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The New Jesuit Pope & His Dark Past

The election of Pope Francis, previously Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has resurfaced a decades-old controversy surrounding the kidnappings of two Jesuit priests.

Bergoglio was a high-ranking official in the Society of Jesus of Argentina when a military junta was installed in the South American country in 1976. According to the Los Angeles Times, priests Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics were kidnapped in May of that year by the navy. “They surfaced five months later, drugged and seminude, in a field,” the Times reported. A 2005 lawsuit accused Bergoglio of unspecified involvement in the abductions. Reuters explains that “the military government secretly jailed [Yorio and Jalics] for their work in poor neighborhoods.”

A spokesman for Bergoglio called the claims “old slander.”

Reuters has more details:

“According to “The Silence,” a book written by journalist Horacio Verbitsky, Bergoglio withdrew his order’s protection of the two men after they refused to quit visiting the slums, which ultimately paved the way for their capture.Verbitsky’s book is based on statements by Orlando Yorio, one of the kidnapped Jesuits, before he died of natural causes in 2000. Both of the abducted clergymen survived five months of imprisonment.

‘History condemns him. It shows him to be opposed to all innovation in the Church and above all, during the dictatorship, it shows he was very cozy with the military,’ Fortunato Mallimacci, the former dean of social sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, once said.

Those who defend Bergoglio say there is no proof behind these claims and, on the contrary, they say the priest helped many dissidents escape during the military junta’s rule.”

Per the Associated Press, “Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the regime that he endorsed their work. Jalics refused to discuss it after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.” Bergoglio discussed the incident with Sergio Rubin, his authorized biographer.

More from AP:

“Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them – including persuading dictator Jorge Videla’s family priest to call in sick so that he could say Mass in the junta leader’s home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for the 2010 biography.”Bergoglio testified about the matter in 2010 after twice refusing to appear in open court, but “his answers were evasive, human rights attorney Myriam Bregman said.”

Crackdown on Liberty Pt. 13 – Conspiracy Of Silence

Yorkshire Television –

In 1993, a film crew from Yorkshire Television, in the UK, led by producer Nick Grey, and director Tim Tate, went to Omaha, Nebraska, in the USA, to make a documentary about an alleged pedophile ring.

Funded by the Discovery Channel in the USA, their proposed film would be first be broadcast in the UK, and Ireland, as part of Yorkshire Television’s documentary series: “First Tuesday”. A US broadcast would follow.

In Omaha, the film crew discovered the machinations of a vast operation functioning throughout the country, providing children to the wealthy, and the political establishment, for molestation, drug trafficking, and blackmail.

A year later, in 1994, the documentary, “Conspiracy of Silence” was to air in the UK, but during the final editing, with first broadcast approaching, the discovery channel inexplicitly withdrew support, and reimbursed Yorkshire Television the half million dollars it cost to make.

To this day, the documentary remains unaired.

What follows is an unpolished, yet coherent, rough cut of that documentary.

To watch the controversial documentary by Yorkshire Television, click on the link entitled “Conspiracy Of Silence“.

Radical Takeover Pt. 6 – Rome’s Support of Occupy Wall Street & World Bank

Rome’s engineering of communism, and social justice, over the last 300 years, reveals the hidden agenda within its campaign for global governance. The popes desire to offer the world a peace & prosperity plan that appears to be for the common good of mankind, when it has nothing to do with peace, and common good, and everything to do with deception and tyranny. Rome’s approach to winning the confidence of the world is the “Hegelian dialectic”, which creates opposition, and chaos, so that it can offer a solution that appeals to both sides of the opposition; thus producing a third way, in which everyone agrees on a compromise that works in favor of Rome, which manipulated the conflict from the beginning.

Rome’s participation within economic conflict can be seen below:

WashingtonPost.Com –

Does the Vatican’s new document calling for a “central world bank” and a “supranational authority” to advance the common economic good mean that Pope Benedict supports the complaints behind the Occupy Wall Street movement?

“ ‘The basic sentiment’ behind the protests is in line with Catholic social teaching and the new document on global finance issued Oct. 24 by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace,” council President Cardinal Peter Turkson, said to the National Catholic Reporter.

