Category Archives: Famous persons

ATHEISM: TRUTH SUPRESSED   

   When the famous atheist astronomer Fred Hoyle first examined the evidence of how the universe is so finely tuned, he had to admit there had to be a super intelligence to make this happen. He said:

“A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature.”

“The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is 1 to a number with 40,000 noughts after it (1040,000)…. It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.” ~ Fred Hoyle

“The chance that higher life forms might have emerged through evolutionary processes is comparable with the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junk yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the material therein.” ~ Fred Hoyle

Many people do not want to consider such a super-intellect being. Actually many modern sceptics in their hearts do not want there to be a God. For example, see what Professor Thomas Nagel of New York University said:

“I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and naturally hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”

That’s worth repeating and reflecting deeply the professor’s words:

I want atheism to be true.

I don’t want there to be a God.

I don’t want the universe to be like that.

This is a profound example of someone who will not believe, despite the abundant evidence available. This is plain unbelief and exposes how people hold the truth in their unrighteousness. They suppress the truth as Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans (chapter 1):

So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.  That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. (Rom 1:24-27)

What are the results of such foolishness? They are awful. The apostle continues:

Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarrelling, deception, malicious behaviour, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.  They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Rom 1:28-32)

There are probably many reasons why people don’t want this God to be true.

It is plain that unbelief in God is a matter of the heart. “The heart of man is desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9). Only God can truly search and test the heart, as he alone knows the true motives and character of individuals. This profound self-deception underscores the need for divine intervention. Human effort alone cannot reform the heart. The Hebrew word translated “desperately wicked” has the idea of a terminal, incurable illness.

Thus it has nothing to do with the intellect. Only the heart.

Jeffrey Tucker writes:

This is why atheism has always struck me as little more than an intellectual pretension. It’s actually the height of arrogance: “I have considered this very carefully and concluded using my own incredibly powerful brain, packed with infinite knowledge of all things, that there is no higher power.”

A person’s private belief aside, religious tradition massively shapes society in every conceivable way. Always has and always will. Even if you don’t believe, even if this upsets you, it still bears respect and understanding.   Epoch Times, October 2025

 

No One Can See God

Jesus said: “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. . . . . .  because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer . . . “. (John 16:7-10).  

He said this surprising thing “where you can see me no longer”. He said that he would send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was better for them than his physical presence!

Can you grasp how incredible that is?

The truth that many people miss is that no one can see Christ in bodily form and live.

But instead, Jesus told them he would send what could not be seen: the Holy Spirit. That gift enables the multiplication of the works of Christ by his followers in the world. Those works will be seen.

Many people are obsessed with the idea that Jesus will come and they will physically see Jesus. They will be disappointed. We already have what is for our good that he went away!

He will not come back to rule physically from an earthly Jerusalem. If you believe that you have believed a lie.

The New Testament tells us that when the Son of Man comes he comes hidden in the clouds of God’s splendour and glory! (e.g., Mat 24:30, 26:64) 

His coming is often called a ‘Parousia’ (1 Thes 2:19,3:13, 4:15). In Jesus’ day parousia meant ‘visit’, typically of the visit of a king who leaves his palace and visits a city but then returns to his home.

His coming will not be physically ‘seen’ but understood. He could never be seen by human, physical eyes in His exalted, glorious, state, “whom no one has seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16).

The NT says when he comes it will be in judgment and the fulfilment of all that is written (Luke 21:22), not to be gazed at. See also judgment passages in 1 Thes 1:10, 2:15-16.

The Holy Spirit is with them from the Day of Pentecost until He comes again and beyond to this our day—the experience we have now!

See Acts 1:9. “And after He had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight.” He was hidden from their eyes by a cloud (Grk. nephelē). Just as he was hidden from their eyes as he went into heaven, so when he comes He will be hidden to human eyes by the clouds of glory (Mat 24:30).

Since then, Jesus has never been physically seen by human eyes. nor will he ever.

Do you see? Do you understand? Many stumble over this, thinking that because he would not be seen by human eyes, then he has not yet come.

Paul wrote: we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour. (Titus 2:11f.) The blessed hope of Paul was the appearing of his glory, not his physical presence.

That appearance of his glory has already come and been seen by the first generation of believers according to Mathew 10:23, 16:27-28, 24:30-34, as I have written in my many posts on my blog.

