Vanity, again

"Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of the hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men,  leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:24-32




The virgins have become whores. Love has turned to lust. Prayer has become an inconvienience. Money has become the god we worship placed upon the altar of the worldly. Chastity has turned to unrestriction, fasting to gluttony and forgiveness to eye for an eye. Understanding has been perverted to condemnation. We will burn in the hell we have created because of our own willingness to be ignorant of truth, to create our own truth in place of the absolute.

We, unfortunately, live in an era in which God has given many of us over to ourselves, to practice what we desire because of our hatred towards the authority of God. As soon as man began to think he was capable of doing things without God, man began his downward spiral. We have grown to believe that we can have heaven here, as well as after our death. Many strive for material wealth and use God to justify this behavior, as if vanity is some sort of virtue. There is also a growing number of people who practice sexual immorality and again use God to try and justify it as being moral. This includes but is not limited to: homosexuality, pornography, adultery, pedophilia, etc. There are those who stop and wonder why we live in such a world where people can commit some of the most disgusting crimes, and they are left guessing as to the cause of this madness. This anarchy did not begin suddenly, but over a period of time in which we slowly started to see serial killers, but not on a massive scale like we see today. There were people such as H.H. Holmes who constructed a very elaborate hotel which was actually created to torture individuals who happened to come through, mainly the rich. Jack the ripper was also a very prominent killer who was never caught. There was Albert Fish in the early part of the 20th century, who murdered and ate his victims. One in particular girl he murdered, raped, and ate, he sent a letter to her mother describing what he had done and how she had tasted.

On top of the horrific murders of serial killers, there is the ever growing mindset of materialism. The love of money. The allure of material wealth is all too strong for the vast majority of those who inhabit this earth, and it destroys the nature of man. Our nature is not to serve money, but God. For we cannot serve two masters, we will end up loving one and hating the other. (Mt. 6:24, Lk. 16:13) That is exactly what is taking place today and has been since the beginning of the industrial revolution, which in my opinion sparked this materialist overconsuming mindset. Have we forgotten the words of St. Paul? "The love of money is the root of all evil." 1 Tim. 6:10 We have fallen in love with material things and money that we are willing to go into debt to get what we want, and almost cannot escape it. Yet again we have forgotten the words of the wise Solomon "The borrower is servant to the lender." Prov. 22:7 If we owe someone, they become our master. We slave to pay them off and retain them and our debt in our mind and not God, the one we truly owe everything to.

The world as we know it is becoming more promiscuous. Everywhere we look we see pornography. We see the objectification of women so much that women grow up feeling the need to objectify themselves. The women decorate themselves up like a whore, for what reason? Many bare their breasts and wear tight fitting clothing, what is the purpose for this? They are happy to dress like whores, they are practicing the opposite of chastity. No unmarried woman, especially a virgin, would have even thought of dressing like this in the early church and yet our leaders even permit this disgusting display of whoredom. When you cannot tell the difference between a whore and an Orthodox Christian woman, you know we have all failed.

The end is now, pray.

All is Vanity Pt. 2

"For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." 1 Tim 6:10


                      Capitalism, an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. In short a system based upon money. Our unrestrained spending and consumption has led to many severe problems. One is debt, which almost every single American is affected by directly or indirectly. Credit card debt is the largest totally somewhere in the trillions and as the politicians whore themselves to the major banks filing for bankruptcy is virtually impossible anymore. This also comes with an increase in predatory tactics used by banks to sink more people deeper into debt. These companies are unforgiving and relentless, even demonizing the borrower to justify their unmerciful approach. Oddly enough our own government is in debt is somewhere around 13 trillion dollars, and counting. What is unique is how the U.S. government persuades countries like China to be merciful, and jumping through hoops for the Federal Reserve (which is not federal) in order to avoid paying outrageous interest and other compounded fees. Christ speaks of this very same thing in Mt. 18:32 in which a servant begged his master to forgive his debt, and the master did. The servant had then gone out and found a fellow servant who owed him money, and would NOT forgive his debts. This is the exact same thing the U.S. government is doing and it is unacceptable.


                     If we borrow money in order to buy a house, a car, or other unnecessary things, we then become a slave to the lender. (Prov. 22:7) Can we serve God and our banks? According to Christ in Mt. 6:24 and Lk 16:13 we cannot serve two masters, can we serve God and mammon? Mammon meaning wealth as evil influence or a false object of worship. Christ tells us no, yet we still try. Why is it a necessity to buy something we cannot pay cash for? Our system is based on spending. If we stop spending our economy will collapse. Therefore they want us to spend, they want us to be in debt and they want us to do this our whole lives, its another form of slavery. 


                    Let us say that you buy a house. To buy that house, assuming you have not saved for 30 years, you would need someone to loan you the money. Therefore you go the bank, who determines your worth and your trustworthiness and then gives you a loan with a hefty amount of interest added to the principal. Let us also say that you never re-finance your home, which is possible but increasingly rare. It will take you approximately 30 years to pay off that house, assuming you make your payments on time every month. For 30 years you are basically part of a feudal system in which you do not own the land, the land owns you. This is also assuming that the bank who lent to you does not use any shady business practices to get you further into a mess. For atleast 30 years you will attempt to serve two masters, because "the borrower is servant to the lender." (Prov. 22:7) and therefore you have no choice in the matter.


                  This exchange of goods and services is equivalent to financial prostitution. You pay more money than the house is worth because of the added interest, granted you may eventually own that house but at what cost? Just as a pimp takes an unfair percentage of her money, so too does the bank take an unfair percentage of the borrowers money. If a pimp does not get his money or his whore tries to escape, he will hunt her down at all costs and punish her severely. The banks also hunt you down with such sophisticated techniques it is impossible to hide. These banks show even less mercy than the pimp, they will take everything without thinking twice, and the law is on their side giving them an unfair advantage.
Yet we subscribe to this system based on money. A system that turns the average person into a materialist, desiring the most useless and unneeded of things. Over consuming and being proud of it, flaunting it to the world. 
    
                 Once caught in this cycle of spending and over consuming, it is virtually inescapable. Our minds have been taught to spend, to over consume so we know no other way. We must reject the worldly and understand our spirituality. "All is vanity" (Eccl. 1:1) And it is true, everything worldly is worthless. Why do we strive to attain these things that have no spiritual value whatsoever? Why do we beat it into our childrens head that they must be successful in the world? We send them out to an un-Christian world and expect them to be un-phased. Simplicity is the answer. We are waiting for the second coming of our Lord, which is not far off based on the deteriorating conditions of this world, so why are we busying ourselves with worldly distinction, and attaining worldly things? It is the weakness of man, doing what he wants to as opposed to what he should do. Trusting in himself more than the God he claims to believe in. Giving in to his own personal desires instead of casting them to the wayside. 