But a debate over the authority of the document, and the requirement (or not) of Catholics to support it, is now being waged by some of America’s most prominent Catholic writers, scholars and activists.

You can read the full text of the document, Note on financial reform from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, in the embed below. Among the findings are calls for:

The world’s peoples to adopt an ethic of solidarity as the animating core of their action

— A “world political authority” to manage “the growing interdependence between states and regions of the world becomes more and more obvious as well as the need for answers that are not just sectorial and isolated, but systematic and integrated, rich in solidarity and subsidiarity and geared to the universal common good”

— A “central world bank” that regulates the flow and system of monetary exchanges similar to the national central banks

NPR.Org –

Thomas J. Reese is a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, and a former editor of America, the national Catholic weekly magazine.

The Vatican released a document on the world economy on Monday that will cause heartburn in the Tea Party, but will be cheered by the folks occupying Wall Street.

This will surprise most Americans who think the pope is a Republican because he opposes abortion and gay marriage. But when it comes to economic justice, Pope Benedict XVI is to the left of President Obama. Heck, he is even to the left of Nancy Pelosi.Those who read the pope’s 2009 encyclical “Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth)” will not be surprised by this new document. In that encyclical, the pope decried “corruption and illegality” among economic and political elites in both rich and poor countries. He told financiers they must rediscover the ethical foundation of their activity and stop abusing savers. He wants a radical rethinking of economics so that it is guided not simply by profits but by “an ethics which is people-centered.”

Benedict notes that economic “inequalities are on the increase” across the globe. He does not accept the trickle-down theory, which says that all boats will rise with the economic tide. Benedict condemns the “scandal of glaring inequalities” and sees a role for government in the redistribution of wealth.

Yes, you heard that right. The pope favors the redistribution of wealth. When was the last time you heard a liberal Democrat use those words?

The pope also disagrees with those who believe that the economy should be free of government regulation. An unregulated economy “shielded from ‘influences’ of a moral character has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way,” he writes. This has “led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise.”

Critics have complained that the Occupy Wall Street movement has no program. The people in the movement could do a lot worse than to study what the pope has said about the economy. Sadly, few Catholics know of the church’s teaching on economic justice, which has been called the church’s best-kept secret.

The pope does not have a magic plan to restore economic prosperity, but he does focus on the values that a political and economic system must support. The priority, he says, must be “access to steady employment for everyone.” And that means not just here in the United States, but also in the developing world, where we must rescue “peoples, first and foremost, from hunger, deprivation, endemic diseases and illiteracy.”

So if you are having a tea party, don’t bother inviting the pope; he won’t come. But if you see a white, solar-powered car heading toward Wall Street, it might just be the popemobile.

CatholicNews.Com –

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The world authority envisioned by two popes as a way to ensure global peace and justice would not be a superpower, but primarily a moral force with limited jurisdiction, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope made his remarks Dec. 3 to a plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which was scheduled to meet for three days to discuss the theme of “political authority and global governance.”

In his address, Pope Benedict recalled that Blessed John XXIII had called for the “construction of a world community, with a corresponding authority,” to serve the “common good of the human family.”

The pope also cited his own 2009 encyclical “Caritas in Veritate,” in which he called for a “true world political authority” to ensure international cooperation, peace and environmental protection.

The church offers “principles of reflection, criteria of judgment and practical guidelines” for such an organization, but no concrete legal or political recommendations, Pope Benedict said in his address.

Yet the pope stipulated that the proposed body would not be a “superpower, concentrated in the hands of a few, which would dominate all peoples, exploiting the weakest.” The authority in question, he said, “must be understood, first and foremost, as a moral force, a power to influence in accordance with reason, that is, a participatory authority, limited by law in its jurisdiction.”

The council’s president, Cardinal Peter Turkson, told Vatican Radio that the agenda for the plenary session would include the topic of global financial governance as a response to the world financial crisis.

In October 2011, the council called for establishment of a “central world bank” to regulate the global financial industry and the international money supply as a step toward the world authority envisioned by Blessed John and Pope Benedict.

Pope Benedict’s address also touched on threats to human dignity from different forms of materialism in contemporary culture.