Let’s rejoice that he has come to dwell by his Spirit among his people, His ekklesia, and to empower us to be his witnesses as he did with the first apostles!

How to Conquer a Death Cult

by Andrew Torba

There are moments in history when the veil is lifted, and the true nature of an ideology is laid bare for all to see. The aftermath of the cowardly assassination of Charlie Kirk was one of those moments. While patriots across America mourned the loss of a bold voice for freedom, truth, and the future of our nation, the Left erupted in celebration.

They laughed. They cheered. They shared memes. They hailed the murderer as a hero. They desecrated the memory of a man gunned down for the simple act of speaking truth.

This is not an anomaly. This is not the work of a few bad apples. This is the logical endpoint of liberalism: a death cult that worships at the altar of destruction.

At its core, this ideology venerates death. It champions the right to end innocent life in the womb, rebranding the slaughter of the unborn as “healthcare” and a sacred right. It encourages the chemical and surgical mutilation of healthy young bodies, a grotesque parody of medicine that severs the individual from their own biological reality. It pushes policies that dissolve the fundamental bonds of family and community, leaving isolated, atomized individuals adrift in a meaningless sea of consumer choices and state dependency.

Now, they celebrate political assassinations.

This is who they are. This is what they believe in. There is no life in their ideology only decay, degradation, and death. They cannot create, so they destroy. They cannot build, so they tear down. They cannot defend truth, so they silence those who speak it.

Charlie Kirk was a threat to them not because he was violent, not because he preached hatred, but because he represented something they despise: life, vitality, courage, and a future for our people. He stood for the America they are trying to erase. In their twisted world, the murder of a young man with a family, friends, and a mission is cause for joy. In their moral vacuum, the blood of the innocent is just another tool in their war against God, nature, and order.

We see you. We see your hatred. We see your emptiness. We see the hollow, lifeless eyes of a movement that has nothing left to offer but destruction, and we will not be silenced. We will mourn Charlie. We will honor his legacy. We will continue his work. And we will remember this moment, the moment the death cult showed its true face to the world.

They think this will frighten us into submission. They are wrong. It only strengthens our resolve.

For we are the builders. We are the defenders. We are the bearers of life, faith, and hope. We will never stop fighting for the future they are so desperate to destroy.

The modern liberal worldview is a hollowed-out edifice built upon a foundation of nihilism and resentment. It is not merely misguided; it is, in its essence, a metaphysical rebellion against creation itself. Its pillars are not principles of life, order, or continuity, but glorifications of decay, fragmentation, and ultimate negation.

This is not an accident. A culture that severs itself from its spiritual and biological roots—from faith, from heritage, from the natural order of the family—has nothing left to affirm. Having rejected the sacred, it can only profane. Having rejected creation, it can only dismantle.

This is the death cult. It masks its emptiness with the language of “compassion” and “progress,” but its fruits are everywhere: fatherless homes, soul-crushing addiction, mental illness on an epidemic scale, and a culture that produces young people so deracinated and hopeless that they cheer for murder.

They offer no future, only an endless, sterile present of managed decline. They cannot create beauty, so they deface monuments. They cannot produce harmony, so they amplify chaos. They cannot foster life, so they defend every manifestation of death.

Our response cannot be mere political opposition. It must be a total and profound rejection of their entire worldview. We must be the unequivocal champions of life. We must build large, faithful families. We must create beautiful and lasting things. We must reaffirm our connection to God, to our people, and to the land. We must be so generative, so life-affirming, and so filled with purpose that their culture of death simply withers in the shadow of our vitality.

They celebrate the darkness because they have forgotten what the light looks like. It is our duty to shine it so brightly that they are forced to remember, or to look away.

The spirit of the age does not knock politely at the Church’s door; it slithers in directly from the pulpit. The same death cult that celebrates murder in the streets and glorifies mutilation in the classroom has found a comfortable home within the compromised walls of modern Christianity. It has exchanged the robust, world-conquering faith of our fathers for a weak, effeminate, and apologetic social club, a chaplaincy to the very regime that seeks our destruction.

This infiltration is a betrayal of our entire history. Look to the men who built Christendom. They were not managers of decline. They were not anxious pleasers of the world. They were conquerors. They were kings, knights, saints, and martyrs who carved civilization out of wilderness and darkness with the sword of truth and the shield of faith. They understood that the Gospel was not a suggestion; it was a mandate to reclaim every inch of creation for Christ the King.

