He that endures to the end shall be saved.

                  Not only did Christ suffer in order to save us, but He also suffered in order to teach us. Suffering is an inescapable fact of life and often times it seems as if the righteous suffer more than the wicked. It seems as if life is unfair, why do believers suffer more afflictions? The world persecutes the righteous and God permits this suffering that we might draw closer to Him. In Christ's passion we are taught exactly how we are to suffer. When Christ was before the High Priest, he was questioned, beat, and spat upon, and yet He remained silent in action and word. It was only when Caiphas asked if He was the messiah did Christ reply, testifying to the truth. From this response Christ was spit upon, struck in the face, and mocked. He politely asked why He had been struck, asking if He had spoken evil, the tell Him what it was. Christ teaches us through this that we should remain silent in the face of our accusers except in proclaiming the truth of Christ. Trying to reason with the unreasonable will not bring about any fruit, remain silent in action and word.

                 When Christ was scourged He did not complain, or even plead His case. When the crown of thorns was placed upon Him and the soldiers mocked Him, He remained silent in action and word. He did not try and explain to them that He is God in the flesh, nor did He condemn them. Christ shows us that no matter how we are afflicted, by illness or persecution, that we are to remain silent in action and word. Bearing these afflictions with a contrite and humble heart is a greater testimony of Christ than any word or deed. When we are mocked for being Christian we do not judge nor hate, but again remain humbly silent in action and word.

                When Christ embraced His cross and carried it to Golgotha, after being beaten, scourged, and mocked, could have easily given up had He chose to. Instead Christ carried on, despite the torment, pain, and the mockery. We too must embrace our cross, this means to accept our suffering, afflictions, and mockery. Carry our cross to golgotha (golgotha, the place of the skull, representing death) despite everything we may face, the humility we may encounter, and the seemingly unbearable weight of the cross.

                On the cross, Christ had clearly gone through inexplicable torture and pain. Watching the children He created curse Him, drive nails into His flesh, and mock Him, yet He prayed for them all. He listened to a condemned man, the thief, and forgave him putting this thief before Himself. Even in His final moments He was concerned not for Himself, but for His mother, giving her to His apostle, St. John. When we have reached our threshold for pain and suffering, the only words we should speak are those of prayers. Especially for those who may be persecuting us, and above all forgive them. We also learn that we should put ourselves aside for others who may be in need, no matter what we may be dealing with, we should never be so selfish as to put ourselves above others. The same is said for when Christ, despite Him being near death, still had concern for His mother's well being.

               How much love Christ has for us that He consistently put others before Himself, yet He is God incarnate! To remain silent and humble, to embrace your very suffering and death, to pray for those driving nails into your flesh, to put everyone before you, even though you have suffered tremendously and are on the verge of dying. Christ has taught us how to love through suffering. That suffering is not a condemnation, but a virtue. If we can follow the example of Christ and suffer patiently with a humble and contrite heart, then through this we might know Him and attain salvation.

And remember "He that endures to the end shall be saved." Mt. 10:22

Atheism Defined

First Thought    

  Many atheists choose to define atheism as a “lack of belief”, but is this really a proper way of defining atheism? According to the New Oxford English Dictionary, atheism is “the theory or belief that God does not exist.” Clearly these two definitions conflict with one another as one defines atheism as lacking belief and the other as a belief. The statement “lack of belief” the individual came to this conclusion without choice. For instance, if someone is unaware of, let us say, the Christian God then he very well cannot believe in the Christian God and therefore would lack belief because he is unaware. With the majority of today's atheists, they are well aware of, not only the Christian God but many other religions as well. How is it that they can lack belief in something they are aware of? The statement, lack of belief, makes it seem as if they have made no conscience decision to believe or not to believe. 

As humans we are distinctly different from animals in that we have free will. So while atheists do lack belief in God, they are aware of Him and His religion. When an individual is aware of something, they can then actively decide whether or not to believe. So for an atheist, who is aware of God, who says they lack belief in God, they are not giving the complete definition. Nobody defines themselves by what they do not believe in and nobody would define themselves by things they do not believe in and that they are not aware of. To be an atheist, in its true form, a conscience decision is made and therefore when this is done the person “believes that God does not exist.”

