Merry Christmas 2019!

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:1-14 King James Version)

[….]

Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:1-7 King James Version)

Merry Christmas everyone! God Bless you all!

If you are confused, just watch this:

I cannot believe I actually voted for this man

Here is the letter, that President Donald Trump wrote to Nancy Pelosi. I am not a fan of hers either. But, this is some seriously stompy foot stuff here. 😒

Click here to read the letter, it’s a PDF file.

The President is on shaky ground. and he knows it.

Via New York Magazine’s Intelligencer

Dear Alt-Righters, Stop cloaking your hate in the Christian flag please.

I saw something that seriously hacked me off, it was in this:

Hannah Gais / Splinter: Leaked Emails Show How White Nationalists Have Infiltrated Conservative Media:

The quote:

Bennett elaborated on this strategy in an email from April 14, 2016. In response to a Commentary article on white nationalist efforts to take over conservative media, he argued that the present political situation worked in the movement’s favor. For one, he wrote, there was no way for establishment conservatives to act as a “gatekeeper” against them. “No one owns the commons of conservatism, and so it’s extremely vulnerable to outside subversion,” he observed. “This subversion would not have been able to occur without the Internet. Praise be.”

That “Praise be” is short for Praise be to the Lord. It is Christian saying, and to see these bigots use this, totally disgusts me.

Therefore, I have an open message to the “Alt-Right”, stop using Christian terms intertwined with your;…. and let’s just be real, it is really….White Supremacist, Anti-Semitic drivel that you all love to spill. 

Your beliefs are not Christian, there are not Christ-like and I truly believe that if you actually made it to Heaven, Jesus would truly say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Others: Lawyers, Guns & Money

How to and how not to address the subject of reparations for slavery in America

First the proper, dignified, and intelligent way to argue against reparations for Slavery.

And there’s the is the stupid way, as presented by one of the stupidest people in Conservatism today: (Via the Daily Beast)

If this is the best that the Republican Party and/or The Conservative movement can come up with, we’re screwed. She’s really giving Ann Coulter a run for her money.

Video: Tucker Carlson says, “War with Iran will end Trump’s Presidency”

Looks like me and Tucker Carlson think much alike.

Tucker is right, if we move against Iran, it’s over for Trump and possibly even America.

There goes Rev. Jerry Falwell’s career as a Pastor

Hoo boy, this is going to be a bombshell of a revelation for the Evangelical Christian World. If it is not, it should be.

Via Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Months before evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s game-changing presidential endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016, Falwell asked Trump fixer Michael Cohen for a personal favor, Cohen said in a recorded conversation reviewed by Reuters.

Falwell, president of Liberty University, one of the world’s largest Christian universities, said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photographs — the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife,” Cohen said in the taped conversation.

According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’ behalf.

The Falwells, through a lawyer, declined to comment for this article.

Cohen, who began a three-year prison sentence this week for federal campaign violations and lying to Congress, recounted his involvement in the matter in a recording made surreptitiously by comedian Tom Arnold on March 25. Portions of the recording — in which Cohen appeared to disavow parts of his guilty plea — were first reported April 24 by The Wall Street Journal.

The Falwells enlisted Cohen’s help in 2015, according to the source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the year Trump announced his presidential candidacy. At the time, Cohen was Trump’s confidant and personal lawyer, and he worked for the Trump Organization.

The Falwells wanted to keep “a bunch of photographs, personal photographs” from becoming public, Cohen told Arnold. “I actually have one of the photos,” he said, without going into specifics. “It’s terrible.”

Now, Trump loyalists will dismiss this as another lie from someone what’s reputation is in question. But, if that Church Falwell Pastors and the evangelical world is smart, they’ll hold him to account about this.

Others: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Splinter, Axios, The Week, Daily Kos, Washington Times, The Daily Caller, ABC News and Mediaite

Sexual Abuse in the Baptist Church

This is something I know too well about.

From the Houston Chronicle:


Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders.


She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. It was the first of many assaults that Vasquez said destroyed her teenage years and, at 18, left her pregnant by the Southern Baptist pastor, a married man more than a dozen years older.