This blog is a precursor to the upcoming book "All is Vanity".

The Days of Creation

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light." - Genesis 1:1-3


                         When God created all things, did he do it in six twenty-four hour days or do these days represent epochs of time ranging from millions or billions of years? We would have to speculate on the motive of God for each creation belief. God is beyond time, above it, creator of it, and ruler over it. God has no need to constrain Himself with time or a timeframe so what is the purpose of six literal twenty-four hour days? God uses this to establish time and structure for mankind, since time is of no use to God He is not bound by it. Creating all things in a millisecond would do mankind no good, it establishes no structure and shows no compassion or care in His own creation and therefore cannot be a possibility. If indeed each day were an epoch of millions or billions of years, we also run into a similar problem. Instead of God needing only a short time, He needed or used, a very long period of time. This does no good for mankind as it establishes nothing except again that God does not seem too interested in His own creation. He seems to be starting things off in each day or epoch and just kind of letting it go, which is not only uncaring but lacks the structure required for man.
    
                      St. John Chrysostom warns us of delving into creation with "human reasoning" in Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, pg.31-33. This shows how much wisdom St. John really did possess, to know that science would ignore God's incomprehensible infiniteness and subject Him to scientific scrutiny. Since the theory of evolution did not exist until recently, why should we apply it to scripture? Evolution is a convoluted theory based on interpretation of "evidence", what is factual about that, and why should we apply it to scripture? We should not, it does not even make sense when it is applied. As stated previously, what is the point of having days or epochs of millions or billions of years? God could created all things in any sort of time frame He chose to, an evolutionary standpoint does not make sense. There is no motive in doing so. To create all things in an instant is not only against scripture but just lacks any sort of common sense and again, motive or purpose.

                     The only logical interpretation would be a literal one. The purpose of God is clear in this instance, mankind. Mankind needs structure and time, our biological clocks revolve around time and when it is thrown off by travel or working the late shift, our bodies let us know. Each day God created something new, he was also establishing time for us in a way that we would understand, what other reason would God create in such a way? God is in no need of time, therefore if you are a theistic evolutionist then you must be like a detective and establish a motive first, and think science later. Purpose, we have established the purpose and necessity for six day creation, but there no purpose for millions or billions of years.

                      Would God actually need that time in which to "perfect" His creation, or could He create it all as is? When Adam was created, he was not created as an infant and was not born. Adam must have been middle aged, whatever that is for that time. I am assuming that when things were created, they were created in a similar manner, mid aged or so. Believing God is constrained by time would mean that you believe God to be limited and below time. Needing millions or billions of years would mean that God is unable to create things right the first time and needs time for them to evolve until the next day or epoch to create the next thing. Again what is the purpose for mankind here? It lacks purpose and logic, theologically speaking anyways. This is an attempt to reconcile the two belief systems. People who do this cannot, or will not, part with one or the other. So the only logical thing to do for an illogical mind, put them together. Unfortunately for them these two beliefs are opposed to one another, unless you selectively embrace different parts of scripture and science.

                    Science's evidence for evolution is like evidence for the existence of God, when a spiritual man looks at the evidence for God, his argument is strengthened by it because he is interpreting it through a spiritual mindset. When a scientist looks at the evidence for evolution, he feels his belief is fact, because he is interpreting it through an evolutionary mindset. There may be evidence that we feel points in one direction but none of it empirically shows that either is true, both are faith. In the Christian view we see that God established time for us, and then gave it structure for us, and this is the purpose for the literal six twenty-four hour day creation, which the theistic evolutionists lack in their explanation.

The Widow

 "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8


A bold statement by our Lord, that should come as a slap in the face to all Christian people. If Christ is even questioning this it should serve us well in knowing that we should be fervent Christians, seeking Him and not our own selfish desires. Working on our salvation daily and not caring for this world.
(Lk. 21:34,35) The Lord uses this very form of a question when speaking of characteristics that are rarely found (see Lk. 11:11 and 12:42), in this case faith in the people upon His return. This graphically shows us that by the time He returns that many will think they are faithful and Christian, but very few are actually left. Many protestants, if not all, will follow the antichrist because they think that either he has come to "rapture" them, which is an erroneous doctrine, and or this is the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth, which is actually happening now. So many will be worshipping the antichrist as God because they actually do believe that he is indeed Christ.

Will He find faith on the earth, probably not much if any. If any true Orthodox believers can survive than He will find faith, if the antichrist is able to then he will exterminate everyone who refuses to worship him as God. Because protestantism does not know nor understand persecution, the few protestants who have not yet been deceived will fold under the slightest pressure. This is why protestantism is dying in Europe, Islam is gaining a foothold and also the Orthodox countries in persecution, namely Egypt, are strong in their faith. American protestants know nothing of persecution and will fold like a house of cards.

More to come.......

There is no room for concession

Ecumenism, the spirit of the age. It seems now that everyone is finding a reason to unite with everyone. Find the similarity no matter how small and unify on the basis of that alone. This is nonsense. We are not all the same, we have differences and that is quite alright. When it comes to religion I have even less patience. What is the need to unite with the Latins? Yes we share similarities, that does not mean we are the same, and that certainly is no ground for unification. The creed would be "We believe in Christ, whom we share no common opinion." And that is exactly what it would be, a superficial unity.

Josef Ratzinger erroneously and deceitfully refers to himself as a Pope. This title was negated once Leo I came to power in Rome and split the church with his newly introduced ideas of the papal supremacy of Rome and worldly ideas of church government. They have left the grace of the Holy Spirit, they have added to the creed and introduced foreign doctrines. The last two leaders of Rome have knowingly covered up sex abuse scandals and in the worst way, moving the abusive priest to another church, over and over again. Yet we are to believe that the leader of Rome is infallible, in no way is he infallible.