What of those who are unaware of God? While they would fit into the definition of atheism by atheists, a lack of belief, and technically would classify them as atheists, I see fit to distinguish them from those who made a conscience rejection of God. Let us say that a group of individuals who live on a secluded island and have no religion and no knowledge of God. By atheists definition this would mean that these people are atheists, however I disagree. These people have not been made aware of God and therefore do not have the capacity in which to choose to believe or choose to reject Him. According to St. Paul this would not matter “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them.” Rm. 2:14-15 Here St. Paul makes it very clear that even those who were unaware of God and His commandments, are still subconsciously aware of what is right and wrong, His law. Therefore since they have not actively rejected that, they cannot be equivalent to those who have knowingly rejected God. 

What of children? I have heard the argument made by atheists that infants and children are atheists, based on their lack of belief definition. This is a little bit different in that children lack not belief but the capacity to understand belief. Infants also cannot be considered atheists because they lack belief, in this circumstance the infant in not unaware of God, but lacks the ability to make a choice because the infant has not developed enough. Over time the infant becomes a child and begins to develop the capacity with which to understand and to choose. The simple fact is that to be an atheist one must choose to believe their is no God. Simply because someone lacks belief does not make them an atheist, the two are separate states of being.

Second Thought

Atheists reject God, yet they accept the idea of God. How can you lack belief, as they claim, if you believe in the idea of God just not His existence? So while they are atheist in the sense the do not believe in the existence of God, they still believe in the idea of God and therefore cannot “lack belief” completely in God. If we take the argument set forth by Richard Dawkins of a teapot that orbits the earth, would I lack belief in that? No. Mr. Dawkins has put forth this idea, let us assume he truly believes this, I do not have the capacity to disprove his theory but for all I know he could be right. Therefore I cannot “lack belief” in his theory no matter how absurd it may seem to me, so I have to take a position and say, I believe the teapot is not there, I believe your belief is wrong. So while you lack belief in the teapot orbiting our planet, you still have to believe it is not there on the basis that you cannot disprove it. 

      Religion has much more credibility than it is given, simply because it has been with us our whole recorded history. Because of this it must be taken seriously. Our ancestors should not be looked down upon for their religious beliefs, and should not be considered superstitious. After all some of them have created marvels to the likes we cannot even conceive of doing today with our advanced technology. The Egyptians built the great pyramids, and many other fantastic works of art. The Mayans also built spectacular monuments and were able to calculate precise astronomical events well into the distant future. The list is quite lengthy actually. So it is very unfair to perceive our ancestors as living in the dark ages or being primitive in any way, at least until we can accomplish what they have done. It is only fair to take the idea of religion seriously, even if only in a historical sense, we must acknowledge the possibility of a God or gods. Since the majority, without question, acknowledge the historical existence of religion and the role it has played in our history, there is belief, not lack of belief, even if only belief in the idea or history of religion.

Protestantism: The Belief and the Individual

         Is it acceptable to consider protestants Christian? This is something that I cannot answer with any amount of certainty. I do not know the hearts of anyone and therefore cannot pass judgment on my fellow human beings. What I can say with absolute certainty is that protestantism is not Christian. The individual being separate from the belief is subject to be judged only by God, the belief the individual adheres to, however, is subject to all for judgment. This may seem confusing so bear with me in my attempt to explain my position. As a former protestant I have the experience to understand and know the belief system and that I was truly seeking Christ and others are only seeking momentary bliss and self directed worship, not of the true God but a God they want to believe in. So it is possible that a person who is not Orthodox but is actively seeking Christ, be Christian. Again I am not a judge and have no place pointing out who is and who is not, and this is why I condemn the belief system adhered to by protestants and not the actual individuals associated with the belief. 