“The man of today is considered primarily from a biological point of view, or as ‘human capital,’ a ‘resource,’ a cog in a productive and financial machine that dominates him,” the pope said.

“New ideologies — such as the hedonistic and egoistic one of sexual and reproductive rights, or that of a disorderly financial capitalism that transgresses politics and dismantles the real economy — contribute to make the employee and his work seem ‘minor’ goods and to undermine the natural foundations of society, especially the family,” he said.

END

The conflict is capitalism vs. communism, and the compromise/”third way”, which is Communitarianism, which is a merging of capitalism & communism. Communitarianism is consistent with “Rerum Novarum – Catholic Social Teaching“, because it takes away from the individualism of capitalism by stressing the importance of individuals being within, and contributing to the common good of the, community. The community that Rome has in mind is “the world”.

Authors of Confusion Pt. 25 – Oprah’s “Life Class”

Longtime talk show host, actress, and philanthropist, Oprah Winfrey, is partnering with some of the biggest names in Christian media for her “life class“, wherein she teaches people how to live their best lives. Although Oprah has already made it clear that she doesn’t believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, she is now presenting herself as a Christian, and is partnering with well known pastors, who were never known for preaching the true gospel of salvation, to help her audience believe that living the Christian life is “one and the same” with living one’s best life. This means that sin, God’s righteousness, his judgment on sinners, repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ, is not mentioned in the classes. This deception is perpetrated by using Scripture out of context to affirm their messages of self-affirmation, self-exaltation, and self-reliance. Some of Oprah’s “life class” partners are T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Joel Osteen.

Oprah’s “life class” reduces Christian living down to being positive for the sake of being happy, and successful in life.

Nevertheless, Jesus did not come into the world to give people the joys of this world, but to take the penalty of the sins of mankind on himself, which is death, and to rise from the dead, so that everyone who believes in him would be freed from the bondage to sin, from God’s judgment on sinners, to reconcile them to himself, and to give them eternal life. This is the gospel, and Christian living is not attainable to those who do not believe this. Also, salvation will not be found by those who, knowingly, hold back the truth of the gospel for the sake of being popular, and loved by the world (1John 2:15-17, Galatians 1:7-10). Therefore, Oprah, and her partners, are deceiving millions with their man-made, and man-centered, philosophies, and they, themselves, are under God’s eternal punishment.

1John 2

15   Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16   For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world.
17   And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
18   Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
19   They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.

1John 4

3 And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4   You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5   They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
6   We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Colossians 2

4   Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
5   For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6   As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7   rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8   Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
9   For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10   and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

2Corinthians 10

3   For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
4   For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5   casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

John 5

3   For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
4   For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.
5   Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6   This is He who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
7   For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
8   And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.
9   If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.
10   He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
11   And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12   He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13   These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

2Corinthians 5

14   For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15   and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
16   Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17   Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18   Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19   that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20   Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21   For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Radical Takeover Pt. 3 – Rome’s Extreme Liberal Stance on Gun Control

Rome presents itself to the world as representing the views of conservatives, yet there is an extreme liberal side to Rome that should be noted. One extreme liberal view of Rome is its stance on gun control, as stated below.

TheBlaze.Com –

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican praised President Barack Obama’s proposals for curbing gun violence, saying they are a “step in the right direction.”

The Vatican’s chief spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Saturday that 47 religious leaders have appealed to members of the U.S. Congress “to limit firearms that are making society pay an unacceptable price in terms of massacres and senseless deaths.”

“I am with them,” Lombardi said, in an editorial carried on Vatican Radio, lining up the Vatican’s moral support in favor of firearm limits.

`’The initiatives announced by the American administration for limiting and controlling the spread and use of weapons are certainly a step in the right direction,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi renewed Vatican appeals for disarmament and encouragement for measures to fight “the production, commerce and contraband of all types of arms,” an industry fueled by `’enormous economic and power interests.”

Continue Reading…

USCatholic.Org –

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Catholic Church’s position on gun control is not easy to find; there are dozens of speeches and talks and a few documents that call for much tighter regulation of the global arms trade, but what about private gun ownership?

The answer is resoundingly clear: Firearms in the hands of civilians should be strictly limited and eventually completely eliminated.

