Thursday, March 23, 2023

Woe to the Bloody City

 

The political world has always had scamps and miscreants who told lies that people believed, and they got away with their deception.

Why Fox News Needs to Free Tucker, Douglas Wilson

It’s different this time, best captured in the following:

We know they are lying.

They know they are lying.

They know that we know they are lying.

We know that they know we know they are lying.

And still they continue to lie.

— Alexander Solzhenitsyn (or not)

No one is getting away with the deception – at least not getting away with keeping the deception hidden.  They don’t even care about hiding it. 

Of course, those who lie know that they are lying; the elite who go along with the lies know that these are lies; the government officials that go along with the lies know that these are lies; even many of the riff-raff go along with the lies, knowing that these are lies.  The worst is that Christians go along with the lies, knowing that these are lies.

Wilson lists a few of the more recent lies: vaccines, climate change, viruses, and election integrity.  One could identify a dozen in the last ten years, and a hundred in the last century.  If one measures corruption based on the number of lies (and murders) committed by a state actor, the United States government – given the size, scope and international reach of this hydra – is clearly the most corrupt state on earth.

This is because as a people we are getting exactly the kind of leadership we deserve. We tolerated the little lies for a long time, and now they are big lies, and we don’t know what to do.

What lies did we tolerate?  Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, Assad gassing his own citizens, three buildings with two planes and a few box cutters, they hate us for our freedom, the one democracy in the Middle East, peaceful Ukraine was the ideal democracy.  That’s just a sampling from the last couple of decades.  Go a little further back: USS Liberty, Gulf of Tonkin, the atomic bombs were necessary to end the war, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor without provocation, Remember the Maine.  For a longer list, try this.

So we have gotten to the place where the wickedness is open and manifest, but there appears to be some sort of operational truce—and the whole thing seems more than a little ominous to me.

The truce?  Per Wilson, the liberals know they are lying, and are fine with it.  The conservatives may not be fine with the lying, but don’t want to destroy faith in the state by exposing it.  I don’t see the lines drawn so clearly, but I fully understand his point.  And it is ominous, as no one in a position to do anything about any of it is speaking up.  (Has it come to looking to Elon Musk to save us from ourselves?)

Name one institution in our public life that has not been destabilized by all the lying.

Wilson offers no examples.  Neither do I.  Can you?  Government at every level, law enforcement of all stripes, universities, charitable institutions, think tanks.  Even many Christian churches. 

To better understand our current condition, Wilson cites Richard Sibbes:

“When sin grows ripe, and abounds in a land or nation, at such a time as this a man may know there is some fearful judgment approaching. But when is sin ripe? When it is impudent, when men grow bold in sin, making it their whole course and trade of life. When men’s wicked courses are their common lifestyle, and they don’t even know how to do otherwise . . . The more sin, the more danger.”

Isn’t this our world?  Everything around us is based on lies, from our cultural hierarchies to our money to our economy to our overseas purposes to our history.  Continuing with Sibbes:

“When men are secure in their sinning, it is as if they are daring the God of heaven to do his worst.”

It is exactly the picture I see.  It is the pictures of the many satanic events and images now publicly flouted by those in the highest seats of human authority.

Conclusion

John 8: 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

How did we get here?  Wilson answers:

We thought we could have honesty and integrity and good government without having to confess the name of Christ. In all of this, secularism has been the foundational lie. We have been unwilling to bring our Christian faith to bear on public affairs in any direct manner. And because of this, we are now dwelling in clown world.

And this points to the institution that carries the largest weight in this fall.  It isn’t even that we have been unwilling to bring our faith to bear, it is that many churches are on the side of the lying team – from gender confusion to Scofield’s dream for supporting the chosen people.

… whatever else the separation of church and state means, it does not mean you get to tell lies so long as the content of the lies was political.

Epilogue

From the book of Nahum, regarding Nineveh:

Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Woe to the bloody city,

all full of lies and plunder—

no end to the prey!