In June 2008, she paid her way to Indianapolis, where she and others asked leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and its 47,000 churches to track sexual predators and take action against congregations that harbored or concealed abusers. Vasquez, by then in her 40s, implored them to consider prevention policies like those adopted by faiths that include the Catholic Church.

“Listen to what God has to say,” she said, according to audio of the meeting, which she recorded. “… All that evil needs is for good to do nothing. … Please help me and others that will be hurt.”

Days later, Southern Baptist leaders rejected nearly every proposed reform.

The abusers haven’t stopped. They’ve hurt hundreds more.

Read the rest

This story is a personal for me and it does hit home quite a bit. When I was 9 years old; a man, who is now deceased, attempted to molest me in a Independent Baptist Church’s School. This school has been closed for many years. But, the mental scars from this, have never left me.

The Pastor of this now defunct Baptist Church ended up resigning in disgrace over an adultery scandal. What I will say to those conservatives who will dismiss this as an attack piece of Christians, is this: This story is very true and it is one that I know too well about. The abuse, the attempt to cover it up and put blame on the victim are all too real.

The sad part is that there is not much that the Southern Baptist Convention can do about it. As the bylaws of the SBC are designed as such, that the SBC is merely a Missionary Organization and does not control their local Churches. It is simply a missionary support clearing house, of sorts.

My prayers are with these victims and their families. I know the pain, I have been there and it is very terrible.

Others:

Russell Moore and The American Conservative

Inching Closer to the Mark

WSJ reports that now some businesses are refusing to take cash money in America and in the U.K.:


Sam Schreiber was mid-shampoo at a Drybar blow-dry salon in Los Angeles when someone from the front desk approached her stylist with an emergency: a woman was trying to pay for her blow-out with cash.
“There was this beat of silence,” says Ms. Schreiber, 33 years old. “She literally brought $40.”

More and more businesses like Drybar don’t want your money—the paper kind at least. It’s making things awkward for those who come ill prepared. After all, you can’t give back a hairdo, an already dressed salad or the two beers you already drank.


The salad chain Sweetgreen has stopped accepting cash in nearly all its locations. Most Dig Inns—which serve locally sourced, healthy fast food—won’t take your bills either. Starbucks went cashless at a Seattle location in January, and at some pubs in the U.K., you can no longer get a pint with pound notes. The practice of not accepting cash has become popular enough to catch the attention of American lawmakers.


Ms. Schreiber was tempted to wait and see how the Drybar employees would handle the situation with the customer, who had no credit or debit card with her; instead, she intervened from the shampoo bowl. “I said, ‘I can just pay for her and she can give me cash or Venmo me,’ ” she says.
A few moments later, one of the employees came back to hand her the $40 and expressed thanks on behalf of the stranger. The staff also offered her a second mimosa, which are free to customers. “I kind of wanted to be, like, I should get a free updo or something,” she says. “I basically was…the bank for them.” Drybar declined to comment.

Hmmm… Now where have I heard this before?

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
(Revelation 13:11-18 KJV)

It’s happening, slowly but surely.

Update: Here it is in graphic form:

click here to read about this

Greg Stier’s warped idea about true Christianity

First of all, let me say this, this isn’t a “Christian Blog” or even a “Fundamental Baptist Blog.” It is a political one, which happens to be owned by a Fundamental Baptist Christian. Albeit, not a very good one, or one that’s active in Church at the moment. In fact, a while back, I removed all the Christian stuff from this blog.  I explained it at the time here:

Here are the reasons why I have removed all that stuff. First of all, why I have removed the Christianity part of this blog is this right here: for one, I don’t believe I am even remotely qualified to sit and talk about Christianity in any sort of depth anymore. I am so far removed from the Church world anymore, that it isn’t even really funny. I am also not exactly lined up with the independent fundamental Baptist Church anymore. I have not attended one of those churches since 2006. Don’t misunderstand me I still love the King James Bible and I still am a fundamental Baptist doctrinally and only doctrinally.

I haven’t attended one of those churches in a long time and I’m not exactly enamored with the church world anymore. Some people would say that I am a backslidden Christian. I disagree. I don’t take any illegal drugs ,I do not drink, I do vape instead of smoke. But, I don’t go to church anymore. So, having that sort of section on my blog here; is kind of hypocritical in my book.