But you won’t find that statement in a headline or a document subheading. It’s almost hidden in a footnote in a document on crime by the U.S. bishops’ conference and it’s mentioned in passing in dozens of official Vatican texts on the global arms trade.

The most direct statement comes in the bishops’ “Responsibility, Rehabilitation and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice” from November 2000.

“As bishops, we support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer — especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner — and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns.”

That’s followed by a footnote that states: “However, we believe that in the long run and with few exceptions — i.e. police officers, military use — handguns should be eliminated from our society.”

That in turn reiterates a line in the bishops’ 1990 pastoral statement on substance abuse, which called “for effective and courageous action to control handguns, leading to their eventual elimination from our society.”

On the world stage, the Vatican has been pushing for decades for limitations not just on conventional weapons of warfare, such as tanks and missiles, but also for stricter limitations on the illegal and legal sale, trade and use of small firearms and weapons, said Tommaso Di Ruzza, the expert on disarmament and arms control at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Di Ruzza told Catholic News Service that the Vatican is one of just a handful of states that would like to see small arms and weapons included in the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, which would better regulate the flow of conventional arms.

He said while many countries are open to limits on larger weapons systems, most nations aren’t interested in regulating small arms even though they “cause more deaths than all other arms (conventional and non-conventional) together.”

The Vatican’s justice and peace council is working to update its 1994 document, “The International Arms Trade,” to further emphasize the importance of enacting concrete controls on handguns and light weapons, he said.

The current document calls on every nation and state “to impose a strict control on the sale of handguns and small arms. Limiting the purchase of such arms would certainly not infringe on the rights of anyone.”

The more weapons there are in circulation, the more likely terrorists and criminals will get their hands on them, the document said.

The Catholic Church recognizes that “states will need to be armed for reason of legitimate defense,” as Pope Benedict XVI said in a message to a Vatican-sponsored disarmament conference in April 2008.

However, armed defense is something appropriate for nations, not for all individual citizens in a state where rule of law is effective, said Di Ruzza.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, individuals have a right and a duty to protect their own lives when in danger, and someone who “defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow.”

How that “lethal blow” could be licitly wielded is unclear, but the catechism clarifies that repelling the aggressor must be done “with moderation” in order to be “lawful” in the eyes of the church; using “more than necessary violence” would be unlawful, it says.

According to the catechism, the right to use firearms to “repel aggressors” or render them harmless is specifically sanctioned for “those who legitimately hold authority” and have been given the duty of protecting the community.

Di Ruzza said that in “a democracy, where there is respect for institutions (of law), the citizen relinquishes his right to revenge onto the state,” which, through its law enforcement and courts system, aims to mete out a fair and just punishment.

“There is a sort of natural right to defend the common interest and the common good, and in 1791 (when the United States passed the Second Amendment), my right to have a weapon served the common good because there wasn’t an army; the democratic institutions were young and a little fragile, and I could have been useful in a time of war as a soldier,” said Di Ruzza.

But once a nation has a functioning army, police force and court system, “do I still serve the common good with my gun or do I put it at even greater danger?” and promote a lawless kind of “street justice where if you steal my car, I shoot you,” he asked.

The Vatican’s justice and peace council’s 1994 document said, “In a world marked by evil and sin, the right of legitimate defense by armed means exists,” but, Di Ruzza said, it wasn’t lauding the potential of weaponry as much as it was lamenting the existence of arms in an imperfect world.

Nations have a duty, the document said, to reduce if not eliminate the causes of violence.

And as Pope Benedict wrote in his message to the disarmament conference, no reduction or elimination of arms can happen without eliminating violence at its root.

Every person “is called to disarm his own heart and be a peacemaker everywhere,” the pope said.

AmericaMagazine.Org –

Why Gun Control is a Religious Issue by James Martin, SJ

These shootings would not have happened if the shooter did not have such easy access to firearms and ammunition. So religious people need to be invited to meditate on the connection between the more traditional “life issues” and the overdue need for stricter gun control. The oft-cited argument, “Guns don’t kill people, people do,” seems unconvincing. Of course people kill people; as people also procure abortions, decide on euthanasia and administer the death penalty. Human beings are agents in all these matters. The question is not so much how lives are ended, but how to make it more difficult to end lives.