Why is it that some may consider protestantism to be Christian? I have been told that the Christology of protestantism is the exact same as the Orthodox belief, therefore protestantism is Christian. I think this tends to confuse our youth and those with little knowledge to Orthodoxy. Essentially we are to believe that the same result can be achieved through protestantism as Orthodoxy, both of which are polar opposites. Orthodoxy embracing suffering and rejecting the worldly and protestantism embracing politics, the worldly, often times material pleasure as well as the physical, and the list goes on. Since protestantism is much easier and apparently it is acceptable to many Orthodox to have faith only, why do we struggle the Orthodox spiritual life? If protestantism is Christian and we can achieve the same result as Orthodoxy, what we are doing is pointless and void of meaning. Protestantism cannot be considered Christian without making Orthodoxy relative and insignificant. “You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” (James 2:19,20) If we are basing our acceptance of protestantism based on their belief in God, then logically we must assume that the demons are Christians as well. St. James makes this plainly obvious in the verse above. He recognizes that it is a good thing to believe in God, but where exactly does faith alone get you? He states that “..even the demons believe, and tremble!” So the demons believe in Christ, and must understand Christology because they “tremble” according to St. James.

What exactly is the etymology of the word “protestant”? Protestant comes from the word protest which is defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as: a statement or action expressing disapproval of or objection to something : the Hungarian team lodged an official protest | two senior scientists resigned in protest.

• an organized public demonstration expressing strong objection to a policy or course of action adopted by those in authority : [as adj. ] a protest march.

2 Law a written declaration, typically by a notary public, that a bill has been presented and payment or acceptance refused.

Protestantism is to protest, but protest against what? In this case against religious authority, mainly the Roman Catholic Church or anything similar to it. Protestantism is to rebel against religious authority, the authority passed on to us by the apostles. How is it that we can accept a belief completely opposed to Orthodox Christianity in every way. Protestantism rejects everything that, according to Orthodox tradition and doctrine, makes us Christian. That is a contradiction of our own self and what Orthodoxy is, we accept protestantism as Christian, while protestantism actively rejects what is deemed as a necessity for salvation. 

By accepting protestantism we are creating confusion amongst our people and we cannot buy into this liberal ideology that “we all believe in God, who we share no common opinion.” Accepting this tells our people that protestantism is acceptable, their beliefs, their doctrines, and even their worship. How is this acceptable, but if protestantism is Christian then there is nothing wrong with leaving the church for the path of least resistance. The mind of our youth works like this, they are not mature and tend to find the easiest way to do things, as opposed to the right way of doing things. This is something that cannot be reconciled, why stay in the Orthodox church if indeed protestantism is one in the same, just much easier? Anyone who regurgitates this phrase that protestantism is Christian is contradicting themselves in the same sentence.

“And in one holy, universal, apostolic church..” (The Creed) If indeed you believe that protestantism is Christian, part of the same Christian church, then you must omit this phrase from the Creed and never say it. Protestantism is not one but around 40,000 very different denominations, which also contradicts Ephesians 4:5 “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.” You must believe that there are many Lords, many faiths, and many baptisms. Simply because there are so many denominations that are distinctly different, their views on our Lord differ, their views on baptism differ, and of course they are distinctly different faiths. So this belief, that protestantism is Christian also contradicts the creed that we have said for centuries, and the Holy Scriptures. 

Let us look back in history and see just how protestants viewed our own Coptic Orthodox Church. Here are some correspondence from the Church Missionary Society about our church.

i. 1752, Moravian Brethren. "..in all their conversation to endeavour to direct attention to the essence of Christianity ... and teach them how, by means of Jesus' merits, they might obtain rest for their souls, true holiness of life, and evangelical liberty, which leave the conscience unfettered by human traditions".

ii. 1850, Church Mission Society. "The missionaries seem to follow almost too strictly the plan on which the mission was begun, to seek the friendship of the clergy, especially the higher clergy of the Eastern Churches, with a view of influencing them gently, in the hope that by slow degrees they would become convinced of their errors and themselves reform their respective Churches. But the system has failed... Individual conversions [of Copts] must be the aim, as the only means of prosecuting reformation".