According to Fr. Cozzone's The Changing Face of the Priesthood, almost %50 of the clergy of Rome is homosexual, keep in mind Cozzone is a Catholic priest. How can we be unified with this? Homosexuals administering the sacraments, teaching our children, and leading people to overcome sin, this is absurd.  Karol Józef Wojtyła, the false pope before Ratzinger, kissed the Koran, placed an Idol og buddha on the altar in Assisi, was blessed by a pagan priestess, and worshipped with jews in the synagogue, as did Ratzinger much later. This is all heretical and unacceptable to Orthodoxy. This is clearly not in line with our church, nor the writings and history of our church fathers. The glorious St. Dioscorous anathemized Leo I for supporting a nestorian heretic Theodoret of Cyrus, I highly doubt he would accept the Latins now especially since they are much worse off than in his time. There can be no concessions made! There can be no unity with heretics! 


I will not recognize Ratzinger or anyone from Leo I on as a legitimate Pope, and there is no reason anyone else should. I will show him the same respect I would show Arius, I will not kiss his hand or recognize anything they have done or continue to do as in line with Orthodoxy. There should be dialog, that is a good thing, but participating in their worship service is unacceptable in my view as I am sure it would be in our early fathers eyes. 

The Woman, the Serpent, and the Flood

"And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth." - Apoc. 12:15-16


This verse is of course not to be interpreted literally but metaphorically. The woman is a symbol of the Church, according to St. Andrew of Caesarea ( Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scripture: Revelation, p.191) Of course we need not guess at whom the serpent represents, the devil, who has been at war with the church for ages and has been bested by Christ. What is meant by this flood from the mouth of the serpent? There is a great parallel here in scripture, in Num. 16 Korah and 250 others rebel against Moses and Aaron. Korah states to Moses and Aaron: "You take too much upon yourselves, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: why then to you exalt yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" Korah is rebelling against the priesthood, an office which God Himself established, which still exists today. Korah is telling Moses and Aaron that everyone is the same and then accuses them of self exaltation, a sin which they themselves were committing through their lack of humility, pride. God gave a response to Korahs inquiry, and it was a swift one, he opened up the earth and swallowed him whole and he went straight down to Hades alive.
Moses had said before that in Num. 16:30 that: "Then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord."

How does this pertain to the serpent and the flood which came from his mouth? In the 16th century came a flood of heresy. The protestant reformation came about which resulted, and still results to this day, in schism upon schism and a multitude of denominations (38,000 to be exact, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001.) with all kinds of varieties of heresy within them. Not only have the majority of these attacked the church openly or inadvertently, but the multitude of these denominations have seemed to drown out the true church. Worse yet, these denominations hinder the minds of their adherents by demonizing the true church and brainwashing them with the two pillars of protestantism, sola scriptura and sola fide. Sola scriptura, the bible as sole authority, gives people the false impression that they can read scripture and interpret for themselves what it says. even though this is condemned in scripture: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation." 2 Pet. 1:20 Yet this verse is ignored and instead they choose to be empowered by themselves and their own desires and this causes them to pervert scriptures and has resulted in hundreds of thousands of denominations.

This is the flood coming from the mouth of the serpent. So this verse is a double entendre in that it refers to Korahs rebellion and protestantism. In the same way God answered Korah, and saved the church from his corruption, He will do also with protestantism. Does this mean that the ground will literally open up and swallow all protestants? Many will be deceived in the end times because of the antichrist, and this is when the ground starts to open up and upon Christ's return all evil will be swallowed up. The protestants, for their willful ignorance, those who believe in the rapture will be deceived by the antichrist. For the simple fact that the antichrist will proclaim himself to be the messiah, therefore they will believe that this is the rapture and he is Christ come to whisk them away to avoid suffering. And those who believe in chilliams or millenialism will think that this is Christ's reign on earth for 1000 years. Those who are smart enough will turn from their stupidity and become Orthodox.

Amen.

Love

What is the true definition of love? Is it what we see on television, or on the billboards, and in the magazines? Like so many other things given unto us by God, love has been perverted to such an extent it is almost unrecognizable from is origin. The origin of love is God, "for God is love." (1 John 4:8) In Focus on The Coptic Family Fr. Mikhail E. Mikhail teaches us that there are three persons in marriage, the man, the woman, and God. Therefore if God is absent, then it is not love but something else, a perversion. True love has no necessity or desire for the flesh but a union between the persons and God.

How do you love someone in the way God intended? Love is an emotional and spiritual connection, not a physical desire for the flesh of another individual. If we are looking at another in a physical way and we believe that is love, we are lying to ourselves. It is through the love of God that two people love one another and when two get married, they receive communion meaning they are receiving God as two people united in one through the body of Christ. This is love, everything else is superficial and vain. Everything else is perversion dressed up and called love when it is not.

What exactly is the scriptural definition of love so that we may know it and work towards it.
 "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." (1 Cor. 13:4-8) This is how we love. St. Paul teaches us how to love the way God intended and gives us the true definition of what love really is.

"For this is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12) Christ tells us to love in the way that God has set forth, true love. Not in the way the world tells us to love, which is false love, a love that will leave you empty and struggling. We must ask ourselves, in what way am I loving? Am I loving as the world has taught me, or as Christ has taught me? This test I offer unto all will show if you are a disciple of this world or a disciple of Christ.

Introduction to the Apocalypse

The book of the Apocalypse is by far the most enigmatic and least understood book of the New Testament.  Through the 2,000 year history of our Orthodox Church many homilies have been preached on the New Testament, many commentaries written. These are what we rely on to keep our sober interpretation of scripture. However, the only book that is constantly giving opening its secrets is the Apocalypse. Even early saints such as St. Andrew of Caesarea acknowledged this fact stating that there are many things in this book that will not be known until the time is closer. This shows the Apocalypse is constantly revealing its secrets as we draw near to the end, therefore it is of the utmost importance that we study this books secrets very carefully.

This book is viewed as a book of doom. A horrifying account of the end of days but in reality this is a Gospel. The greatest of all Gospels, the Gospel of the second coming of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. This is about as direct as we ever see Christ, telling us the truth in a way that seems somewhat terrifying. For instance In 3:15-16 Christ says: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish that you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth." Now the cold here is referring to a non-believer, who is able to change much easier than a lukewarm person, or someone who believes what they want Christianity to be as opposed to what it is. While the hot is referring to a fervent and zealous believer. Christ is saying that those who ride the fence, or choose to believe what they want, He will vomit them out. In Orthodoxy Communion is the center of worship where we consume the body and blood of Christ, to vomit this out in disgust would be an insult to Christ, a rejection of Him. Likewise Him vomiting us out is much like casting us into the outer darkness.