Pro-life religious people need to consider how it might be made more difficult for people to procure weapons that are not designed for sport or hunting or self-defense. Why would anyone be opposed to firmer gun control, or, to put it more plainly, laws that would make it more difficult for mass murders to occur? If one protests against abortions clinics because they facilitate the taking of human life, why not protest against largely unregulated suppliers of firearms because they facilitate the taking of human life as well?

This stance will most likely be unpopular politically. Some on the political right will object my stance on firmer gun control. Some of the political left will object to my stance on abortion. But that doesn’t bother me, because I am not political. I am religious. And so I am for the sanctity of life. Therefore, I am for stricter gun-control laws that will protect lives, not end them.

Continue Reading…

Radical Takeover Pt. 1 – CULTURAL MARXISM: The Corruption of America

OriginalIntentDoc –

A James Jaeger Film featuring RON PAUL, Congressman/Presidential Candidate; PAT BUCHANAN, Author/Political Analyst; G. EDWARD GRIFFIN, Author/Producer; EDWIN VIEIRA, Author/Constitutional Attorney and TED BAEHR, Founder of MovieGuide and Christian Film & TV Commission — CULTURAL MARXISM explores the love affair with collectivist ideologies that has lead to ever bigger government and the welfare-warfare state. Find out how the Frankfurt School, a Marxist splinter group, established itself at Columbia University and began “the long march through the institutions.” The idea was, and still is, to infiltrate every corner of Western culture and pervert traditional Christian values with “political correctness” and Marxist ideologies. The ultimate goal is to destroy American free-enterprise capitalism by undermining its economic engine, the Middle Class, and the basic building block of society: the Family Unit.

To watch the film, click on the link entitled “CULTURAL MARXISM: The Corruption of America“.

War on Consciousness Pt. 27 – Hubris

pope_in_cope_2

2Timothy 3 (Apostle Paul approx. 66 – 67 AD)

1   But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2   For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3   unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4   traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5   having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
6   For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
7   always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8   Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;
9   but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Why did the Son of God become flesh? (St. Thomas Aquinas 13th century)

460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”:⁷⁸ “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.”⁷⁹ “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”⁸⁰ “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”⁸¹

The Popes claiming to be God.

Christian Mystic, Jane Lead’s, 1679 prophecy of an elite church that will become immortal, convert the whole world through signs and wonders, take over the world before Christ return, and bear the mark of their god.

Mormons claiming that God was a man, who lived a perfect life, and became a god, and that people who follow Mormon doctrine, perfectly, can become gods as well. (Mid 1800’s)

The “New Age” religion’s claim that people are gods. 1970’s

The Christian cult leaders, who claim to be gods. 1960’s to the present.

Glenn Beck teaching his followers to take the name “I Am”.

The result of this longstanding hubris will be the following:

2Thessalonians 2

1   Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2   not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.
3   Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
4   who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
5   Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
6   And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
7   For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
8   And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
9   The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
10   and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11   And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
12   that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Acts 17

30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.

Test All Things Pt. 3 – Wimpy Christians & The Culture War

OneNewsNow.Com –

A respected Southern Baptist pastor and author says “wimpy” pastors and laypersons are the reason Christians are losing the culture war.

Why are many Christian leaders silent when religious freedom comes under attack? That question was raised Tuesday evening by Fox News Channel’s Bill O’Reilly and posed to Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas and author of How Can I Know: Answers to Life’s 7 Most Important Questions.

“I think one reason is a lot of Christian leaders have the wrong idea about Jesus,” Jeffress replied when asked the question. “They see Jesus as this little, wimpy guy who walked around plucking daisies and eating birdseed and saying nice things, but never doing anything controversial. The fact is, Jesus did confront his culture with truth — and he ended up being crucified because of it.”

The Dallas pastor chastised pastors who shy away from controversy.

“Wimpy pastors produce wimpy Christians — and that is why we are losing this culture war,” he emphasized.

These are indeed some bold, and hard hitting, comments. But are they true? Are Christians wimps for not participating in the culture war? Has Christ called his church to go to war with the culture? Did Jesus go to war with the culture?