iii. 1850, Church Mission Society. "Through the Church Mussuin Society missionaries throughout the Nile Valley, hundreds of persons had their knowledge of the way of salvation corrected, their faith directed away from their own works, to the death and suffering and obedience of the Son of God as the reason and ground of salvation from sin and its consequences".

iv. 1852. "Rev Mr. Leider has done good among the Copts, and the young men whom he has instructed refuse on conscientious grounds to enter the priesthood of this corrupt Church.... The American Missionary Association has resolved to establish a Mission among the Copts".

v. 1896. "[The Copts] must have had some glimpse of the light that illumines the soul and leads up to the throne of God. To help such a people [the Copts] to loosen themselves from the chains of superstition, and to come out of the dungeon of darkness into which their surroundings had imprisoned them, and lead them forth into the light and liberty of the Christian faith, is surely a duty and a Christian privilege".

 (Provided by Fr. Peter Farrington)

“For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been given to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (John 6:64-66) 

Some argue that taking this stance, against protestantism being Christian, will only push protestants away from Orthodoxy. I beg to differ. I do not believe it possible to turn someone away from Christ, since anyone that comes to Christ, must have been given to him by God, how can we stop that? What we can prevent is our own from being deceived and confused by protestantism. The idea that we can  prevent someone from coming to Christ, is absurdity. As the verse above shows, God gives this, who are we to take it away? The fact is we cannot, but we should not further delude those who adhere to protestantism by sending them the message that the true church sees them as equals. How can two opposites be equal? The individual may be sincere and honestly seeking Christ, but the protestant belief can never be Christian just as a lie can never become the truth.

My response to the statement "islam is a religion of peace".

With the recent bombing of our Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, Egypt, I felt compelled to write something. I am not much for politics, but I feel this is a situation in which we have the opportunity to stand up and say something. For all of those who say that "islam is not violent" and is "a religion of peace", your wrong. It just simply is not true. You may know muslims and they may very well be very good individuals, that does not mean that islam is peaceful, it means that they, like most people, are ignorant of their own religion. This is not an insult to muslims, but a factual statement based on the teachings of islam. Many say "I have read the Koran", and if you did, then you are utterly confused. The koran is not an easy read, it is similar to walking into the middle of a conversation, the majority of the time the reader hasn't the slightest clue as to what is happening. This is the necessity of the hadith, which are a collection of writings by mohammed's followers recording what he did and said in his day to day life. This book helps "fill in the blanks". Without it the koran is one big jumbled mess. The hadiths are regarded as being just as holy as the koran, for the daily prayers are not commanded in the koran but by mohammed in the hadith.

With that being said let us extract some verses to look at their meaning. We must remember that unlike scripture, which is interpreted literally AND figuratively, the koran has always been interpreted in a literal form. I will merely present verses and let the reader decide for themselves.

What does islam say of women?

Tabari IX:113

"Allah permits you to shut them in separate rooms and to beat them, but not severely. If they abstain, they have the right to food and clothing. Treat women well for they are domestic animals and they possess nothing themselves. Allah has made the enjoyment of their bodies lawful in his Qur'an."

Tabari I:280

"Allah said, 'It is My obligation to make Eve bleed once every month as she made this tree bleed. I must also make Eve stupid, although I created her intelligent.' Because Allah afflicted Eve, all of the women of this world menstruate and are stupid."

Bukhari:V1B22N28

"The Prophet said: 'I was shown the Hell Fire and the majority of its dwellers were women who are disbelievers or ungrateful.' When asked what they were ungrateful for, the Prophet answered, 'All the favors done for them by their husbands.'"

Qur'an 4:15

"If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four witnesses from amongst you against them; if they testify, confine them to houses until death [by starvation] claims them."

What about torture and fighting?

Qur'an 5:33

"The punishment for those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and make mischief in the land, is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand and foot on opposite sides...their doom is dreadful. They will not escape the fire, suffering constantly.

