Posted on 09/20/2014 10:20:10 AM PDT by NYer
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads; and on its horns were ten diadems, and on its heads were blasphemous names. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? – Revelation 13:1-10
In the 2010 film, Clash of the Titans, there is a scene in which Zeus, angry with the humans, is persuaded by Hades to visit vengeance upon the mortals in the form of the Kraken, a giant monster from the depths of the sea. The visual of this great evil being unleashed is something to behold:
CLICK IMAGE for video
If this scene is evocative, perhaps it is because it’s familiar. Like a Kraken released, we have a colossal problem in our world today. There are few who are not stunned by the growing specter of evil; a darkness more profound and spreading more quickly across the globe than any civilized human being could have ever imagined. Many of those I speak with have admitted that they now abstain completely from watching the news: “It’s just too much,” they say. “It’s just so horrifying!”
For the past two years I have been confiding to close friends my own growing sense that something is happening, that something unholy is stirring. I have spoken with others who have admitted the same suspicion. The way I have tried to describe it in the past is like the rumblings felt just before a volcano explodes.
Now, I find myself wondering if the eruption is upon us.
Who could ever conceive of atrocities like those we are seeing executed in the name of religion? Where once we might see coverage of a tragic conflict far away, we now face an evil that is not confined to some distant corner of the planet. With the always-on, near-instant spread of information in our digital age, your next door neighbor can be radicalized from the comfort of their living room.
What we are facing is, first and foremost, a form of spiritual warfare. In a time where violence is rampant and the innocent are threatened, it is true that we must be ready to physically engage the malefactors. But if we deny the spiritual nature of this surge of evil we are facing, we will have no hope of victory.
When confronted with atrocity, the immediate reaction of most people is, “What can we do to stop it?” Yes! That is the exact question we need to be asking. Summoning us to courage, St. Augustine challenges us to do battle: “Hope has two beautiful daughters: their names are anger and courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they ought to be.”
But to begin to answer the question of what we can do, we must first properly assess where we are. What are our capabilities? How is our strength? What is the state of our conditioning? Without this kind of brutal honesty, we are likely to flounder rather than fight.
Jesus warned, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:34-35).
And yet isn’t that exactly what has become of us? Consider this sobering analysis of our present condition from columnist Jeffrey Kuhner at the Washington Times:
For the past 50 years, every major institution has been captured by the radical secular left. The media, Hollywood, TV, universities, public schools, theater, the arts, literature — they relentlessly promote the false gods of sexual hedonism and radical individualism. Conservatives have ceded the culture to the enemy. Tens of millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered; illegitimacy rates have soared; divorce has skyrocketed; pornography is rampant; drug use has exploded; sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS have killed millions; birth control is a way of life; sex outside of wedlock has become the norm; countless children have been permanently damaged — their innocence lost forever — because of the proliferation of broken homes; and sodomy and homosexuality are celebrated openly. America has become the new Babylon.
This cultural assessment is bleak. And I believe that underlying it all is a deeper evil, a more ancient and intractable error which gives rise to all the rest. Many have pointed to “Modernism” as the heresy of our times. Modernism, while it takes many forms, is basically a break or rejection of our past in favor of all things new. And, while it seems evident that our Church is fully infected with the heresy of Modernism, I believe that it, too, is a symptom of this more fundamental threat.
What am I referring to? Something that impacts the very nature of human existence and the opportunity for our salvation. Lacking an official name, I call this monster, “Stealth Arianism.” Students of history know that the Arian heresy – the worst crisis in the Church before our present age – was rooted in the belief that Jesus Christ was merely a created being, not equal to God the Father. Stealth Arianism follows the same fatal error, but with a twist: while the Arians of the fourth century openly denied Christ’s divinity, today‘s Arians will profess Jesus as God, and yet through their actions deny it. In other words, they don’t even know they are heretics. Many even believe that they are doing God’s work in their attempts to elevate Christ’s humanity at the cost of His divinity.
You see, once we diminish the identity of Christ as the Son of God, we are left to view Him as simply a historical figure that was a nice guy, a respectable teacher and a good example for how we are to live. Religion is then reduced to a nice organization that does nice things for people as we seek a kind of psychotherapy for self-actualization. And this is not only not what He came to give us, but it’s something He made sure to leave no room for.
In his Christological examination, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis makes the case plain:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Over the past 50 years, the Stealth Arians have done everything within their power to remove from our lived experience of Catholicism anything that would point to the divinity of Christ, and the supernatural quality of our faith. Everything has been stripped from our churches – sacred art, sacred architecture, sacred music, and the sacred elements of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – and we are left in the barren desert of the banal. It is no wonder many Catholics think nothing of approaching the Most Holy Eucharist dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops, and grabbing the host like they’re reaching into a bag of chips. As Flannery O’Connor said, “If it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” It’s more surprising that these individuals even bother to attend Mass at all.