First, to set the record straight, there are many pastors going to war with the culture, and are even willing to be led in the culture war by false teachers, such as, the historical revisionist, David Barton, Glenn Beck, the Mormon, Roman Catholics, and even “Word of Faith” & New Apostolic Reformation” heretics. So it wouldn’t be accurate to claim that pastors are not engaged in the culture war. Mr. Jeffress might not like the amount of people involved, but he should be realistic in his observation, because the majority of Western society holds to a secular world-view; thus out numbering those who still hold to traditional Christian morality.

Nevertheless, Mr. Jeffress’ statements should be challenged.

Did Jesus, in fact, go to war with his culture, by trying to compel the Jews to keep the Old Covenant law? It is true that he rightly accused the Jews, and even the leaders, by telling them that none of them keeps the law, and that they even nullify the law by replacing it with their own traditions (John 7-19, Matthew 15:3-9). But was it the law that Jesus was telling the people to obey? Jesus did not command the Jews to do a better job at keeping the law. Instead, he told them to do “the work of God”, which is to “believe in Him whom He [God] sent… Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life” (John 6:29-48). That was Jesus’ messages, and that is what he confronted his culture with, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Nowhere can it be found in the gospel, or even the epistles, where Jesus is commanding the people to do better at keeping the law. Instead, he shows the people their lost and sinful state, by showing them how they have always broken the law, and cannot keep the law, because of their sinful heart. This was made evident when he said “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:18-30). Sinful man, even orthodox Jews, cannot live up to this standard “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8). That is why Jesus said “You must be born again”, because “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (John 3:7, 2Corinthians 5:17).

Did Jesus tell his Apostles to fight a culture war, when he commissioned them after his resurrection? No, instead, he told them to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matthew 19:20). None of Jesus’ commands to his disciples had to do with fighting for control of the world’s culture. Instead, his commands were centered on salvation from sin, and from a world that is mark for destruction, and that is what the Apostles preached, saying “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead”, and “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 30:31, Acts 16:31).

Is Christ’s church engaged in war of any kind? Yes, the church is, in fact, engaged in, and called to a war. But it is not a war against the culture, because “though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh”, and the war for the culture is a war against people, for control of a nation, which is not what Christ commanded the church to do (2Corinthians 10:3). Yet, “from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12). Christ church, therefore, is engaged in a spiritual war “against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:10). These opposing forces wage war on the truth, which the church is called to contend earnestly for, by refuting the heresies of false teachers. This war is fought by abiding in the truth, and by “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2Corinthians 10:5, Ephesians 6:14-18, Jude 1:3-4).

Many false teachers fight against the truth, by teaching the church, and the world, to do things in Christ’s name that Jesus never commanded, and the church must expose their lies, and “mark those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which they’ve learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18). “These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage”, but Christ church must “remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit (Jude 1:16-19). Jesus also gave this warning when he told his disciples to “enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:13-20).

Therefore, Christ has called his church to engaged in a war, but it is not a war for the culture, which is doomed, according to Scripture (Acts 17:30-30, 1John 2:15-17). Instead, the church is engaged in a war for the truth of who the true God is, and for the truth of the true gospel of salvation, because many false prophets are in the world, and they are leading the world to obey false gods, false Christs, and false gospel (1John 4:1-6, 1John 5:19-21). Some are even telling the church that Jesus wants them to take charge of the culture through civil law, or through bringing about world peace in his name, even though Christ has already said “do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.'” (Matthew 10:34-36). The hatred, and lack of peace, is directly linked with the world’s hatred of Christ, “because he testified of it that its works are evil”, and the church must do the same, through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 7:7, John 16:8).