 

Behold, I am against you,

declares the Lord of hosts,

and will lift up your skirts over your face;

and I will make nations look at your nakedness

and kingdoms at your shame.

21 comments:

  1. Do you believe in coincidence?

    Immediately after reading this, I opened up the comments in an article on Zero Hedge (https://www.zerohedge.com/political/circus-politics-are-intended-distract-us-dont-be-distracted) and found this statement,

    "They even know they are all going to hell forever. But they still do what they do."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As V said, "Only the illusion of coincidence."

      To remove any doubts and suspicions...I wrote this blog post five days ago, scheduled it for publishing today....

      Delete
  2. But what to do? As a start I suggested this: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/02/ira-katz/a-prayer-for-our-time/

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  3. a Hearty AMEN B.M. Great Encouragement from you and Mr. Crush recently. Not gonna be an Ostrich no more. Pulling my head out of the hole. Nott so much with posting stuff you guys do that. It seems to me you guys are real Preachers! Take what I get from here out onto the street where I live. Time to stand.

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  4. One of the plainest instructions in the whole Bible - The Great Commission - Matthew 28:16-20
    16The 11 disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them.p 17When they saw Him, they worshiped,q but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.r 19Go, therefore, and make discipless oft all nations,u baptizingv them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember,w I am with you always,x to the end of the age.”y - https://www.biblehub.com/hcsb/matthew/28.htm - is there any part of our world exempted here? Name an institution that Jesus exempted!

    And yet, how many churches are doing this?

    No, a two week mission trip to South Africa or America in midwinter is NOT making disciples!

    Frankly, I'll admit that it took me years before the scales fell off my own eyes.....but eventually they did....even if I see darkly, as Paul stated.

    The Church is the world's conscience - PERIOD! It cannot hide in a closet.....yet, as an institution, it has become nearly invisible or even worse - an accomplice to DaSynagogue of Satan.

    Here's what's going on - "Yet more worrying than the specific examples cited by Barna is the more general point: pastors are frightened of offending their congregants. In part, this is a function of choice: the West, especially America, has for centuries offered a religious marketplace where churches effectively compete for customers, a mindset reinforced by the wider consumerist ethos of the post-World War II economies. And that means awareness of what the consumers will find attractive and what they will not tolerate is critical to the business of church." - Carl Trueman

    It is past TIME – for Christians to look in the MIRROR! - http://crushlimbraw.blogspot.com/2022/02/it-is-time-for-christians-to-look-in.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As a pastor, Trueman's comment is exactly right. The whole system needs to be dismantled and almost totally reconstructed at the local level. Modern "christians" are so "heavenly focused" that they are no earthly good. Like salt that has no flavor. It all begins with Truth education. In every realm. All of Christ for all of Life!
      What would a true "Christian culture" look like at the local level. Stop thinking BIG and start thinking small. Seek first the kingdom of God and HIS Righteousness. It begins with a new vision.

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    2. AB, it strikes me that this is what Doug Wilson is attempting in Moscow, Idaho.

      Delete
    3. Yes it is. I've been there. 50 years into it now. His father started the work there. But it needs to include all Bible believing churches working as One: loving God, loving one another, loving your neighbor. Justice, mercy, faithfulness. The Golden Rule. The major obstacle are the divisions in the churches, which goes back to the pastors.

      Delete
  5. But but but the Democrats are compassionate! They just want to help people. How can you be against that? (sarcasm)

    https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-ethics-of-liberty-children-and.html

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  6. "many churches are on the side of the lying team"

    Churches are afraid of losing their tax exempt status, so they will sit and roll over whenever the hedonist morons running our political institutions tell them to. Where are the St. Ambroses and St. Joseph's willing to defy the emperors and kings? I know of only a few, but perhaps that's all it will take to save us from God's wrath.

    Abraham: "Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked? 24 If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein?"

    God: "If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

    Abraham: "What about 45? 40? 30? 20? 10?"

    God: "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten."

