A Hell That Is Very Real
"I tell you this so that no one may deceive you with fine-sounding arguments."
This morning I read the second chapter of Paul's letter the Colossians, and I can't find a better response to the abject idiocy that is being spouted by so many, showcased by the most benighted television news journalism organizations.
Recently the New York Times put out an article essentially saying the principles of free speech don't apply to conservatives, because they are saying bad things. I wrote a home page piece on this very thing two years ago, but the truth is the ones saying free speech doesn't apply to some are the ones to whom free speech shouldn't apply. In the piece I noted some of the more prominent ones. Here's one that gets a tremendous amount of airplay:
"It is best to enlist government people to to fix income inequality by rearranging wealth in the name of charity."
People are being browbeat with this terrifically destructive argument over and over and over again. It is so ferociously blapped only because those blapping it, namely the politicians and talking heads who nod and smile at them, can look reeeeeeally good as they blap these things -- it sounds so splendid and wholesome and righteous and good!
"See that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy."
This is propelled by an monolithic widespread mentality that features at its core the belief there is no God, the idea each individual should be able to express whatever "autonomy" they have to do whatever they want, and the principle that an expressed belief in God should be met with a response that depends on the particular believer's classification -- if it is someone of color then whatever that belief it is -- whatever it is -- should be embraced wholeheartedly at risk of being charged with racism; if that person is a white male then he must be firmly reproved because he is unjustly exercising oppressive power over another.
Where do people get this? Scripture gives us an idea, again from Colossians.
"[God] having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
It may seem as if nothing can stop these glorified mandarins, but they've already been shown for what they are -- by Christ and what He did at Calvary.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a political rock-star now, a young vibrant woman of color who is making the grand publicity tour and when interviewed she says... nothing. Her words are completely devoid of any meaningful substance related to public policy. They are only vain platitudes gushing from that humanist, atheist, materialist world view.
I do feel sympathy for her, really. It isn't that she's too young -- she's a sprite 28 years-old -- it's that throughout her relatively short upbringing she's been consistently told a load of crap. Very few with authentic wisdom and insight and knowledge about the way things really are ever told her anything. It breaks my heart for her, really, and the millions of young people like her.
I've been meaning to post this photograph, taken at a Universalist Unitarian church I drove by one day. I'm sure things like this are displayed outside thousands of these venues. It is just a list of those vain platitudes. I'd love to get going taking each of these apart, eviscerating what they think they're trying say here, but I don't want to take up too much memory space just for this post. How about just that first one? You hear it all -- the -- time:
"Love is love."
Please. This says nothing. It isn't even a fine-sounding argument, it is definitely hollow and insidiously deceptive. Love is something. While it may be a number of things, it is still specific and may be defined and understood for what it actually, objectively, transcendently is. For someone to make "love" something it isn't just because they feel good about it is to make it not love anymore.
We all know when they say this they are actually saying homosexually-minded people should be able to commit sexual abuse crimes against one another. No, real love is actually identifying what it is that is causing same-sex attraction and address that appropriately and minister with the deepest love to someone caught up in that. If someone wants out but struggles, the love is to offer the most kind, charitable help.
Those forces working to keep people in that lifestyle are not loving, they are doing them a horrific disservice. Indeed in California a law is powering its way through the legislature that would make "conversion therapy" illegal. Here's the problem with that.
There is no such thing as conversion therapy. There is very much restorative therapy, that's really what they mean: a way for people to get Christ-centered healing-based counseling to bring back one's original whole and healthy sexuality.
The conversion already happened, when a sodomy-intentioned person was overwhelmed by emotional and spiritual forces from his/her past -- mostly from dysfunctional childhood and familial relational forces that were very real, very powerful, and very much originating in Hell -- not only making them wildly confused about their sexuality but now encouraging them to join the crusade to force everyone to celebrate their immorality.
This is the truth that is smothered and silenced by people who are caught up in the World System's designs on them. Those captivated by them are subject to those "powers and authorities." I like what Eugene Peterson calls them in The Message." It is easy to chafe at Peterson's rendering, I got you -- but this is a fine reference to those powers and authorities:
"Spiritual tyrants."
That's them all right. Yes there are certain people sworn to do their work, I'd even mentioned a few of them in my home page piece from May. Every one of them doing their job as they should. None of them should be censured in that they are doing their work for Cain as God sent them out to do millennia ago. It is gruesome and it is distressing yes, but in the grip of Christ one cannot be moved. There is the law to govern all of what they do, and Scripture says the law is good. But for those genuinely following Christ, there is a domain that is far greater.
Grace and Truth.
We are merely to pray and be kind and offer the most abundantly charitable aid to terribly wounded, hurting people. That includes everyone, from the richest to the poorest, from Donald Trump to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from the grandest spiritually hifalutin to the most desperate sexually wounded -- grace and mercy and forgiveness poured out and overflowing.
But that doesn't mean we cover our eyes and ears and mouths and fearfully refuse to speak truth. The New York Times knows it can't do battle with truth, so it makes up its own version, tells those with concerns about it to shut up, and urges lawmakers to further enable the empty philosophy to flourish.
The culture war rages on when well-meaning Christians try to stop Caesar and his main mouthpiece from doing that. No, make no mistake, they will think entering into Caesar's domain and remonstrating with fury will be of any value.
This web effort isn't at all about urging anyone to join the rebellion. It is about saying truthful things, and merely encouraging the follower of Christ to be His word with the deepest, richest, highest love.