These sort of verses lead the reader to believe that Christ is full of anger and wrath waiting to pounce on the unbeliever. In truth, Christ is warning us. He is telling us the truth in a very direct fashion. We need to look at this book as a warning or forecast if you will. A forecast of the weather can be quite vague at times and left to interpretation, but it does tell us what the weather will be so that we know what to expect so that we may prepare for the rainy day, the blizzard, or the heat wave. Preparation is of the utmost importance. For instance in 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." This may seem like a very simple verse to be taken as is. Christ does not say, if anyone hears My voice, and then leaves it at that. He says, "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door" clearly showing the need for action on the believers part, showing repentance in turning to Christ from sin. Christ coming in is a symbol of baptism. Christ coming in and dining with the believer is a symbol of communion. This is a call that every person able to receive the Gospel, hears, and chooses either to open the door and become a true believer or leave the door shut to worship Christ as they see fit or not to worship Him at all.

Also we are to use extreme caution in reading this book. Many heresies have come from people misunderstanding the prophecies within this book. Early in the churches history the idea of Chilliasm or Millenialism was introduced, and condemned at the Second Ecumenical Council. It is based off of Apoc. 20, in which it speaks of a 1,000 year reign. When taken literally people seem to think that Christ is going to come and reign for 1,000 years on the earth. When understood properly, especially with the interpretation of the early church fathers, we see that the reign is happening now! Christ is reigning with His saints in His church. The Orthodox have His body and His blood, and we become one with him everytime we receive communion. This millenialism is a heresy. Many point to its placement in scripture, citing that this, chronologically, should be written earlier in the book if it is pertaining to Christ reigning in the Church. But if we look at Apoc. 12 there is a peculiar account of the fall of satan, later in that chapter it speaks of how exactly he was cast out of heaven. To the un-learned reader, who should not be reading this book, this is an odd placement for this. While this is the account of lucifer, there also lay within another meaning which we shall discuss much later on in another commentary.

These commentaries will take some time, and I might not cover every verse but the ones I feel most important so that I may fit into the limited timeframe that I have.

The Error Of Rome

In the year 1054, the Roman church officially went on its own way by leaving the grace of the Holy Spirit in the one true church, and persuing their own worldly interests. For many years the Roman church felt as though it reigned supreme over all other sees. This stretches far back in history to the earliest parts of the church. Although several of our fathers in the early church spoke out against this, they continue to believe otherwise, even going as far as misquoting the writings of the church fathers to fit their belief. For instance St Cyril of Alexandria is said by the Romans to believe in the fililoque, even citing some of his writings. What they fail to tell the unsuspecting victim is that they translated St Cyrils writings erroneously. They confused the words "proceed from" and "sent by" as meaning the same thing. In any Roman writings on St. Cyril, both are translated as "proceed from." This makes a very big difference in meaning, as the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father NOT the Son, but can and is sent by the Son. The Holy Spirit does not originate from Christ but from the Father.

St. Cyprian also speaks against papal supremacy in his treatsies and letters on the church. St. Cyprian believed that all bishops were equal, no matter the different titles given, as they are titles of respect not authority over one another. For St. Cyprian all bishops must be in accordance with their predecessors in order to be Orthodox. The priests must also be in communion with one of these bishops to be considered legitimate. The head of the church or High Priest (Heb. 3,4,5) is Christ, and no one man reigns supreme over all of Christendom.

The Romans use the verse Mt. 16:18 "Upon this rock I will found My church, that even the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Christ was speaking to St. Peter about his confession of faith, meaning that Christ will build His church on them, as in the apostles and not St. Peter alone. What is the purpose of ordaining 12 specific apostles only to nullify their authority by placing St. Peter as having the sole authority. If St. Peter is the supreme authority, why then did St. James preside over the council in Jerusalem? (Acts 15:6) If St. Peter is indeed above all other Christians, then why was St. James given authority over St. Peter in presiding over the council with the ability to render a judgment to which is the correct doctrine. St. John Chrysostom's homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew clearly demonstrates that Christ did not speak directly to St. Peter giving him all the power and authority as opposed to all the apostles. 

Going back as far as the 5th century to the time of Pope Leo I of Rome there arose these prideful doctrines of papal supremacy. Leo was one of the first of the Romans to really make light of this doctrine stating: "Supreme and universal authority in the church, bestowed originally by Christ on St. Peter, had been transmitted to each subsequent bishop of Rome as the apostles heir. As such, he assumed St. Peters functions, full authority, and privleges; and just as the Lord bestowed more power on St. Peter than on the other apostles, so the Pope was 'the primate of all the bishops' and the apostles mystical embodiment." (The Oxford Dictionary of Popes pg. 43, J.N.D. Kelly, Oxford Univ. Press 1986)

Because of this belief Leo decided to isolate his rival in Alexandria by declaring them a heretic after some very cowardly acts. The dispute arose over the nature of Christ, which is why the council was called, just as in Acts 15:6. The Coptic church of Alexandria, which had defended the faith in the first three councils and had become rather well known, had defined the nature of Christ as St. Cyril. Which all had agreed on as being true in the 3rd council. Leo however was not satisfied and had changed the wording, then demanded we accept that definition as opposed to St. Cyril. While we accepted both definitions, as they are inherently the same, they rejected ours, which is St. Cyril's definition from the previous council that they accept. 

Thus Leo was able to eliminate his rival church, even going as far as taking the name "Pope" from the Coptic church, as Rome used the word "Vicar." Leo had gotten his wish, power. Rome slowly continued their downward spiral, slowly trying to change doctrines, and adding new doctrines until the schism between them and the Eastern Orthodox in 1054. 

What I find amazing is that Rome truly believes itself to be supreme authority and yet St. Peter had founded the church in Antioch 12 years prior to founding Rome, which he founded with St. Paul, as evidenced by St. Paul's letter to the Romans. Rome had been tainted with worldly ideas of church government and thus became drunk with wealth and power, to the point it had become almost completely unrecognizable. Because of their insolence they gave birth to their own worst enemy, protestantism which has terrorized the world since. This leads us to our next point.