This was a masculine Christianity. It spoke of order, justice, duty, and victory. It built cathedrals that scraped the heavens, universities that pursued divine wisdom, and legal systems based on eternal law. It tamed empires and baptized cultures. It did not ask for permission from the world; it commanded the world to bend the knee.

Now, look at what we have been given. A Church that has traded its crown for a begging bowl. A faith that preaches “tolerance” instead of truth, “dialogue” instead of discipleship, and “inclusion” instead of repentance. It busies itself with ESG scores, climate change rituals, and draping rainbow flags over the cross in a pathetic attempt to gain the approval of a world that will always despise it.

This weakness is a theological and spiritual sickness. It is a failure of nerve and a failure of faith. It is the direct result of a Church that has abandoned its masculine, commanding nature and instead embraced the world’s feminine, receptive values of passivity, feel-good therapy, and endless compromise.

We see it in the pulpit, where the fire of prophecy has been replaced by the damp squib of motivational speaking. We see it in the seminary, where future shepherds are taught to be bureaucrats rather than warriors. We see it in the pews, where men are given no mission, no challenge, and no standard to strive for and so they leave.

This must end. The roots of this parasitic ideology must be ripped out, burned, and salt poured into the earth where they grew.

We must return, with unapologetic fervor, to the Christianity that built the West.

We must preach a God who is a Father, a King, and a Judge not a vague, affirming force. We must call men to be saints, not therapists; to be leaders of households and nations, not passive observers. We must reclaim the arts, the laws, the sciences, and the governance of our people as our rightful domain, given to us by God to steward for His glory.

This means cleansing our institutions. It means defunding and disempowering every committee, diocese, and seminary that trades in this death-cult poison. It means supporting only those bishops and pastors who act like fathers and generals, not like corporate spokesmen. It means building parallel networks of education, media, and community that operate wholly outside the corrupt systems of the world.

We are not called to be a quaint subculture. We are called to be a conquering army, baptizing the nations for the glory of God. The same faith that once turned the Roman world upside down is still there, waiting beneath the layers of weakness and compromise. The remnant remains intact. It is time to rediscover it. It is time to stop managing our retreat and start planning our advance.

The world offers death. We must offer life, fierce, abundant, and eternal. We must be so strong in faith, so clear in truth, and so bold in action that the world has no choice but to once again reckon with the power of the God we serve.

Do not let the fire in your belly die. The righteous anger, the profound grief, the clarity of purpose that Charlie Kirk’s martyrdom ignited within you. This is not a fleeting emotion to be forgotten with the next news cycle. This is a sacred fuel. Guard it. Nurture it. Feed it with prayer, with action, and with an unbreakable resolve to ensure his death was not in vain.

Let this flame forge you into a sharper tool for this battle, a more formidable wall against the advancing darkness. The world wants you to get tired, to get comfortable, to forget. Do not give them that satisfaction. Honor Charlie’s memory by making this fire the eternal pilot light of your spirit, guiding your every thought, word, and deed until the work is done and our people are once again free, sovereign, and thriving under God.

Andrew Torba
CEO, Gab AI Inc
Christ is King

Published in Bold Christian Writing

He is Risen!

By George Christensen
Not just a line from Scripture. Not just a tradition we repeat once a year. But the most earth-shattering, darkness-defeating, soul-freeing truth the world has ever known.

Christ is risen—and that changes everything.
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For those of us who look around and feel the weight of the world right now… for those burdened by a culture gone mad, by a political class drunk on power, by the relentless attack on life, family, and faith…

Easter isn’t just a celebration. It’s a lifeline.Because in the Resurrection, we don’t just see a miracle—we see the final word on everything evil tried to destroy.Death has been conquered. Lies have been exposed. Fear has been disarmed.

And if Christ can walk out of the tomb, then there’s nothing—not censorship, not persecution, not corruption—that can hold back the people of God when they walk in truth.

But Easter is not a call to comfort. It’s a call to courage.

The empty tomb is a rallying cry. A summons to every believer to stand up—unafraid, unashamed, and unbending.

At CitizenGO, we believe this world needs a bold Christian voice now more than ever. And that starts with each of us: living the truth, speaking the truth, and defending the truth.

Not tomorrow. Today. Because Christ is not just risen in history—He is risen in you.

So rejoice! But do not rest.Celebrate!

But do not forget.The same power that raised Christ from the grave is alive in you.