    What a service Abraham did for us to "Jew" down God to 10 in order to save a city!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "Sin of Sodom".
      Most will say Sodomy of course.
      The sin was not sodomy all though As Paul wrote it is giving up of Natural affections.
      No Sodomy is the result.
      She and her sister were Arrogant, overfed and unconcerned.
      They were Haughty.
      They did not help the poor and needy.
      True religion is taking care of Orphans and widows and the needy of society in ways that strengthen them
      It is more easy and profitable to preach about Sodomy because that happens Outside.
      More difficult to preach about being overfed fat and lazy to the people inside.
      Take care of Inside the cup first.
      Count the cost before you engage in Battle.
      Do you have the internals for it?
      Don't try to be a copy cat like the 7 sons of Sceva.
      The devil knows well and learns better than we from our mistakes.

      Delete
  7. "The Counts and Tribunes came and urged me to cause the basilica to be quickly surrendered, saying that the Emperor was exercising his rights since everything was under his power. I answered that if he asked of me what was mine, that is, my land, my money, or whatever of this kind was my own, I would not refuse it, although all that I have belonged to the poor, but that those things which are God's are not subject to the imperial power. If my patrimony is required, enter upon it, if my body, I will go at once. Do you wish to cast me into chains, or to give me to death? It will be a pleasure to me." - St. Ambrose

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  8. "You never change things by fighting (or trying to reform) the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." Buckminster Fuller.

    How can we become a self-sufficient community where we truly love our neighbor as ourselves? How can our churches become a true force for Truth, Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness in the world? Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as
    it is in heaven.

    "In the days of these empires, God will set up His kingdom which shall never be destroyed ... and it shall break in pieces and consume all these empires and stand forever." Daniel 2:44



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  9. Peace Christian friends,

    On the basis of non censorship may this be published in good faith. I swear by the Almighty that everything I say here I do so with utmost sincerity and adherence to self consistent principle.

    There is another possibility I would like y'all to entertain. Trigger warnings apply though... please please see past them to my sincerity in wishing to help mediate and mitigate a division in understanding. Here we go:

    - "White Man's Burden" of spreading civilisation and Christianity around the world was an unprincipled endeavour, based on a powerful myopia that bore fruit in the cultural self destruction of the West that we see today.

    - One half of your people's (the Left half) will never forgive your forbears for its arrogance here, at least whilst there is no contrition or repentance from principle errors. Whole cultures, imperfect for certain, wholly maligned and smashed against the rock of Christian absolutist (and progress based) arrogance combined with profane (and propriety -less) scientific power that stems directly from Christian contradictions.

    - Secularised "progress" has been just as destructive for sure, and in the same way. This proves Tom Holland's "Dominion" case: "even atheism is Christian atheism, shot through with Christian assumptions."

    - Looking at the history of Chalcedon, Nicea, Irenius, Constantine, Augustine etc...the combination of a Christianity that achieved imperial state compulsion, and the utility for the state of choosing a form of Christianity that that could not tolerate slight diversity in the very perception and expression of the utimately ineffable, hence being inherently centralised... on the pro side is political (and psychological) levers from the centre and the coherency (if not unity) enforceable from that. On the con side is a tendency to constant splitting and infighting, on the basis of which say classical Hindus and Chinese (as pagan Constantine himself originally did) would simply shake their head at the sheer childishness of.

    - When you meet people's of high self evident spiritual development from say Eastern or Indigenous traditions and conclude on the basis of nothing but conjecture (or "faith" as very intensely held conjecture) that they are ultimately doomed unless saved by the Church... is this not a lie that a culture tells itself? A consolation that seeks to spread itself by turning everyone, by hook or by crook, to one's own worldview for the safety of that worldview? Is not making "the world safe for democracy" very much templated by a need in the very DNA of Pauline absolutist, heresy accusing Christianity of "making the world safe for our own dualistic worldview", albeit with surface (however sincere) promises of love, hope and faith?