The apostasy. From the Greek word apostasis, apostasy literally means the abandonment or renunciation of religious belief. (Oxford English Dictionary) While the case can be made by Rome that the apostasy did not begin with them but with protestants, it is historically clear that it did indeed with them. As we had demonstrated they had been heading the direction of worldly desires for centuries, and it culminated in 1054 by completely breaking away from the true church completely. Then over the years perverting doctrine and often times just making them up out of thin air. Many actually make the case that the apostasy has not happened yet and that all denominations are Christian. This is flawed theology. If indeed anyone who believes, as protestants hold to justification by faith alone, then our beliefs become completely irrelevant and useless. Why do it the hard way when you can just believe and attain the same results, it is absurd. Protestantism is quite frankly a man made belief founded in the 16th century. The two pillars of protestantism, justification by faith alone and the bible as sole authority are inventions, there is no historical evidence proving their existence before the 16th century. Therefore they have departed from sound doctrine. 2 Tim 4:3 "For there will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts, they shall heap up to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and will be turned unto fables." St. Paul is clearly speaking of Christians who will follow unsound doctrine, perverted doctrine. Instead they will choose to follow teachers who say what they want to hear. Therefore it is clear, the apostasy started with Rome, then trickled down and ignited the protestant reformation, furthering the decline.

Let us touch on one last topic. Infallibility. Probably the most heretical of all Roman doctrines. This originally was a belief that the Pope of Rome was completely infallible, stemming all the way back to St. Peter, then over time was changed to mean infallible in church matters. If this is true, why then was the council held in Jerusalem? If St. Peter is infallible, then only he should have spoke as well as presided over the council. The Pope of Rome has been set up as being godlike and not as the apostles intended, based on the writings of the church fathers who condemned having one supreme authority other than Christ.

Rome has led the people of this world into a downward spiral by its pride and arrogance. There is nothing truly sober minded about the leadership in Rome. Greedy, arrogant, and despicable are the words I would choose to describe them, the leadership, and possibly even heretical. I want to make it clear I am not condemning the people, I am simply attacking the invented doctrines and foolish leaders that have graced Rome over the centuries.

All Is Vanity Pt. 1

"Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. If not the life more than meat, and the body than clothing? Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you better than them? Which of you by worry can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take you thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like on of these." (Mt. 16:25-28) 


We live in a culture, a global culture, that constantly bombards us with the idea that we need to stay young, that we need to look beautiful on the outside. While the United States claims to be Christian, we are the biggest culprits of this dangerous trend. The United States is the largest producers of pornography in the world, and again at the same time claiming to be a Christian nation. It would seem to me that Christians would not actively reject any teaching of Christ, wether it be by mouth or by action. This verse above clearly demonstrates the view Christ has of people who have too much concern with what they will eat and wear. Basically Christ is teaching us not to be concerned with ones self, in the sense of what you look like. Don't worry about what you are going to eat, this could even be interpreted in our modern society as meaning that we should not worry about our bills so much. As food is one of many bills, and usually the most important. 


The vast majority of the worlds Christians transgress this commandment of Christ. Our women dress in revealing and tight clothing. They adorn themselves with jewelry and use make-up to make themselves even more appealing. Is it not enough that a woman tricked man and brought us to our current predicament? Why does the woman shed modesty and whore herself for the world? Does anyone realize where this "beautifying of the eyes and skin" comes from? "Moreover Azayzel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, breastplates, the fabrication of mirrors, and the workmanship of bracelets and ornaments, the use of paint, the beautifying of the eyes and skin, the use of stones of every valuable and select kind, and all sorts of dyes, so that the world became altered." (Enoch Ch. VIII, V.1) The angels that left heaven on account of their own lust (Gen.6) and had transgressed the law of God, taught mankind all these things. They gave mirrors to us that we might become obsessed with ourselves and pervert the image of God. They gave us the knowledge to make jewelry and to beautify our women with make up, that we may forget our Lord and lust after women, perverted the perfect love of God that is within His creation. "But I say to you, that whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Mt. 5:28) It is quite obvious why a woman should NOT dress like a whore or even wear make up, it is against the teachings of Christ. If the man looks at you in lust and commits adultery, then what does that make you? An adulteress, a whore. 


"For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered." (1 Cor. 11:6) St. Paul had a clear understanding of the teachings of our Lord. The covering of a woman in Christianity is not like islam, it is not a veil. It is more out of modesty, not to tempt men. A woman should cover her head (1Cor. 11:15), wear no make up, and dress modestly, in a way that would please God not the flesh. We must remember that man is from God and that woman came not from God, but out of man. (1 Cor. 11:8)


"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection." (1 Tim. 2:11) "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." (1 Tim. 2:12) Today there is a strong belief that women are the same as men, and should do the same things that men do. Yet St. Paul tells us "And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." St.Paul is not a woman hater, he is simply pointing out the facts. He is not condoning violence against women, or treating them with any sort of disrespect. St. Paul is merely addressing a point that should be addressed today. Men are from God, and are therefore subject to Him, whereas women are not from God but created by God out of man, and are therefore subject to God and man. What I find amazing is the amount of protestant preachers who are women. They defile the same Gospel they claim to love! 


Women cannot be forced into modesty, nor should anyone try to. Christian women must take it upon themselves to act in a manner pleasing to God. You may think, whats wrong with a little make up or a little cleavage? This is the thought of a woman as Eve probably thought the same thing: "what is wrong with a little bite?" We can see what is wrong with a little bite, the whole world has become death. We now receive this fallen nature when we are born and need to be baptized. Jesus took flesh in order to save us from our sins by dying on the cross. There is a lot wrong with a little bite. How can you not see what a little make up, a little adornment, and a little cleavage have done for this world? Pornography is on every street corner. If its not on a billboard, then there is a woman near by dressed like a whore. Even when we escape the streets, we open the door in our home and let all kinds of evil through, mostly in the form of sex. 


All is vanity, and it doesn't have to be.


Links
http://familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html#important_countries

The Way, The Truth, The Life

We are all born, we all die, and all of us will be resurrected, some unto the resurrection of life and some unto the resurrection of death. (John 5:28,29) How does this relate to Christ? Christ tells us in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Let us look deeper into this mystery and find the path that leads to the way, the truth, and the life.

The Way - Baptism

Christ, who was fully divine, came down and took flesh from from our holy pure and undefiled mother St. Mary, divinity was born into flesh. Likewise flesh is born into divinity through baptism. Christ was born of the undefiled virgin St. Mary, as we are born of the pure and undefiled Church of Christ.