That’s not just theology—it’s your mission.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful, powerful, and purpose-filled Easter.In Christ our King,

George Christensen and the team at CitizenGO

Re-posted from the Thomsons,

Peter’s Jerusalem Temple Speeches

In this article we look at part of Peter’s great speech recorded by Luke in Acts 2:14-21. This event was the inauguration of the New Covenant which took place in Jerusalem during the Jewish feast of Pentecost when thousands of Jews from many countries joined the locals. The New Covenant means the END of the Old Covenant! Forget Israel. Forget Jerusalem!  Luke 2:14-21:

Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this.  These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”.

V 16. Joel’s prediction

Peter was referring to the phenomena of supposedly drunken people which was the evidence of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the 120 disciples gathered in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. He affirmed that “this” supernatural phenomena was the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28) in the Old Testament. Fulfilment means fulfilment. Done.

The Book of Acts goes on to this describe how was fulfilled: God certainly poured out his Spirit on all sorts of people–sons and daughters prophesied, young men saw visions and old men had dreams: Even on servants and handmaidens, God poured out His Spirit in those days. Luke describes many stories of miraculous healings and many other astounding gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This was the inauguration of the New Covenant which we enjoy to this day with the continued pouring out of the Holy Spirit. It was the birth of the movement we call Christianity. It marks the change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And from a focus on the Jews and Israel as a piece of land to the true focus of the Israel of God—the ekklesia, spiritual Israel. This is exactly what Jesus spoke about to the Samaritan woman in John 4:

“. . .  it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.  . . . .   But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

V 17. the last days. The biblical writers used these expressions “the last days” or “the end” to mean the last days of the Jewish economy and the end of the Mosaic religious era and the time of the second coming of the Son of Man and the day of God’s wrath.  They did not mean the end of the world. Not the end of history.

Vs 19-20. Some think that verses 19 and 20 are describing the results of global nuclear war as they believe they are living in the last days. They are sorely mistaken because the New Testament records that Jesus promised his disciples that he would come again before his generation has passed away as recorded in Matthew 16:27-28 and 24:34).

These verses 19-20 describe the signs of the coming of the Son of Man in the familiar terms of judgment using non-literal expressions.  This was a common motif we find in the Old Testament prophets —the collapsing of cosmic entities in their judgment prophecies, e.g. Isa 13:10, 19:1,24:18-20, 34;8-15, Ezek 32:7–8; Joel 2:28).

These cosmic signs are not descriptions of the results of global nuclear war or the end of the world. These would take place ‘before the great and notable day of the Lord comes.’ So what great and notable day is this? The answer is found in the next chapter of Acts (3:18-21).

We find Peter addressing another crowd curiously attentive after the healing of the crippled man and the ensuing sensation:

But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.  Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.

Fulfilling the prophecies. Because God now at last was fulfilling the prophecies told about Jesus, this was the most significant time in Jewish history and for the whole world as well. All was fulfilled! (also see Luke 21:20-22).

Repent. Their repentance would guarantee the presence of the Lord in their lives. No more squeezing stale refreshment from the Law or the sacrificial system. Now they would experience wonderful refreshment from the presence of the Lord in their lives. Relationship not religion.

God will again send you Jesus. God will again send Jesus to redeem them. Peter addresses them, ‘you’ (not us today). He wil gather his people back to himself and that will be the completion of His atoning sacrifice. See Hebrews 9:11-15 and 27-28: He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him. His re-appearance means completed salvation—just as the appearance of the Jewish high priest on the Day of Atonement meant the sacrifice was successful.

He must remain in heaven until. So there was still more to come for those believers—God will again send them Jesus for the final restoration (Greek apokatastasis), completion, or filling up of all things, as God promised long ago through his prophets (Deut 18:19).

For us today as we read Luke’s account this apokatastasis is long past. For He did return as He promised His disciples (Mat 10:23, 16:27-28, 24:30-34. This assured His people of a completed atonement.

If you doubt His second coming then you should be pleased that He came 2000 years ago to complete your salvation. Good news!

But if Jesus did not come in the generation of Peter and his listeners, then that’s bad news—you still await the consummation, your completed salvation.

Jesus—A False Prophet?