Moreover, the Stealth Arians have deliberately chosen to keep their teachings muddled, ambiguous and elusive in an effort to increase “pastoral sensitivity” as the highest of all values, which keeps people feeling good about themselves just the way they are – though never challenged to strive for sainthood! Of course, when people like the way their church makes them feel about themselves, that keeps the money flowing into the collection basket. But whether confused and uncertain, or simply spiritually blind for lack of true pastoral care, the faithful who have been abandoned by their spiritual leaders are prone to be conformed to the world and its prince, a murderer and liar from the beginning.
St. John Chrysostom exhorts, “Let us be filled with confidence, and let us discard everything so as to be able to meet this onslaught. Christ has equipped us with weapons more splendid than gold, more resistant than steel, weapons more fiery than any flame and lighter than the slightest breeze … These are weapons of a totally new kind, for they have been forged for a previously unheard-of type of combat. I, who am a mere man, find myself called upon to deal blows to demons; I, who am clothed in flesh, find myself at war with incorporeal powers.”
That sounds noble for St. John, but about for us? Are we really prepared to such a fight? Just when we need mighty spiritual warriors for these dangerous times, Satan has spent the past 50 years diminishing the Church’s legions to little more than a bunch of Girl Scouts. Now that we are left in our weakened state, Satan seems to be calling out to deal the last blow, “Release the Kraken!”
Indeed, what can we do?
St. Paul gives us the answer in his epistle to the Ephesians (6:10-18):
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.
I found this on Wikipedia page on Arius. If this is the “Stealth Arianism” that Fr. Heilman is talking about, it is NOT, repeat NOT, related to what Arius believed:
“”ARIANISM TODAY — A modern English church called the The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Arian Catholicism claims to follow Arian teachings, canonizing Arius on June 16, 2006.[18] They teach that the Father alone is absolute God, and that Jesus had a beginning, in the flesh, and is subordinate to the Father. They teach that Jesus Christ was the sinless Messiah and Redeemer, however, they do not accept the Virgin Birth, some miracles, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, any divinity or worship of Christ, or Biblical infallibility, placing them in opposition to Arius himself, who accepted all of these, as well as a high-level divinity of Christ. The teachings of the ACAC are more in line with Socinianism than with true Arianism. Whereas Arius himself clearly taught Christ’s pre-existence before Mary, the ACAC does not. The ACAC believe that Jesus was the natural son of Joseph and Mary, with the Holy Spirit overseeing the conception. And they teach that Christ’s resurrection was not in the flesh, but was spiritual. Furthermore, their “Arian Catholic Creed” is a modern creation, not an ancient statement of faith.””
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius
You claim we bomb 'innocents'. Nobody in Washington is pressing that button.
then volunteer your children to fight - not mine.
Don't have any, but my nephews and nieces are serving as did I. Like I said, you are a complainer that lives in a world where freedom is provided by others and their relatives with the help of God in answer to prayer. Frankly you sound like your Pope.
Thank you for your post # 21.
Here is a research paper on what happened to Christianity in the Fourth Century (300-400 AD). It is rather long, but thoroughly documented and worth studying. http://bswett.com/1998-05Church300.html
I am thankful for your service.
As a former pro-Iraq-war-conservative, I am saying I was wrong for that view. I don’t want heroes like you to continue to be sent to where it’s wasted. So much is needed to be done here, on our borders and ports and airspace and in cyberspace.
“You claim we bomb ‘innocents’. Nobody in Washington is pressing that button.”
This is from history, from a far better administration:
500,000 Iraqi civilians dead in 10 years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/iraq-death-toll_n_4102855.html
Blowback is real. A foreign power marching in our streets and flying overhead dropping bombs would call millions of us to arms. They are lunatics, but they are like us - they will protect their homeland and they hate invaders. Not difficult to understand why these wars have caused ISIS to grow.
“Freedom is provided by others”
This war is not providing us freedom. It’s prolonging a seemingly never-ending cycle, and putting our children further and further into debt.
“Frankly you sound like your Pope.”
Thank you.
They are lunatics, but they are like us -
They ain't like me, I know Catholics believe the Muslims worship the same God as Catholics do and they might, but that would call into question whether Catholics worship a god of their own making or the One from the Bible.
This war is not providing us freedom.
The clarion call of the pacifist who won't fight wars until they are in their own country, won't fight totalitarians. If they make it here, the same type will try and make a deal with the crocodile, to be eaten last.
Thank you.
No problem, he doesn't know what he is talking about either in this regard.