The Truth - Crucifixtion

Everyone must die. All will be crucified with Christ, as Christ was. Christ was crucified for our sins, while we are crucified because of our sins. (Isa 53:5 Rom. 6:23) We all must be crucified but because we cannot take the place of Christ on the cross, as no human can die for the sins of man but because the sin of man, we choose to be either the thief on the right or the thief on the left.

The Life - Resurrection

Just as Christ resurrected, so too will we be resurrected in the last day. (John 11:24) Christ died and resurrected Himself with a new body. (Mk. 16:12) Likewise on the last day we will be resurrected with a new body. Just as the body of Christ was restored, so to will our body be restored to its original form, its true nature.

This is but one small example of many parallels in scripture. There are hundreds upon hundreds and it is only with the knowledge of the church and the writings of the church fathers are we able to fully understand scripture. We are all dying, it is time to start listening to what Christ has been saying. Deny yourselves and what you think you know (Mt. 16:24), stop believing in what you want Christianity to be and start believing in what it is.

Against The World

1 Tim. 6:10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

We live in a global culture of money. All revolves around money. While we must work to support ourselves and we must make money in order to sustain ourselves, we have gone much too far. We have placed God on the back burner so that we may further careers. We have traded in mediocrity for the pursuit of riches. "Two things I request of you, deprive me not before I die: Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny You and say, "who is the Lord?" Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God." (Proverbs 30:7-9)

 What happened to this mentality? Now everything is for money. Nobody goes to school to learn, we go to school to make more money. All is money, how foolish is that? Especially for us Christians, our home is not here. Life is not eternity so why do we make ourselves comfortable? Death is a reality and when we leave this world, we leave it forever. Would it not be wise to invest in our salvation as opposed to our retirement? "And be not conformed to this world: but ye be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

We have conformed to this world, atleast the majority of us. The early church had many defenders of the faith, St. Hippolytus, St. Polycarp, St. Cyprian, St. Athanasius, St. Cyril, St. Basil, St. Gregory, and of course St. John Chrysostom. All of these men had either writings against heresies, many of these heresies threatened the church, but did usually not stem from the church. Almost every one of these had atleast one work entitled "Against..." something. They were outspoken, despite what that might result in. In our current time, we have very few of these people. The majority conformed to the politically correct, "we all worship the same God" garbage. We sold our souls out of fear, for money, for vanity, for comfort, or because we are just plain lazy.

The Christian should be content with mediocrity and should not indulge in this worldly ideology. Indulging in these fantasies only serves as a distraction for the practicing Christian, and will ultimately ruin them. If you who are reading reply, "But I can have money AND God" or "There is nothing wrong with striving for money AND God." To which I will reply with the words of Christ: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Mt 6:24) Either you serve God, or you server money. Either you strive for God, or you strive for money, which do you do?

"Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. If not the life more than meat, and the body than clothing? Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather food into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you better than them? Which of you by worry can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take you thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like on of these." (Mt. 16:25-28)

I think it is very clear by what Christ said in those verses that our global society is an exact opposite of what He said NOT to be and NOT to do. We take pride in our clothes. We are in constant worry of what we might eat or wear. We feel as if we are in control and because we do not place God above us, we place ourselves in the drivers seat. The human is not capable controlling their own life, of taking all the responsibility upon themselves. If taking control does not break them mentally or physically, it will break them morally and spiritually. Christ commands us not to worry, and thats all we seem to do. Worry about money, worry about food, bills, clothing, etc. We are so quick to point out someone breaking a commandment, and we are blind to our own transgressions. What a shameful bunch we have become. Millions upon millions of our Christian brothers and sisters have died defending the faith, died in defiance of this world. Only for us to conform to it and accept it.

"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. 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. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:15-17) We must pose this question to ourselves, do we love the world? If you have thus far agreed with what I have said, then it is clear we have a serious problem. Obviously those striving for money love the world, those striving for fame love the world, obviously. When you say you are a Christian, what does that mean? Have we conformed to this world so we can have the best of both worlds? Those who build their paradise in this world, are those who make their bed in hell. There can be no compromise with this world and the next, it is one or the other. Live for this life, or live for the next.

Question your intentions. Question your motives. Question who you serve.

A Provocation Of God

Protestantism was created in the 16th century and Martin Luther is credited with igniting it as well as the enlightenment period. While there existed many warring factions of protestants, Martin Luther was definitely its figurehead. What gave him the authority in which to reject doctrines and beliefs set in place 1,500 years before him, and create his own? His own self appointed authority. By placing the scripture as the sole authority the problem arises of who has the authority to interpret the scriptures correctly. This is what lead to many differing opinions and a new forms of protestantism being founded daily, and spreading like wildfire. Many of these denominations, such as the Anabaptists, were extremely radical in their theology, and in a cult like sense very dangerous. Even the founders of the earliest protestant denominations, including Luther, could not answer this question. Five hundred years later and 40,000 denominations later, we still do not have an answer as to who has the authority to interpret scriptures accurately. This results in schism upon schism and in extreme cases, very destructive cults such as The Peoples Temple, The Branch Davidians, The Family Intl. (Children of God), The Unification Church, Heavens Gate, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.

Martin Luther created several doctrines, relying on himself and not the church nor the writings of the church fathers. He created sola scriptura, the bible as sole authority, and sola fide, justification by faith alone. Both of these are anti-scriptural but more importantly his teaching of the priesthood of all believers, or that all baptized Christians are the priesthood. (Luther, Martin. Concerning the Ministry (1523), tr. Conrad Bergendoff, in Bergendoff, Conrad (ed.) Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958, 40:18 ff.) Martin Luther taught that all are priests in the congregation of the Lord and proclaimed this at the Diet of Worms, diets were general assemblies of the Roman Empire, presided over by Emperor Charles V. (Brecht, Martin. (tr. Wolfgang Katenz) "Luther, Martin," in Hillerbrand, Hans J. (ed.) Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, 2:463. and Bratcher, Dennis. "The Diet of Worms (1521)," in The Voice: Biblical and Theological Resources for Growing Christians. Retrieved 13 July 2007.)