Jesus made many, many promises to his disciples. Some of these promises were prophesies about his second coming. Here are just a few recorded in the Gospel of Matthew: see Mat 10:23, 16:27-28.23:34-36, 24:34. However let’s just look at the last one of these in more detail:

I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Jesus and his apostles prophesied many times about his imminent second coming, and yet countless numbers of believers today still hold that no such return took place? So was Jesus wrong? Or have they have misunderstood what had been said?

Famed Christian apologist C S Lewis wrote a collection of essays, called ‘The World’s Last Night’, (Harvest Books, 1st edition, November 4, 2002). In that book Lewis wrote:

“It is clear from the New Testament that they all expected the Second Coming in their own lifetime. And, worse still, they had a reason, and one which you will find very embarrassing. Their Master had told them so. He shared, and indeed created, their delusion. He said in so many words, ‘this generation shall not pass till all these things be done.’ And he was wrong. He clearly knew no more about the end of the world than anyone else.”

He goes on: “It is certainly the most embarrassing verse in the Bible. Yet how teasing, also, that within fourteen words of it should come the statement “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” The one exhibition of error and the one confession of ignorance grow side by side. That they stood thus in the mouth of Jesus himself, and were not merely placed thus by the reporter, we surely need not doubt . . . . . . .  he would never have recorded the confession of ignorance at all; he could have had no motive for doing so except a desire to tell the whole truth. And unless later copyists were equally honest they would never have preserved the (apparently) mistaken prediction about “this generation” after the passage of time had shown the (apparent) mistake. This passage (Mark 13:30-32) and the cry “Why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) together make up the strongest proof that the New Testament is historically reliable. The evangelists have the first great characteristic of honest witnesses: they mention facts which are, at first sight, damaging to their main contention. The facts are these: that Jesus professed himself (in some sense) ignorant, and within a moment showed that he really was so. ….”

So Lewis believed Jesus prophesied that he would return in that same generation. Lewis did not attempt to twist any words of Jesus to make them talk about some future generation, like some commentators. Lewis then concluded that those prophesies were not fulfilled at that time.  So Jesus and his apostles were delusional.

Lewis’ error stems from unrealistic expectations about what Jesus had in mind: Jesus prophesied the imminent end of the world, yet the world is still here. Jesus was wrong.

But it was not to be the end of the world. In 70 AD, Jesus came and went, having finished every single thing he promised to do, and the world is still with us today.

But why did Lewis then not reject Jesus and the apostles and return to atheism? For Lewis, the high status of Christ remained! This makes no sense.  If Lewis’ ideas were correct, it would make Jesus a liar and false prophet.

The Bible defines a false prophet as one who prophesies events that do not come to pass. If someone prophesied that a specific events would take place within a specific time and that time were to come and go without the event happening, then he could legitimately be labelled as a false prophet.

So dear reader, can you see that if you think Jesus did not come just as he promised, within that generation, you must conclude that Jesus was a false prophet.

Jesus said that he did not know “the day or the hour” of his coming. But he emphatically knew the generation within which he would come—his own, and that of his first followers!

What Lewis held was the wrong notion that Jesus’ return would mean the end of the world. He then decided to question Jesus’ understanding, rather than his own. 

Dear reader, are you making the same mistake as this greatly esteemed apologist? Perhaps you should question your own understanding, rather than the Lord Jesus’ understanding? Hey?

Christmas is Popular

By David Pellowe of The Good Sauce

iBible 2022, RevelationMedia

Nearly every Australian can’t wait to put up their lights and decorations.

Retailers rush to sell them as early as possible, and tell us all it’s Christmas.

Of course, no one actually says it’s the celebration of the birth of God’s Anointed One, His Divine Son clothed in humanity, born in poverty to a working class family in Roman-occupied Judea-Samaria.

‘Progressives’ have helped us move on from anything anchored in history.

No commercial or official public observation of the season acknowledges the profoundly spiritual significance, and the fulfilment of the long-prophesied life and mission of Jesus the Christ.

Secularists have helped us vandalise the transcendent and scorn anything incomprehensible without the supernatural.

The nations which officially celebrate His birth with two extra days off work or penalty rates — a social phenomenon repeated again to remember His sacrificial death — don’t get much reminder of the morally crucial reasons for Christmas, or the pointed lessons we should take from it.

Yet we live in a culture which boasts of its ability to achieve moral excellence without a Moral Law Giver, and proceeds to take great pride in all kinds of immorality and ethical relativism.

Christmas should make intellectually honest people so incredibly uncomfortable they demand a resolution to the neo-liberal hypocrisies Christmas exposes.