__
This morning I read the second chapter of Paul's letter the Colossians, and I can't find a better response to the abject idiocy that is being spouted by so many, showcased by the most benighted television news journalism organizations.
Recently the New York Times put out an article essentially saying the principles of free speech don't apply to conservatives, because they are saying bad things. I wrote a home page piece on this very thing two years ago, but the truth is the ones saying free speech doesn't apply to some are the ones to whom free speech shouldn't apply. In the piece I noted some of the more prominent ones. Here's one that gets a tremendous amount of airplay:
"It is best to enlist government people to to fix income inequality by rearranging wealth in the name of charity."
People are being browbeat with this terrifically destructive argument over and over and over again. It is so ferociously blapped only because those blapping it, namely the politicians and talking heads who nod and smile at them, can look reeeeeeally good as they blap these things -- it sounds so splendid and wholesome and righteous and good!
"See that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy."
This is propelled by an monolithic widespread mentality that features at its core the belief there is no God, the idea each individual should be able to express whatever "autonomy" they have to do whatever they want, and the principle that an expressed belief in God should be met with a response that depends on the particular believer's classification -- if it is someone of color then whatever that belief it is -- whatever it is -- should be embraced wholeheartedly at risk of being charged with racism; if that person is a white male then he must be firmly reproved because he is unjustly exercising oppressive power over another.
Where do people get this? Scripture gives us an idea, again from Colossians.
"[God] having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
It may seem as if nothing can stop these glorified mandarins, but they've already been shown for what they are -- by Christ and what He did at Calvary.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a political rock-star now, a young vibrant woman of color who is making the grand publicity tour and when interviewed she says... nothing. Her words are completely devoid of any meaningful substance related to public policy. They are only vain platitudes gushing from that humanist, atheist, materialist world view.
I do feel sympathy for her, really. It isn't that she's too young -- she's a sprite 28 years-old -- it's that throughout her relatively short upbringing she's been consistently told a load of crap. Very few with authentic wisdom and insight and knowledge about the way things really are ever told her anything. It breaks my heart for her, really, and the millions of young people like her.
I've been meaning to post this photograph, taken at a Universalist Unitarian church I drove by one day. I'm sure things like this are displayed outside thousands of these venues. It is just a list of those vain platitudes. I'd love to get going taking each of these apart, eviscerating what they think they're trying say here, but I don't want to take up too much memory space just for this post. How about just that first one? You hear it all -- the -- time:
"Love is love."
Please. This says nothing. It isn't even a fine-sounding argument, it is definitely hollow and insidiously deceptive. Love is something. While it may be a number of things, it is still specific and may be defined and understood for what it actually, objectively, transcendently is. For someone to make "love" something it isn't just because they feel good about it is to make it not love anymore.
We all know when they say this they are actually saying homosexually-minded people should be able to commit sexual abuse crimes against one another. No, real love is actually identifying what it is that is causing same-sex attraction and address that appropriately and minister with the deepest love to someone caught up in that. If someone wants out but struggles, the love is to offer the most kind, charitable help.
Those forces working to keep people in that lifestyle are not loving, they are doing them a horrific disservice. Indeed in California a law is powering its way through the legislature that would make "conversion therapy" illegal. Here's the problem with that.
There is no such thing as conversion therapy. There is very much restorative therapy, that's really what they mean: a way for people to get Christ-centered healing-based counseling to bring back one's original whole and healthy sexuality.
The conversion already happened, when a sodomy-intentioned person was overwhelmed by emotional and spiritual forces from his/her past -- mostly from dysfunctional childhood and familial relational forces that were very real, very powerful, and very much originating in Hell -- not only making them wildly confused about their sexuality but now encouraging them to join the crusade to force everyone to celebrate their immorality.
This is the truth that is smothered and silenced by people who are caught up in the World System's designs on them. Those captivated by them are subject to those "powers and authorities." I like what Eugene Peterson calls them in The Message." It is easy to chafe at Peterson's rendering, I got you -- but this is a fine reference to those powers and authorities:
"Spiritual tyrants."
That's them all right. Yes there are certain people sworn to do their work, I'd even mentioned a few of them in my home page piece from May. Every one of them doing their job as they should. None of them should be censured in that they are doing their work for Cain as God sent them out to do millennia ago. It is gruesome and it is distressing yes, but in the grip of Christ one cannot be moved. There is the law to govern all of what they do, and Scripture says the law is good. But for those genuinely following Christ, there is a domain that is far greater.
Grace and Truth.
We are merely to pray and be kind and offer the most abundantly charitable aid to terribly wounded, hurting people. That includes everyone, from the richest to the poorest, from Donald Trump to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from the grandest spiritually hifalutin to the most desperate sexually wounded -- grace and mercy and forgiveness poured out and overflowing.
But that doesn't mean we cover our eyes and ears and mouths and fearfully refuse to speak truth. The New York Times knows it can't do battle with truth, so it makes up its own version, tells those with concerns about it to shut up, and urges lawmakers to further enable the empty philosophy to flourish.
The culture war rages on when well-meaning Christians try to stop Caesar and his main mouthpiece from doing that. No, make no mistake, they will think entering into Caesar's domain and remonstrating with fury will be of any value.
This web effort isn't at all about urging anyone to join the rebellion. It is about saying truthful things, and merely encouraging the follower of Christ to be His word with the deepest, richest, highest love.
__
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