This priesthood of all believers is very important in debunking protestantism. Luther believed that all his doctrines were scriptural, when in fact they were scriptural based on his private interpretation of them, which in itself is against 2 Pet. 1:20 "Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." Private meaning personal, a personal interpretation of the scriptures. How do we know that Luther's interpretation is his own and not from God? If we look at the scripture in James 2:20 for instance we read: "But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" Also in James 2:14 "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?" Continuing on in verse 17 "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

The reason this is so important to show these verses in only the book of James is because Martin Luther could explain the other verses away using his own interpretation. He could not, however, explain the book of James and therefore removed it from the canon referring to it as "The epistle of straw." Of course later he was forced, due to heavy criticism, to put it back in the bible. This is very key in proving protestantism wrong, Luther had set the bar for other protestants that if all else fails, just take out what doesn't fit with your theology. This destroys justification by faith alone.

For relying on the bible as the sole authority. History paints a different picture than the protestants, who came onto the scene 500 years ago. The bible as we know it was not in existence until the 4th century. Not one person had their own bible. Churches passed the letters of St. Paul amongst one another, some had a Gospel, some had parts of scripture, or even small snippits. Some churches had nothing at all and either relied on oral tradition of Christ's life and teaching, which is scripturally accurate, 2 Thess. 2:15 "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, wether by word or our epistle." If the bible is needed in order to attain salvation then many Christians in the early church are doomed, and even after the bible was put together. The vast majority of the common people were unable to read and therefore came to church to hear the Gospels being read, but never owned their own personal bible. Christ says an interesting thing in John 5:39 about scripture: "You search the scripture, for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they that testify of me." One of the few times Christ mentions scripture and speaks directly OF it, He does not give us the impression that scriptures have the authority that protestants bestow upon it. In fact he clearly states this view is incorrect.

Going all the way back to the old testament. The foundation of the church, before its fulfillment by Christ, is very important to understand. Protestants take the old testament out of context by believing in the complete abolishment of the entire church structure. This belief quite frankly is senseless. What is the point in creating a priesthood, only to abolish it later? What is the sense in creating a form of worship, only to abolish it later? The church then was symbolic. These things had no power in which to save because Christ had not fulfilled these things and gave the church power. The sacrifice offered, a lamb, is now fulfilled by Christ. Instead of an actual slaughtered lamb, we have the perfect lamb, Christ, as our sacrifice in the Holy Communion. Circumcision has been fulfilled by Baptism, and as a child is circumcised as an infant, so too is a child baptized as an infant. This is what protestants cannot understand because their "church" does not in any way resemble the church of God. Their worship does not, in any way, resemble the true worship done in the old testament. Is there any place that we can see that liturgical worship is divine as the Orthodox say? Indeed, in The Apocalypse (Revelation) of St John The Apostle, Chapter 8 verse 3, John shows us "Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much insence, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angels hand." An altar, a censer, intercession of the saints, these are all distinctly Orthodox! This altar was before God, and the service is conducted just as an Orthodox worship service is conducted, a Divine Liturgy.

Now comes the provocation of God. Numbers chapter 16 details a rebellion against Moses and Aaron by a man named Korah and his followers. "They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "you take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" The underlined verse is very similar to what Martin Luther states, the priesthood of the believers. Korah equates the believers with the clergy in the exact same way and rebellious fashion that Korah did. God Himself responded to Korah in verse 31 "Now it came to pass, as he (Moses speaking to the israelites) finished speaking these words, that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods....v.35 And a fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense."

The Lord responded swifty to Korah and his rebellious ideas. This incident in which Korah rebells is no different than the protestants rebelling against God's church and His authority. 

Obviously God did not destroy the protestants, but He didn't for a specific reason. The israelites, such as Korah, were with Moses, he seen the miracles and had every opportunity to accept the truth, to know the truth of the Lord, but instead chose to go against God in the worst of ways, pride. In the case of protestantism, many if not all are ignorant of the true church. Many, if not all, do not have a clear understanding of scripture. They obviously lack understanding when it comes to the importance of the church and why it was not abolished, Mt. 5:17 'Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." Their lack of understanding has temporarily spared them from the wrath of God, hopefully their ignorance will not continue and they will come to the truth.

Protestantism is indeed a provocation of God, just as Moses explains "But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord." Moses is explaining that their actions, rebellion against an established office, in this case the priesthood, have provoked the Lord. By rebelling against, which is a form of protest, the office God established, then you are rebelling against God. This also brings up the question of, why would God be dead serious about the priesthood then, when it had no power, only to abolish it later? 

A Provocation Of God, protestantism.


Links
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/a120.htm
http://philokalia.org/james.htm
http://christianityinview.com/comparison.html

Ever So Close

"And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. They will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." Luke 21:25

The earth is crying out for the return of Christ. Creation is crying out the name of the Lord, crying out for justice for what man has become. The earth is in crisis and man has become confused by its behavior. Some say we are the cause, some say that we are not the cause of this global warming. We may not be a direct result, but through our behavior we have provoked the Lord and despised His creation. This is only the beginning of worse things to come. When the heavens begin to act erratic, then we know that the return of our Lord is ever so close.

The earth is revolting against us with tsunami's, hurricanes, earthquakes, and a host of other natural disasters. The hearts of men are failing because of this. Many tremble in anticipation of what is going to happen, and place these fears in dates such as 2012. They tremble as they should for a life spent in indulgence is a life wasted.

Truth is Relative to the Individual

Liberalism. "It is rather a passive Nihilism, or, better yet, the neutral breeding-ground of the more advanced stages of Nihilism." (Fr. Seraphim Rose, Nihilism, p.23) Liberalism is a growing ideology in not only America but around the world. It shares no cohesive ideology, except for in instances of mass protest against something non-liberal. While this ideology does not outright reject truth, it does minimize truth. It makes truth relative to the individual. So truth does exist, not in its absolute form, but according to each individual. Everyone can have their own thought, their own idea, their own belief, but you cannot take a stance that any of these are truth, or that your belief is "truer" than another. This is liberalism in practice.

So what is the big deal with everyone having "their truth?" It is quite simple, if everyone has the truth, no one has the truth. How can a group of people, who all have opposing beliefs, all have the truth? If I say 2 + 2= 5, is that true? No, of course it is not true and nobody should be told that it is alright to believe this. Then we come to homosexuality. As a society, we are not allowed to disagree with the act of homosexuality, if we do then we are peppered with all sorts of fun and colorful words. We are to believe that homosexuality is something you are born with. What of pedophiles? Are they born pedophiles in the same way homosexuals are born homosexual? NAMBLA believes that they are born pedophiles, so according to liberal ideology we MUST accept it.