Instead, we lie about the meaning of Christmas, and fill each other’s heads with all kinds of warm and fuzzy distractions to drown out the voice that won’t go away, that voice which never quits whispering, “God is real, and worse, you desperately need Him!”

Anything but the Truth at Christmas.

Here are three culturally confronting things everybody should remember every time they see a Christmas coverup like reindeer, elves, gingerbread houses, toy soldiers or “happy holidays”.

 “Peace on earth”

When Jesus came to earth the first time, it was as a servant on a mission to solve a problem.

The problem was there was no possibility of peace between humanity and God.

The solution was always going to be Jesus giving His life 33 years later in the place of you and me to satisfy divine justice for our multiple moral failures and restore the possibility of peace between us and God.

It was knowing this that a vast, heavenly army of angels appeared to the shepherds the night of His birth announcing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased!”

Not coincidentally, those shepherds worked in the village where lambs were specifically born and raised for future sacrifice in the temple for people’s sins, according to Jewish law.

This pointed to the purpose of Christ’s birth and life mission, and so the meaning of Christmas.

The culturally confronting lesson here is one Jesus later taught, and that is that everyone “who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.”

The Good News of Christmas is that’s not the end of the story, but just the beginning.

God saw us already condemned, and sent His Son to earth to be born miraculously and to miraculously make peace possible between us and God.

 “Wise men with three gifts”

No, there weren’t three wise men, or three kings, and they didn’t visit baby Jesus in the manger.

A class of wise men and priests who were astrologers, also known as “magi”, traveled from the Persian kingdoms of the Middle East, a few years after Jesus was born.

There’s no way such wealthy elites would have risked traveling in a small group of three, and it’s implausible their caravan would have brought small quantities of gifts to present to Someone they described as “born King” Who they came to worship.

They brought three types of gifts, and instead of teddy bears, baby rattles or toys, each of the gifts was prophetically symbolic of the significance of this unique child’s birth and life mission.

Gold, frankincense and myrrh were extremely precious gifts, more helpful for a king than a baby.

Gold certainly symbolised Christ’s royalty and is easily recognised as bestowing great honour as well as wealth on what was probably previously a not so well off family.

It’s unlikely they tossed Him their spare change in coins.

Frankincense is an aromatic resin that was more expensive in those days than the average home could afford to use as air freshener in the out house.

It was used in Persia as incense in ceremonial worship of a deity.

In this way, the magi demonstrated their understanding of not only Jesus’ royalty, but His Divinity.

Myrrh was used in the ancient world as a perfume and anointing oil, and was also used in healing.

Most importantly as it relates to the meaning of Christmas, it was an ingredient in the mixture of spices which was used to prepare bodies for burial.

These gifts together indicate that the Divine King of the Universe humbled Himself as humanity with a mission to give His life to save the world.

Christmas is not about whatever you want it to be about.

 “Santa Claus”

Santa’s name, adapted over various cultures to modern sounds we find harder to understand in English, was actually Saint Nicholas.

Say that with an exaggerated Scandinavian accent out loud and you may see the similarity, depending on how well you do Swedish impersonations.

Saint Nicholas was the Christian Bishop of Myra, in modern-day Turkey, about 300 years before imperialist Islam was invented.

History tells how he was born to wealthy parents, gave away all his wealth to the poor and oppressed, and was jailed just for being Christian.

Santa Claus was the first pro-life Christian activist.

Upon his release from jail, he preached against killing unwanted babies, a common practice then too.

Many babies were conceived in sexual rituals at the Temple of Diana.

Locals eventually pulled down and destroyed the pagan temple, convicted by Santa’s preaching.

I love Santa Claus: a real, historic person and an unapologetic, public Christian whose love for Jesus confronted and helped change culture.

We need more culture warriors like him today!

Far from letting Santa distract you or your kids from the real meaning of Christmas, let his story remind you that Jesus was born, lived and died to destroy the curse of sin and evil.

His sacrificial death then invited people around the world to peace: restored friendship with God in such a way that it lifts up people and nations brave enough to confront their sinfulness.

The lessons Christmas teaches our culture is that we’re not okay.

We’re sin-infected and already condemned without the opportunity Christmas represents to make peace with God, as the angels testified to shepherds who knew exactly the blood price which sin demands.

It teaches that Jesus was not just a man, but the Divine King of Kings Whose birth was the beginning of a mission to die so that we might have eternal life.