Those who are not willing to follow Christ’s commands to engage in this spiritual warfare are fearful. This is because they fear sinful man more than God, who is able to kill, and send those who disobeyed him to Hell, and the “Lake of Fire” (Matthew 10:29, Revelation 21:7-8). Those are the true wimpy Christians, who will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven, just as those who have told lies in Christ name (Revelation 21:7-8). That is why the Scriptures says “…all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone…” (Revelation 21:8). “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 1:12-13). To take the Lord’s name in vain, by telling people that God wants them to do certain things that he never told them, is not a small matter, “for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

Christians who fight in a war, who have not been commanded by God to do so, are fooled into waring against the very people that Christ has commanded them to preach the gospel to, so that they will repent, believe the gospel, and be saved, from their sins, and from this evil world. Believers are called to “set their minds on things above, not on things on the earth”, because “no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (Colossians 3:2, 2Timothy 2:4). The church’s war is centered upon salvation, and upon making disciples. Christ does not burden his people with the hopeless cares of this world, that is ruled over by Satan, who is “the god of this world” (2Crointhians 4:4, John 16:11, Revelation 12:12). Instead, he says “I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. ‘ He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’, as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 2:24-29).

Revelation 22

12   And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13   I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14   Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15   For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
16   I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
17   And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
18   For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19   And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20   He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21   The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Crackdown on Liberty Pt. 12 – Gun Control

Guncontrol

USAToday.Com –

The author of a report on Australia’s sweeping gun reform program that was instituted after a mass killing in 1996 says the United States would have many fewer deaths by dramatically decreasing the number of households with guns, the Sydney Morning-Herald reported.

The National Firearms Agreement — reached among the political parties less than two weeks after a gunman killed 35 people and injured 23 at a Tasmanian seaside resort — cut firearm homicide by 59% over the next two decades and firearms suicide by 74%, the report showed.

The law banned semiautomatic and automatic rifles and shotguns and put in place a mandatory buy-back program for newly banned weapons.

The buyback led to the destruction of 650,000 guns, the Sunshine Coast Daily reported.

In August, following the movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colo., former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who instituted the NFA, wrote in the Melbourne daily The Age that the United States should follow in Australia’s footsteps.

“Australia is a safer country as a result of what was done in 1996,” he wrote. “It will be the continuing responsibility of current and future federal and state governments to ensure the effectiveness of those anti-gun laws is never weakened. The U.S. is a country for which I have much affection. There are many American traits which we Australians could well emulate to our great benefit. But when it comes to guns we have been right to take a radically different path.”

Andrew Leigh, as an academic at the Australian National University, published research in 2010 on the NFA and found that the gun buyback program lowered the proportion of Australian homes with guns from 15% to 8%.

”Our gun buyback took about a fifth of our guns out of circulation but it approximately halved the number of gun-owning households,” Leigh, who is also a Labor party MP, said, the Morning-Herald reported. ‘If the U.S. could dramatically decrease the number of households with guns, it would have many fewer deaths.”

Would the unarmed citizens of Australia agree with this assessment? To hear their opinions on this matter, click on the link entitled “Australia Protests Gun Ban Wake Up American Your Next“.

A 2011 study by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center of the Australian program noted that while 13 gun massacres (involving the death of 4 or more people at one time) occurred in Australia in the 18 years before the NFA, resulting in more than one hundred deaths, there had been no massacres since.

READ: The full report on the Australia gun buyback program

Leigh said that he does not foresee any retreat from the policy by major parties, although the Australian Party has vowed to fight for shooter’s rights if it gains seats in the Senate next year.

Australian native Rupert Murdoch, who is now a U.S. citizen, has strongly echoed the calls for new restrictions on automatic weapons, citing the Australian example.

After the Sandy Hook massacre on Friday, Murdoch wrote on Twitter: ”Terrible news today. When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy.”

That, says the Morning Herald, prompted a none-too-subtle comment from Australian Liberal Malcolm Turnbull about Murdoch’s U.S. cable network. “I suspect they will find the courage when Fox News enthusiastically campaigns for it.”

In his 2010 report, Leigh wrote that there were several important factors in assessing the extent to which the result of the Australian gun buyback program could be extrapolated to other countries.

Among them:

Australian borders are more easily controlled than in countries that have land borders;
Australia’s government in general and its policing and customs services in particular are highly organized and effective;
The NFA had an extremely high degree of political support and was quite competently executed;
The buyback was accompanied by a uniform national system for licensing and registration of firearms.

FoxNews.Com –

President Obama on Wednesday tapped Vice President Biden to lead an administration-wide effort looking at gun control and other measures in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting last week.

“The fact that this problem is complex can no longer be an excuse for doing nothing,” Obama said.