Qur'an 9:5

"When the sacred forbidden months for fighting are past, fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, torture them, and lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war."

Qur'an 5:37

"The [Christian] disbelievers will long to get out of the Fire, but never will they get out there from; and theirs will be an enduring torture."

Ishaq:595

"The Apostle said, 'Get him away from me and cut off his tongue.'"

Ishaq:312

"Umar said to the Apostle, 'Let me pull out Suhayl's two front teeth. That way his tongue will stick out and he will never be able to speak against you again.'"

Qur'an 8:12

"Your Lord inspired the angels with the message: 'I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes."

Qur'an:9:112	"The Believers fight in Allah's Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed."
Qur'an:9:29	"Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission."

Qur'an:8:39

"Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah."

Qur'an:8:39

"So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world)."

Ishaq:324

"He said, 'Fight them so that there is no more rebellion, and religion, all of it, is for Allah only. Allah must have no rivals.'"

Qur'an:9:123

"Fight the unbelievers around you, and let them find harshness in you."

What of this "paradise" spoken of, with virgins?

Qur'an 56:33

"Unending, and unforbidden, exalted beds, and maidens incomparable. We have formed them in a distinctive fashion and made them virgins, loving companions matched in age, for the sake of those of the right hand." [Another translation reads:] "On couches or thrones raised high. Verily, We have created them (maidens) incomparable: We have formed their maidens as a special creation, and made them to grow a new growth. We made them virgins - pure and undefiled, lovers, matched in age.

Qur'an 37:40

Qasirat-at-Tarf (virgin females), restraining their glances (desiring none but you), with big, beautiful eyes. As if they were (sheltered) eggs, preserved."

There are several passages that speak of this "paradise" and not one of them speak of a woman who enters into paradise. Each passage speaks of a man entering paradise, perhaps because women do not enter paradise.

Bukhari:V1B22N28

"The Prophet said: 'I was shown the Hell Fire and the majority of its dwellers were women who are disbelievers or ungrateful.' When asked what they were ungrateful for, the Prophet answered, 'All the favors done for them by their husbands.'"

Are there any other verses? Yes, in fact there are several verses in the hadith in which Mohammed was shown hell, and not once did he see a man suffering in hell.

Are there any other verses speaking of hell?

Qur'an 4:55

"Sufficient for them is Hell and the Flaming Fire! Those [Jews] who disbelieve Our Revelations shall be cast into Hell. When their skin is burnt up and singed, We shall give them a new coat that they may go on tasting the agony of punishment."

Qur'an 37:63

"For We have truly made it as a trial to torment the disbelievers. Zaqqum is a horrible thorn tree that grows in Hell. The shoots of its fruit-stalks are like the heads of devils. Truly they [non-Muslims] will eat it and fill their bellies with it. On top of that they will be given a mixture made of boiling water to drink especially prepared. Then they shall be returned to the Blazing Fire."

Qur'an 74:31

"We have appointed nineteen angels to be the wardens of the Hell Fire. We made a stumbling-block for those who disbelieve and We have fixed their number as a trial for unbelievers in order that the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] may arrive with certainty, and that no doubts may be left for the people of the Book, those in whose hearts is a disease."

So you see, while many Americans are defending them, many who truly follow islam are laughing. Because of the ignorance of the American and the stupidity of the liberal, islam is defended, more so than the Christians who have been persecuted in Egypt for the last 1,400 years! What we need to understand is, there is a difference in denouncing a person and what that person believes. Love the person, despise their beliefs. Islam is based on violence, intolerance, and fear, explain it away all you wish, the teachings are there. I have only shown a fraction of the stupidity within their books. I urge you to change your position, to study the truth and stop being so ignorant.

I challenge you, the reader, to find the same kind of teachings in the scriptures, old testament or new testament. If you are inclined to believe that all religions are indeed the same then it would only be right that you do the proper research in order to validate that belief. I can promise you, there is nothing that resembles islam in scripture.

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.