Christmas is not just a time for family and penalty rates, prawns and backyard cricket.

Santa teaches us it’s a confronting celebration of the One Who has the power to shatter false religions and calibrate cultures to the Kingdom of God.

His Gospel brings hope for real justice, liberty, peace and mercy to citizens and societies that are willing to honestly hear the sermon of Santa’s life: the real meaning of Christmas to culture.

Living in Fear?

Photo by Inzmam Khan on Pexels.com

It is clear to me that governments and mainstream media are either deliberately or

unwittingly collaborating the promotion of fear in the Western World.

Read what C.S. Lewis said here many years ago, to the British readers, so as to put things in perspective.

Of course, a much greater threat than Lewis lists here, is threatening us today. I refer to the immense satanic evil of the ominous one-world government that is being openly proposed which will radically change our way of life from freedom to slavery.

Nevertheless, we know that a better world awaits us who believe in the One who died for us and has set us free from fear and anxiety.

All you who read this, if you have not made reconciliation with Almighty God through his death, you must tremble.

But there is an alternative open to you. A way out.

And that is to change your mind, radically, completely and wholeheartedly about Jesus and commit your life into his hands and receive the gift of eternal life.

In doing so you will certainly receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and no longer live in abject fear.

DO IT MY WAY

We read in 2-Samuel 6:9-15 (WEB) in the story of the Ark of the Covenant’s return to Israel from the Philistines . . . .  

David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said, “How could Yahweh’s ark come to me?” So David would not move Yahweh’s ark to be with him in David’s city; but David carried it aside into Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house. Yahweh’s ark remained in Obed-Edom the Gittite’s house three months; and Yahweh blessed Obed-Edom and all his house. King David was told, “Yahweh has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that belongs to him, because of God’s ark.”

So David went and brought up God’s ark from the house of Obed-Edom into David’s city with joy. When those who bore Yahweh’s ark had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.  David danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod.  So David and all the house of Israel brought up Yahweh’s ark with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

God designed the Ark of the Covenant to have two staves for bearing it on the shoulders of four priests. There were 4 positions for 4 priests to bear it. They knew fearful consequences would follow if they did not do exactly as Yahweh commanded. This was the way the Ark must be carried every time it was moved from one place to another. Do as he says!

The house of Obed-Edom had been greatly blessed by the presence of the Ark—the presence of the Living God. The presence of God always brings joy and peace and spiritual prosperity. For us under the New Covenant, we have the assurance of the wonderful presence of the Lord and the remarkable indwelling of the Holy Spirit—if we do it God’s way.

The understanding of his awesome presence must have been an encouragement to those priests entrusted with bringing the holy box into David’s city—if they did it God’s way.

Imagine how carefully and fearfully the new bearers would have acted now since the death of Uzzah when the Philistine oxen stumbled and Uzzah tried to steady it. No doubt they took up the Ark of God in fear and trembling, upon their shoulders. We notice they took only six steps. Would they survive?  They surely trusted in God’s orders and no one would die.

And then they rested, no doubt in great relief. How they praised and thanked God, and offered sacrifices with great joy. Maybe they proceeded in this manner, six steps at a time, for the entire journey. Maybe not.

So do we think we can help God out, extend his kingdom and plans by doing what seems more up-to-date or what tradition demands? We do so at great cost when we ignore God’s plans for his people.

Apparently we do. We do it our way so often. We ignore the model—Jesus.

 We think we can worship God and minister and meet together a better or quicker way than the example passed by Jesus to the apostles and recorded in the scriptures.  

How foolish this is. Dumb. Clueless. Ignorant. If we are to think we know better than Jesus.  

God is a lot wiser than we. God always knows best and by obeying him we are shielded us from disaster, disunity, powerlessness, authority-challenged, peddling misinformed doctrines and witnessing waek, miserable outcomes.

We must God’s commands and his example in his Son, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge reside. We must follow his word. Do it his way.

The order we find laid out in God’s word for us seems so . . .  yesteryear, impractical.

They did not dare think ‘why carry ‘the Ark’ on our shoulders when we can put it on wheels?’ That is what the pagans did and it was OK. So efficient! Much quicker!

Many trusted, respected teachers are teaching not what our heavenly Father has taught them in the scriptures, but useless, empty, corrupt tradition. Well-meaning ‘I’m in charge here’ pastors and fake priests simply chant out the age-long mantras for the faithful to hear and remain dormant and subject to misinformation, keeping them from rising up with faith and joy in their redemption and enjoyment of what God has done in Christ.