Sometimes hypocrisy is so profound it leaves me breathless, and this is of those times. Because some of the most horrific "atrocities ever committed in the name of religion" was done BY the Catholic Church against the Arian Cathars. Forty years of systematic butchery of over a million people, the extermination of an entire race and religion, done just as brutally as anything the Muslims do. And this priest damn well knows it.
Well maybe, "father," one of the reasons we're having to deal with this liberal/Muslim atrocity now is because God is not pleased with this level of hypocrisy. That after all these years, Catholics STILL try to justify that savagery only proves how deeply they know they sinned - and how arrogantly they still refuse to admit it.
Which is only one example, though a profound one, of Rome using the sword of men to accomplish spiritual goal of dealing with theological dissent. Which includes papal sanctioned torture and instructions on it, of suspected "heretical" souls (some were, as is Rome) and possible witnesses, and death of those convicted under it.
While it may not be the millions ascribed by some research , it is one of the many departures from the NT church.
Meanwhile. Catharism did apparently wrongly hold that the good god was the God of the New Testament and the creator of the spiritual realm, as opposed to the bad god, whom many Cathars identified as Satan, creator of the physical world of the Old Testament. athars thought human spirits were the genderless spirits of angels trapped within the physical creation of Satan, cursed to be reincarnated until the Cathar faithful achieved salvation through a ritual called the consolamentum
Well, according to the Catholic Church, Protestants are just as damned as Cathars. And according to Protestants, Catholics are just as damned as Cathars. Damned is damned. Interestingly, so many "Christians" choose to believe damnation versus salvation is a matter of if someone got some aspect of theology wrong, rather than what they got right. Which is pretty amazing, since Jesus put so much emphasis on forgiveness, and focusing on the good in people rather than the bad,
Its a shame that Cathar documents vanished with them. It would have been very interesting to trace their history more precisely, to find out exactly where they got their ideas. Sometimes I think erasing that was one of the prime purposes behind the thoroughness of their extermination.
The first is a given, but the Bible sanctions the use of the sword by the government, and which can be God's sword, and what practical means do you propose should be prayerfully used against a growing army determined to make Islam that law of all the earth?
Quote from article
the faithful who have been abandoned by their spiritual leaders are prone to be conformed to the world and its prince, a murderer and liar from the beginning.
The world is ‘conformed’ to the pope gregory calendar.. sounds innocent enough but it actually is deception at its most subtle stage..
It is that calendar that has allowed unholy unscriptural days to be celebrated and observed while actual biblical holy days are ignored or hidden..lies and counterfeits rule religion..
All the while allowing people to claim they are worshiping in spirit and truth..
Today is a work day on the biblical calendar- the 4th day of His week.
It is a holy day to Christendom. Yesterday was also a work day on His calendar but Israel had it as their sabbath. Both Jew and christian conforms to the same timekeeping that atheists and secular humanist do..the world’s largest governments, including the UN, the world of business with its 5 day work week and the world religions accommodated by one unifying counterfeit calendar.
What a innocent seeming, yet ultimate destructive conformity one’s work and worship life.
And nobody has had to be tattooed or in printed... they conform with no questions asked.. in fact, they may even defend babylonian conformity..
Prophectic sheep..
That is an exceedingly superficial analysis, as the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures spends much press on that aspect of theology which you marginalize.
On one side you have a system which fosters faith/dependance upon itself, its preeminence and power, its merits and morality, and one's own merit, for salvation. Beginning with teaching that sprinkling makes one good enough to enter Heaven, and thus usually ending with becoming good to enter Heaven (and atone for sins) via suffering torments in "purgatory, " commencing at death.
Out of which the church can bail you out of earth thru her "indulgences," while complete cooperation with her sacramental system enables one to be good enough and atone for sins to enter Heaven non-stop.
And which cooperation includes consuming human flesh and blood in order to obtain spiritual life, dispensed by clergy distinctively titled "priests" since they instrumentally change bead and wine into this flesh and blood and offer it as an expiation for sins. And also means praying to departed souls, esp. a "queen of Heaven," who have Divine powers to hear virtually infinite amounts of mental prayer from earth addressed to them in Heaven. Among others things that are absolutely not seen in Scripture.
On that other hand is a faith that holds that God draws souls and opens their heart and grants repentant faith, (Jn. 6:44; 12:32; Acts 11:18; 16:14; Eph. 2:8,9) so that the redeemed come to God as souls damned for their works - not saved because of them - and destitute of any means or merit whereby they may escape their just and eternal punishment in Hell Fire and gain eternal life with God.
And thus with contrite heart cast their whole-hearted repentant faith upon the mercy of God in Christ, trusting the risen Divine Lord Jesus to save them by His sinless shed blood.