The move marks the first concrete step by the White House toward crafting new firearms restrictions. The president did not announce any major policy decisions on Wednesday, but said the task force of Cabinet officials and outside organizations led by Biden would submit legislative proposals to him no later than January.

Some lawmakers, in the wake of the tragedy, have called for a broad-based response, looking at everything from mental health to school security to American culture. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., in a call soon joined by others, proposed a national commission examining the entertainment industry and particularly video games.

Obama and top administration officials suggest the response to the Newtown, Conn., mass murder could include a range of recommendations. But the focus, given the debate that has accelerated on Capitol Hill in recent days, is likely to be gun control.

The president said Wednesday that he chose Biden to lead the task force in part because of his role in crafting the 1994 assault-weapons ban. Obama spoke favorably of the ban, as well as proposals to strengthen background checks and ban high-capacity magazines. The president tried to walk a line between assuring Americans that gun rights would largely be protected, while making the case for some new restrictions.

“The fact is the vast majority of gun owners in America are responsible,” he said. “But you know what — I am also betting that the majority, the vast majority of responsible law-abiding gun owners would be some of the first to say that we should be able to keep an irresponsible law-breaking few from buying a weapon of war.”

Obama said he would use “all the powers” of his office to prevent more tragedies. “We won’t prevent them all, but that can’t be an excuse not to try,” he said.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the administration will craft proposals for Congress to consider over the next few weeks. He said a “strong” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also important.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday that Obama is “actively supportive” of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s, D-Calif., push to bring back the assault-weapons ban. He also said the president supports closing the so-called gun show loophole.

Gun-rights advocates have started to push back on the swift call for more firearms regulation. The National Rifle Association, after remaining silent in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, released its first — albeit brief — statement on Tuesday, and announced it would be holding a major press conference on Friday.

The White House sees some urgency in formulating a policy response to the shooting, even as Obama and his top aides are consumed with averting the looming fiscal crisis before tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January.

As many pro-gun lawmakers have called for a greater focus on mental health issues and the impact of violent entertainment, aides say Obama also prefers a holistic approach.

“It’s a complex problem that requires more than one solution,” Carney said Tuesday. “It calls for not only re-examining our gun laws and how well we enforce them, but also for engaging mental health professionals, law-enforcement officials, educators, parents and communities to find those solutions.”

Still, much of the immediate focus after the shooting is on gun control, an issue that has been dormant in Washington for years. Obama expended little political capital on gun issues during his first term, despite several mass shootings, including a movie theater attack in Aurora, Colorado, in the midst of this year’s presidential campaign.

The White House has begun to signal that Obama may be more proactive on gun issues following the murders of the elementary school youngsters, ages 6 and 7.

The policy process Obama announced Wednesday was expected to include input from the departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services. The heads of those agencies met with Obama at the White House on Monday.

To learn about the affect of stricter gun control laws in Washington D.C., click on the link entitled “Gun Control Made For Higher Crime Rates“.

To learn about the affect that banned firearms is having in South Africa, click on the link entitled “South Africa Gun Control And Crime Rates“.

Related article: “After Obama win, U.S. backs new U.N. arms treaty talks“

Glenn Beck Defends Gay Marriage

Glenn-beck

HuffingtonPost.Com –

Glenn Beck has reiterated his surprisingly lenient stance on same-sex marriage in a new interview.

In a conversation with Penn Jillette, Beck stopped short of endorsing marriage equality, but nonetheless argued against government involvement in personal affairs.

“Let me take the pro-gay marriage people and the religious people,” he said. “I believe that there is a connecting dot there that nobody is looking at, and that’s the Constitution.”

He then noted: “The question is not whether gay people should be married or not, the question is why is the government involved in our marriage?”

It’s not the first time the author and former Fox News host has expressed a less-than-rigid view of same-sex marriage. In 2010, Beck told Bill O’Reilly that he didn’t believe allowing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) couples to tie the knot posed much of a threat to the country.

Beck even quoted Thomas Jefferson in his argument: “If it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket, what difference is it to me?”

2Timothy 3

1   This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2   For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3   Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4   Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5   Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Psalm 1

1   Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2   But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3   And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4   The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5   Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6   For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.