.

Ms. Gilbert read from the protest letter, which said Iran’s Christians “are very pained and angry” about Ms. Amini’s death, “[b]ut we don’t think it is enough to only express our solidarity and words, and instead want to join in practical action against this bloodthirsty 43-year-old infection on our society.” Iran’s theocratic regime has been in power since the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed shah.

The letter continues, “We have suffered but we have not retreated for our messianic beliefs and belief in freedom and choice of thought by saying a firm no to compulsory religion. We have proudly accepted the punishment of standing and resisting for years, both ourselves and our families.”

Faith McDonnell, advocacy director for Katartismos Global, said Iran’s Christian community “is the fastest growing church in the world today.” Hard numbers on religious practice in Iran are difficult to come by, but the CIA World Factbook, citing a 2016 survey, reports that 99.6% of Iran’s population were Muslim, mostly of the Shiite branch of Islam. Christian, Jews and Zoroastrians represented a combined 0.3% of the population.

Lauren Homer, an international attorney who counsels faith-based organizations, told the webinar the United States needs to support the Iranian protesters’ demands for a more open society.

“Most of my Iranian friends told me they want to be a country like the United States, where everybody has equal rights and opportunity,” Ms. Homer said. “It is very important that the United States government and the Christian community realize this is a ground for hope,” she added.

She said, “The Iranian people do not want a theocracy, they do not want these mullahs, and we should get behind them.”

Frank Gaffney, who heads the anti-persecution group as well as the conservative Center for Security Policy, said the wave of protests in Iran is linked to “a moment of truth, a moment of choosing in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere around the world, whether nations like the United States will stand fully with the people of Iran as they seek their fight for freedom from this regime.” [source]

Sorry to say, this evil will continue as long as the Mullahs stay in charge. But a regime change would be hard if not impossible.

Islamic extremists disguised as military separated Christians from crowed, slit their throats: bishop

From Christian Post.com (Oct. 7, 2022):

Suspected Islamic extremists disguised in military uniform gathered a crowd of people in Mozambique’s Nampula province, then separated the Christians from the group and tied their hands before slitting their throats, a Catholic bishop said.

Bishop Alberto Vera Aréjula of Nacala told the Catholic group Aid to the Church in Need this week about the killings that occurred last month as was told to him by one of the Christian survivors who managed to flee.

The survivor told the bishop that the terrorists were dressed in military uniform and they gathered people saying they were there to save them.

“When they were all gathered, they started asking who is Muslim and who is Christian. Those who identified as Christian, they started tying their hands behind their back and they cut their throats,” the bishop was quoted as saying.

The bishop said the killings took place on the night of Sept. 6 and the following day, and that “11 people were murdered in total and they left a trail of destruction and a lot of fear.”

On Sept. 6, an 83-year-old Italian nun, Sister Maria de Coppi, was killed in Chipene city when gunmen stormed a Catholic mission compound and set fire to buildings, including the church and hospital, according to reports.

The attack lasted five hours as the militants ransacked and burned the Diocese of Nacala’s mission church, school, health center, dwellings, library and vehicles, Aid to the Church in Need reported earlier.

Aréjula said he knew the nun, “and she was the image of a mother, she was really helping everyone with simple love and humility.”

“Sister Maria de Coppi was a nurse who would help malnourished children in a little room where there was milk and flour, and they destroyed that room as well.

According to reports, the gunmen were likely running away from security forces from Mozambique, Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community.

At least 24 countries have sent troops to support the fight against insurgents in Mozambique, whose army has been accused of being corrupt and having 7,000 “ghost soldiers,” according to the BBC.

Islamic State-affiliated insurgents in northern Mozambique, a Christian-majority country, have internally displaced more than three-quarters of a million people, according to the United Nations.

In the coastal province of Cabo Delgado, Islamic extremists have been exploiting the crisis after a civil war started in 2017. The area is rich with gas, rubies, graphite, gold and other natural resources. Protesters demonstrated at the time against what they say is profits going to an elite in the ruling Frelimo Party, with few jobs for local residents.

“In 2017, jihadist insurgents began in the Cabo-Delgado province, winning over some locals due to the fact that they gave back resources to villagers from the government and killed no one,” the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported earlier. “This did not last, however, as IS started setting fire to Christian villages, and killing those who lived there.”

Cabo Delgado is a mostly Muslim region where at least 300 Christians have been killed for their faith, according to ICC. There have also been over 100 attacks on churches in the area.

In March 2021, the United States labeled Islamic State-Mozambique as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” ISIS-Mozambique is also known as Ansar al-Sunna and known locally as al-Shabaab. The group reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State as early as April 2018 and has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians.

In November 2020, Islamic State-linked militants beheaded over 50 people, including women and children, and abducted others in weekend raids in the Miudumbe and Macomia districts of the Cabo Delgado province.

Last December, Human Rights Watch revealed that insurgents had enslaved more than 600 women and girls, many of which had been abused and sold as sex slaves for as low as $600. [source]

Pure intentional evil.