Why is it that no one hears sermons on 1 Corinthians 12—14. For example, (12:11) But the one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing to each one in the (local ekklesia) separately as he desires. To each one! And (12:19-20) For the body is not one member, but many. (12:14)  If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now they are many members, but one body’.

So where is THIS BODY to be found?

I cannot find even one—what I see is one-man ministry, clergy-laity divide, numerous programs instead of equipping the people, money and business models.

Why is there is only infrequent teaching on healing the sick—there’s plenty on ‘praying for the sick’. Who is training young men to go out into the marketplace with spiritual weaponry downloaded by the Lord and learning how to heal the sick?

This is rank disobedience or abject unbelief—or both.

We must all change our way of doing God’s will. Surely his patience with us is amazing.

Do it his way.

“A CALL to ACTION” by Andrew Strom

Let me start with a warning. This is to be a blunt and outspoken
piece. It is deliberately designed to be a challenge to our
complacency.

The Scripture tells us that, “From the days of John the Baptist
until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and
the VIOLENT take it by force.”  So why is it that so many of
us are passive and nullified by a kind of ‘fatalism’ that declares
“Whatever will be will be”? That is not true Christianity. True
Christianity has always been WAR and battle for the souls of men.

I have been guilty of this “fatalism” myself. And there are
some on this List who have been “waiting” for so long that
to get out of their peace-time mode would takes a lightning
bolt and a shaking far beyond what is healthy. I find it sad
that it is not just the CHURCHES that need a good “shake”
but some of us so-called ‘Revival’ types as well! There are
some here who are about as “violent” as marshmallows. It
is high time for that to change.

To those who say that we should still be in “waiting”
mode, I pose this simple question:  When does the ‘wait’
end? When entire generations have been lost? When
millions upon millions sitting in our churches are
eternally ruined?  Is the devil to “take the youngest” forever?

I love the Scripture from the story of David and Goliath
that says, “And David spoke to the men that stood near
him, saying, What shall be done to the man who kills
this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should
defy the armies of the Living God?” (1 Sam 17:26). And
the record tells us that with no armour and with 5 smooth
stones as his only weapon, David RAN FULL-TILT towards
that Philistine, to see His God avenged and his people’s
reproach removed.

We hear a lot about people with “a heart like David” in
these last days. Let me tell you – David was a man of
WAR. A man of action. He would not put up with His God
being put to an open shame. I wonder where the Lord will
find His “Davids” today?

We live in one of the darkest hours in the history of our
planet. “As it was in the days of Noah and Lot” declares
the Scripture, and so it rapidly becomes. So where is
the light shining in this darkness? Is it you? Is it me?
Or do we slumber on?

Some of us have been “waiting” for 20 years for the
right time. Are we never to act at all? Do we just float
on, excusing our lack of urgency and burden with the
trite reply that we are “waiting on the Lord”? Will such
feeble reasonings ever find a hearing in the courts of God?

There is a battle raging. It has never ceased. It is the
battle for the hearts and souls of men. Let the
“spectators” and idle onlookers clear the field. Let those
without courage or urgency or burden retire from the
scene. It is time for God’s “mighty men of valor” to come
forth. The hour is late and the time will soon arrive when
no man can work. “In season and out of season” said
Paul, and it is time for us to heed his words. If ever there
was an hour for the “Gideon’s 300” it is now.

Years ago God spoke these words to me: “WHO DARES
WINS”. It is not enough to simply pray. For many have
prayed and yet not taken the kingdom. And neither is it
enough to prophesy. For many have brought endless
“words” and yet the kingdom remains undisturbed. The
phrase “Who DARES Wins” is the motto of the British
SAS – men of action who operate behind enemy lines
and who revel in courage and fighting spirit. So it will
be with the end-times servants of God.

If you don’t have the stomach for it, hang back and do
nothing. Nobody will notice.

But let those who have been prepared of God in the caves and
the deserts come forth. You have awaited a trumpet blast.
Do you not hear it?

Gird up your loins, you mighty men. Prepare for war.
Arm of the Living God, put on strength! The Lord is about to
arise and scatter His enemies. Can you not sense it?

Let the modern John-the-Baptists come forth.

Special blessings to all.

Andrew Strom.