And whose faith is thus counted as righteousness, (Rm. 3:9 - 5:1; Ps. 34:18) but it is a faith that will follow Him, with such works justifying one as being a believer, (Heb. 6:9; Ja. 2:18) and fit to be rewarded under God's grace, who rewards God-given faith (Heb. 10:35) in recognition of what it effects.
Thus the postmortem place or condition of all true believers y describes is with the Lord. (Luke 23:43; Acts 7:59; 1Cor. 15:52; 2 Cor 5:8; 1 Th 4:17; 1Jn. 3:2), in whose presence there is fulness of joy (Ps. 16:11). To God be the glory.
The former system fosters perfunctory professions or cultic devotion to a particular church, supposing they were born of God as an infant (usually), and thus are never called to come to Lord Jesus as a contrite damned + destitute sinner, and personally trust Him to save them as such, but trust that the balance of their goodness and the power of their church will eventually gain them entrance to Heaven.
And thus as their church uses the sword of men to persecutes and slay those of the latter faith, or others, or when (having lost said sword) it becomes effectively liberal, then the majority of her adherents do also.
The latter fosters a personal relationship with the Lord of the Bible, and Scripture as being the supreme authority as being the assured word of God, and which transcends outward "tribalism," so that the soul is to leave liberal churches when they critically depart from true faith, and follow the Lord Jesus in any case. Thus evangelicals are far more unified in basic conservative beliefs than Catholics.
That was a beautifully written protestation of faith, and I than you for sharing it.
But my observations were not superficial. In fact, I believe I pointed out what millions of people reject all of Christianity over, and what Jesus also made His primary focus: the criteria of judgement being what was done right, rather than what was done wrong. Of how to argue a soul is saved over how to argue a soul is damned. And I don’t see that emphasis in either Protestantism or Catholicism.
And neither do liberals. And though I’m not a liberal, I do see their rage at Christianity for all of its damnation. Christians argue that liberals are immature, and they are, but the question is whether they are driven away from Christianity because of errors in Christian teachings. I believe they are.
Jesus declared the greatest commandment. That is a status that has been rejected by every Christian denomination. And that, I believe, is the great sin of Christianity. Jesus wasn’t giving advice in declaring the greatest commandment AS the greatest commandment - He was giving a warning. And that warning has been universally rejected. Instead it is treated as one teaching among many, rather than the one that trumps all others if challenged.
IMO, liberals are the result.
What Bible are you reading, or what Jesus are you reading into it? What part of,
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida (Matthew 11:21)
Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! (Matthew 18:7)
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. (Matthew 23:14)
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, ye blind guides...(Matthew 23:15-16)
Ye fools and blind: ...Ye fools and blind: ..
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Matthew 23:17,19,23)
But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. (Luke 6:24-26)
His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: (Matthew 25:26)
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. (Matthew 25:41-43)
The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. (John 7:7)
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: (Mark 9:43-47)
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelation 2:4-5)
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication....So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate (Revelation 2:14,16)
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols...And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:20,23)
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. (Revelation 3:1-2)
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16)
do you not understand? I see that the Lord judged souls for what they did wrong more than what they did right, and preached more on judgment and Hell than heaven.
Jesus wasn’t giving advice in declaring the greatest commandment AS the greatest commandment - He was giving a warning. And that warning has been universally rejected. Instead it is treated as one teaching among many, rather than the one that trumps all others if challenged.
And how did God show that love most supremely? By sparing not His own son but delivering Him up for us all, (Rm. 8:32) and how can we love God if we do not come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinners, and trust Him to save us on His credit and expense?
And how can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we do not preach the gospel Christ commanded, working to convict souls of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and call them to repentant faith from false religion and their own iniquities, as apostles did? To which end showing love in other ways is conducive to, and part of love for others.
And we cannot love God or others if we do not contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, (Jude 1:3) and against error.
IMO, liberals are the result.
If you disagree with what i said, you are a liberal. , then live 4 Him
Under what was known as the coin standard of the Khalif Umar Ibn al-Khattab, the weight of 10 dirhams was equivalent to 7 dinars (mithqals)
In the year 75 (695 CE) the Khalifah Abdalmalik ordered Al-Hajjaj to mint the first dirhams, thus he established officially the standard of Umar Ibn al-Khattab. In the next year he ordered the dirhams to be minted in all the regions of the Dar al-Islam. He ordered that the coins be stamped with the sentence: "Allah is Unique, Allah is Eternal". He ordered the removal of human figures and animals from the coins and that they be replaced with letters.
In the next year = 696, 666 years after the crucifixion resurrection... 30 CE.
Abd al-Malik, standardized Islamic currency and the Quran.
...on its heads were blasphemous names... Allah is Unique, Allah is Eternal
It's a family feud, Children of Avraham vs. children of Lot/Ishmael
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