So, now that I have gotten that out of the way, I was looking at my RSS reader and I happened across an article at the Christian Post, the original is here and I felt the need to comment on it. A one Greg Stier seems to have a warped idea about Christianity and Salvation, and even Spirituality:

Traditionally, most Christian schools (in my opinion) tend to produce little legalists or hell-bent hedonists. Students either buy off on the rules of said Christian school (and begin to gauge their spirituality by adherence to the list of do’s and don’ts) or they rebel against the list and, often times, the Lord.

I experienced this personally in the small Christian high school I graduated from in the 1980’s.

My school had a lot of rules that the students were expected to keep. The guys had to have their hair super short and the girls had to have their dresses super long. Even the cheerleaders had full length skirts (but the weird double-standard was that the guys on the basketball team wore shorts that were so short they would make George Michael of Wham! fame blush.)

While these words were never said out loud it felt like they were constantly being preached, “If you keep our rules, read daily from the King James version of the Bible, memorize verses of Scripture word for word (as well as the verse references), go to church every time the doors are open, don’t have sex before you’re married and share Christ at least once a week then you’ll be holy…like us.”

I kept the rules, memorized the verses, shared the Gospel weekly, was there every time the doors were open, and just said “no” to drugs, drink and sex. My ability to adhere to  the list was how I gauged my spirituality.

Down deep inside I had turned into a little legalist.

This legalism led to a consistent struggle with pride and lust in the deep dark crevices of my soul. It was a constant battle with the flesh, fueled by the aphrodisiac of legalism. As Colossians 2:23 reminds us, “Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom…but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”

And many of my fellow Christian schoolmates didn’t even try to fake a facade. They just gave into the flesh. They cut sail and turned into hedonists. They mocked the rules. They drank and partied. They rebelled against the list as well as the Lord.

Not much has changed since the 80’s. I still believe that, for the most part, Christian schools tend to produce legalists or hedonists.

Oh, where to begin with this bunch of nonsense! First of all, I have a problem, with a so-called “Spiritual Leader” who refers to serving The Lord Jesus Christ as “gauging one’s Spirituality.” You are either Saved by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ or you are not. There is no gauge, there is no good works versus Salvation. That is false doctrine.

Furthermore, I take offense to someone who mocks the King James Bible and those who happen to believe that it is the Word of God and mocks those who think that memorizing it, is a good idea. This man’s view of Christianity, the Bible, and Holy Living has become distorted and he is, as far as I can see it, an apostate. Now, is it the fault of that Christian School that those kids decided to rebel against the Word of God and the Lord? I think not. Is it the King James Bible’s fault that this kids decided to walk away from what they knew to be right? I think not. The truth is these kids CHOSE THEMSELVES to rebel and go their own way. Just like I did, when I backslide in 1992, after becoming bitter at a “Worship Leader” at Grace Assembly of God. I made that choice and nobody else.

Therefore, I make this statement, this man is blaming the wrong things and is attempting to promote a new, and possibly flawed way of promoting the gospel. There’s nothing new under the sun and this man’s attempt to place blame at the feet of King James believing Christians speaks of itself and him.

Erick Erickson writes a good one

I woke this morning and saw this piece here from Erick Erickson and he is anti-trump, I get that. But, this is much more than that. The part, I really can relate to, is this here:

The last year has reminded me that life is not fair, but God really is in the trenches with us. It reminds me of 2 Samuel 7. David intended to build a temple for God. But God says he does not need one. He was perfectly fine living in a tent, wandering a desert with his people. Our tent dwelling God wants a personal relationship with us. And frankly, after this past year, I crave that relationship more than any relationship with a politician, fan, or friend.

 

My time here is fleeting. So is yours. There’s no reason to hold on to grievances, no reason to avoid forgiveness, and no reason to devote our time to wasted idols. We are not all going to agree all the time on right and wrong. But life is too short not to show each other grace freely and move on.

 

This past year, I have recognized something important. The people who have turned politics into their god are the most miserable, malcontented people I know. Not everything is political and when you think it is, you have turned politics into religion. Life is not supposed to be political and death coming to visit me showed me how much more to life there is.

I can relate. When my Dad was on that ventilator and I didn’t know if I would ever see him alive again or now; my outlook changed and this blog, took a backseat, as did politics.

I wish Erick the best.