But what of homosexuality? Is there any proof that they are not born this way? Of course there is. Lets say a man is born homosexual, he will have all the working components that a homosexual should have, because he is after all homosexual. This is incorrect. This is where the blog takes a very nasty and graphic turn so prepare. In the anus, there is a muscle called the spincter. Unlike the vagina of a woman, the spincter is not made to stretch very big at all. When this muscle does get stretched too much, usually through anal sex, the muscle tears and does not go back to its original size. After repeated anal sex over a period of time, this muscle wears down until it is of no use and cannot close at all. Therefore if a man is born homosexual then all his parts should be homosexual as well, apparently no homosexual male has a homosexual spincter, because they are not made for anal penetration.

The danger of liberalism here is that by society eventually accepting something that was considered unacceptable than others will follow. Homosexuality is considered moral by many people, who is to say that pedophilia is not moral? By what standard do we measure morality? That is moral relativism, which is a whole other subject.

Liberalism is just smoke and mirrors, it confuses everything. Everything is true according to everyone, who all have opposing beliefs. Liberalism is a must for the system of the antichrist. The people need to coalesce despite differences. This again is similar to the statue in the book of Daniel, the final empire is mixed as iron and clay, they dont mix. Uniting a people under the banner of liberalism will not work, the glue will not hold and the fabric will start to tear.

Links
http://www.personal.psu.edu/glm7/m160.html
http://www.provopulse.com/?q=node/1557
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/nihilism.html
http://mw4.m-w.com/dictionary/liberalism
http://www.nambla.org/
http://wizbangblog.com/content/2008/09/17/the-last-undercover.php

Scientific Atheism Requires Faith

Luke 18:8 "When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?" Never has a statement been so true and visible. Protestantism has ushered in a liberal mindset, that everyones truth, is indeed truth. This being a form of Nihilism, not denying all truth but making truth relative to the individual. This continual "protest" of Protestantism eventually reduces itself to its simplest form. The new denomination having to outdo the previous one with new and improved gimmicks. This leads people to either believe that Christianity is a do it yourself religion, and can be practiced by anyone with a bible. Or it leads a sober minded individual into disbelief, knowing that these denominations are indeed superficial. These supposed "Christians" are bringing more people to atheism than to Christ, hence the militant mindset of a vast majority of atheists.

Science also plays a major role in converting unsuspecting people to atheism. Science claims it knows the secrets of the universe, when in fact this is an outright lie. For example a bone is dug up and an interpretation placed upon it, therefore it now becomes evidence for the atheist that evolution is true and Christianity is just some fairy tale. We must look to the origin of all things. In the Judeo/Christian belief, we believe the account in Genesis, God created all things in a literal 6 day period and rested on the 7th. This of course is laughable to scientists, but if it is not true then why do we use the 7 day week? It is simple. God could have created all things in an instant, or over a period of billions of years, but he chose 6 days, resting on the 7th. This is very logical as to why this was done, to give structure and a sense of time to mankind. As the other two options of creation are illogical, in the Christian sense, because it establishes nothing in the way of structure and guidance.

Now on to the beginning for the scientific community. The majority, if not all, believe in the big bang theory. I find this highly illogical and I will explain why. The big bang theory says that there was a small bit of matter about the size of a period on this page. This matter began to spin until it finally exploded and all matter came from that tiny piece of matter. Now maybe that is what happend, but let us look at just how probable that event really is. Before the matter could have come into being, of its own accord because there is no creator, space itself had to exist, of its own accord, in order for matter to exist. According to science space had to self exist, and matter had to self exist afterwards, did they have a conversation with one another as to who would do what and why?

Richard Dawkins, in the documentary Root of all Evil, calls evolution a cosmic lottery, this after determining that the account in Genesis is highly improbable. What are the chances of winning the lottery tomorrow? Its pretty improbably but not impossible by any means. What are the odds of me winning the lottery two days in a row? That is next to impossible and because it has never happened in all likelihood it never will. The odds of me winning the lottery every day for the rest of my life, that is impossible and will never happen. Yet this is similar to what evolution wants us to believe, that a series of highly improbable events happened in sequence for life to come about. It is so improbable it probably never happened. As demonstrated above the scientists have a difficult time explaining where this matter came from as matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Where did the space in which the matter existed come from? To believe this requires faith, nobody has seen matter self exist, therefore it is faith.

Links
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9002284641446868316#
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/arj/v3/n1/orthodox-darwinism-atheism
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_theory.html
http://www.icr.org/article/big-bang-theory-collapses/
http://metaresearch.org/cosmology/BB-top-30.asp
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i3/big_bang.asp
http://hubpages.com/hub/Big-Bang-Theory-What-are-the-odds
http://www.coppit.org/god/hoyle.php
http://www.unesco.org/courier/2001_05/uk/doss21.htm

The System of the Antichrist

For the Antichrist to be an effective ruler and exercise his power worldwide, a worldwide system will need to be in place. The political, economic, and social systems all need to be united world wide for when the Antichrist arises, making it easier for him to grab the reigns of power. Today in our modern society westernization has made its way into every nook and cranny of this world. No country has been able to fend of westernization, everyone is infected with an inflated sense of unity. Even though things will seemingly be united, it is superficial. There is nothing unified about it. Like mixing iron and clay, so too will be this global unity. What is it that binds us, love? Far from love. It is a desire to be gods. Since God is either minimized in the eyes of most or completely removed from the minds of others, someone needs to take the place of God. So all of us, together, are moving towards our own selfish desire of becoming a god, or the god of our own world and our own truth.

From this will the Antichrist arise. The messiah that the foolish jews have been waiting for. A jew from the tribe of Dan, born of a whore. He will be the one to rise above all others and be bold enough to proclaim himself as God. When he arrives on the political scene, he will exercise his power, mercilessly. He will have this ability, this power, because of the global system established over a period of a couple hundred years before his birth. This is why the system is so important for the Antichrist, if it was not in place he could not exercise authority over all the worlds people, such as forcing everyone to receive a mark in order to buy or sell. Keep watching, be aware. These things have been happening for sometime now and nobody seems to notice.

The End of Man - Intro

The end of man. This blog is my attempt to keep people up to date with my series of books, the first is still being polished off and should be published soon. I will discuss the various issues discussed in these series of books such as, Protestantism, atheism, evolution, the moral decay of america, and a host of other topics relative to mans indefinite demise.

I am sure that many of these posts will be abrasive and will most definitely offend many. Hopefully everyone can see past their own personal bias and atleast consider some of what is being read. Another post is soon to follow.