    I believe in Jesus' teachings. I believe in the Signs he brought for the Jewish people's, and through them the world. He and his example have changed my life and have lent me a serenity in love for our Lord that fears no evil or death, in fact has pity for it and those obsessed with it. But St Paul never even quotes any of Jesus' parables or anything that he said and taught.... perhaps St Paul's teachings and Jesus' are useful to see as separate things. Jesus' words not strictly limited in intepretation by St Paul's framing does not have to be absolutist, dualistic and intolerant (again, love, faith and hope as side dressing notwithstanding) as St Paul's framing does.

    From the point of view of principle a side question: on what basis apart from the supremacy of the victors, does one accept Paul's revelations and Pentecostal experiences, and reject that of the Montanists that Tertullian for one was quite a avid supporter of?

    To go back to Jesus as the source of Light, and NOT having to go through the prism of St Paul's inner conflicts and divided will (and not denying there being wisdom and beauty in what he says)... Jesus indeed as the key to healing a divided world, Lord Willing.

    Shalom.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jesus was not the Source but the Door.
      The Father is the source.
      Jesus set up a Kingdom.
      The ones who entered the Kingdom of Jesus were kicked out of the temples of the Pharisees.
      They were not allowed to participate in the free bread and circus of the rotting empire
      the Kingdom of Jesus was filled with forgiven,non perfect people.
      Troubles arose.
      Paul was raised up to minister to the Ekklesia .
      ((not church).
      see https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ecclesia-ancient-Greek-assembly)
      in each town or city where he and his helpers were led.
      Jesus agreed with Moses and Paul agreed with Jesus.
      The Kingdom was not to be taken by force.
      Something changed later on when men became so self assured that they are the only correct ones.
      An Enemy has done this.
      Do not worry that there are weeds in the wheat.
      All Empires at the top of their game claim this "Exceptional ism". Then they fall.
      as will the current one.
      Will this be the last one to fall ?
      Maybe, My self does not know.
      My hope is yes. But there may be one more to rise up yet.
      Either way ,the Kingdom Jesus began some 2ish centuries ago is alive.
      The door is open to all who find it.

      Delete
    2. "White Man's Burden" of spreading civilisation and Christianity around the world was an unprincipled endeavour, based on a powerful myopia that bore fruit in the cultural self destruction of the West that we see today.

      - One half of your people's (the Left half) will never forgive your forbears for its arrogance here, at least whilst there is no contrition or repentance from principle errors. Whole cultures, imperfect for certain, wholly maligned and smashed against the rock of Christian absolutist (and progress based) arrogance combined with profane (and propriety -less) scientific power that stems directly from Christian contradictions.
      The ones who did that were not "christians".
      When you say "your people" .
      Who are you speaking to ?
      My guess that you said that implies that you are "other" people?

      In The Kingdom of God there is no your people my people.
      Nope ,No jew or greek or gentile or slave of free.
      Not that those groups do not exist.
      The Father staked His claim on the planet.
      That stake was a Roman Cross And He hung His own Son on it .
      The entrance is through the cross.
      We all die to our own image in nations to enter.

      Delete
    3. The Montanist big problem was He stated that a Ghost or Spirit sent from the Father would lead us into all truth.
      A touchy subject for sure because any one can stand up any where and say thus sayith the Lord.
      Usualy in king james English?
      So that being said it still does not deny that Fact that Jesus said it.
      I could even say the spirit told me to tell you I know best? LoL
      That would be a problem because My vision is dim like looking through smoky glass.
      Force is a key.
      We all see some things.
      Our job is not to force our cloudy visions on one another .
      But speaking the truth we see in Love so we all grow up Into him.

      Delete
  10. "Of course, those who lie know that they are lying; the elite who go along with the lies know that these are lies; the government officials that go along with the lies know that these are lies; even many of the riff-raff go along with the lies, knowing that these are lies. The worst is that Christians go along with the lies, knowing that these are lies."
    Yes, exactly. I would like to use quote. Control of the media enables the Left to produce an unending stream of lies, and never be held accountable.

    ReplyDelete