No, No, No, Our Present Days Are NOT More “Wicked” Than the Past; The Protestant Onslaught Against America
The Vegas massacre, except for the number of deaths, is nothing new and does note denote an increase of wickedness in the latter days. As far back as the early 60s there were incidents of random sniper attacks on the public. Is our culture more wicked than it was in the 60s? Hardly.
As I have written about prior, the essence of sin is a desire to control others. Humanity has no small source of ideas and techniques for fulfilling control-lust. Psychological control is primarily obtained on every stratum of human existence through lowering one’s self-esteem and self-confidence. I will also mention a good contemporary example: political domination through the shaming of America.
Let’s, for a moment, refocus on my introductory idea. Though death or some other retribution is often the punishment for not allowing someone to fulfill their control lust, murder is the ultimate control experience. When you are pointing a loaded gun at someone with your finger on the trigger, in that moment, you decide whether they live or die; at that moment, you either give life, or take it away. I believe some people are willing to trade their very life for this momentary, ultimate control high.
Most religion is a religion of control administrated through a cultural caste system. The Bible is clear; sin seeks to control/enslave through condemnation. If we are all bad people, we need experts on how to have our best life now under the circumstances, and these people should rule the world. And, the more wicked and worthless you are according to any given human category, the lower you should be in the enslavement pecking order. And some within the caste system are even toxic or a threat to those in the higher echelons of caste resulting in something we call, “genocide.”
By the way, there are different theories on how caste is best implemented to save the world from humanity, and this is the source of all wars. In regard to root cause, there are no exceptions.
It will never fail; every time a Vegas happens, or some weather catastrophe, church hierarchies of all types will remind the public that the end is near and beckon them to seek refuge in their religion. Yes, their “sanctuaries” are where the death angel passes over. Yes, they are the ones that properly place the blood of Jesus over the doorposts. Yes, though Jesus never showed up at any church council, they are the ones God appointed to oversee ongoing forgiveness on earth. Because they say Jesus says so.
But, only Jesus has the authority to forgive sin based on His onetime sacrifice on the cross. There is no Holy of Holies overseen by temple priests; the curtain has been torn in two and free access obtained. God does business directly with every individual; there are no mediators other than Jesus—He is the only mediator.
Multiple denominations are not from a lack of authority resulting in the chaos of individualism, they are the result of disagreements among elitists on the best way to control truth. The American Revolution exposed the folly of this notion by default; prior, truth was determined by the biggest sword while now the individual merely chooses which authority he or she will obtain heaven by. Prior to Americanism, the most successful sword determined the right way to heaven, after Americanism, elitism is free to multiply and offer choices to the individual, yet individualism gets the rap. If only individuals were stripped of freedom, authorities would be free to wage war for the control of truth like the good old days.
This brings us to the cardinal point of this article; before America, the world had a long history of unspeakable horrors on every stratum of life. What? Today’s news reveals that our days are more evil than the Dark Ages and Medieval times? LOL! Really? So, if Americanism saved the world from steroidal evil, what increase of “wickedness” in the latter days is the Bible talking about? Answer: the return of the church-state, which replaces love with law/authority. There will be an increase in lovelessness by the same people beckoning us to flee to them for sanctuary.
Americanism totally confused world religion for a while. Religion, because of Americanism, became half-pregnant individualism. To Catholicism’s credit, they have never been confused on this wise, but Protestantism fell prey to the confusion wholesale.
However, Protestantism is returning to its foundational roots. The fact that Protestantism was created in a church-state and for a church-state is hardly ambiguous history. This is directly responsible for the anti-American trends we are seeing among evangelicals. You know, supposedly, to be a patriot is to honor America above God’s kingdom, blah, blah, blah. If America would only turn back to God, utopia would arrive.
But this is church-state rhetoric that dominated human history until the American Revolution and nourished every human ill and plague known to man. Americanism is a huge obstacle to a return of the church-state, and the only hope for its return is the total demise of Americanism in hopes that some palatable form of statism will arise from the ashes.
But why would American evangelicals who have profited greatly from American freedom want its demise? Because the fact that individuals have the freedom to say “no” to their authority just goads them to no end. Sin seeks to control. Secondly, they think statism will make them even richer with control over others as the icing on the cake. Remember, statism depends on controlling blocks of people. Therefore, anyone who has control over large numbers of people via brainwashing has a place at the bargaining table; “In exchange for this, we will tell our group to obey you, and we will toe the state line. And of course, it goes without saying that you will enforce our orthodoxy accordingly.” This is how the church-state has always worked. Statism has always seen religion as its most valuable asset. And by the way, if the book of Revelation doesn’t describe the mother of all church-states, what is it describing?
If you pay attention to what is going on in church lately, you will hear much about, “submitting to governing authorities.” No matter how loathsome and anti-freedom an administration is, we hear, “they are preordained by God.” We hear, “God will, at times, sovereignly place a tyrant in power to test our humble submission.” Be sure of this: it is a promotion of those seen as the future control-brokers. It’s a primer.
Presently, many, if not all church campus networks (groups of different local churches under the same leadership) are, in fact, church-states. For all practical purposes, the only thing missing is the freedom to execute detractors onsite or have them arrested by local authorities. Under the auspices of “security,” these churches really have their own inhouse law enforcement. Routinely, secular authorities find themselves either unwilling or unable to address rape, kidnapping, extortion, and even murder that goes on within church organizations.
A warning in our day to anyone foolish enough to join a church or sign a church covenant: you are totally on your own and you will have no recourse if something unfortunate happens. You can perhaps join a nice church still confused, but they are primed to go the way of most other churches in the midst of the Neo-Protestant movement.
An increase of secular decadence is not the sign to look for in regard to the second coming; an increase in church authority, and authority as truth is what to look for. When truth is authority, love is irrelevant, and at most a fleeting pretense.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Protestantism (Calvinism/Reformed nonsense) has caused/is causing more damage than most wars put together, than most mass-murders added together, etc. And you’re right, the wors is coming . . . from them. Why? It’s an anti-biblical mess and its father is the father of lies
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Those who cry (whine like sirens) that we must pray (especially submit; they love that word as they are practicing submission in all its different smells in their fake churches) for the authorities and simply accept are the ones sitting in front of their flat-screen TVs and with their Hummers and Benzes parked out in front where everyone can see them, and their online tickets to the next Reformed Conference have been booked. And they are saying they have those things because “of god”; it’s all because of the sawrinnnn gawt and submission to his personal buddies (MacArthur, Sproul and the sick lot). These people, who speak so easily, have never set foot outside the States. And you’re right again: “submitting” is a primer for the terrible time when these fools take over (I know many of them are burning to bring Geneva to Washington, for example) a country and death (in all its shapes) will be on the streets and in the pews. Bang! And right into a Christless eternity.
By the way, where I’m from, these unwise ones/unbiblical ones/Calvinists also whine (worse than sirens wearing wet pants) that we must turn back to God to save the country/the world; that we must take the country back for him. And, yes, I ask them this: Was this country ever God’s?
They are not fooling me, and they are not fooling you, but these fools are fooling enough innocent people.
But Jesus saved me (once, and that’s enough), and that makes me happy…so they can bring it on. The big, bad wolves…great will be their fall. And sweet.
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A frightening prospect, but nevertheless a well written treatise!
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“As I have written about prior, the essence of sin is a desire to control others. Humanity has no small source of ideas and techniques for fulfilling control-lust. Psychological control is primarily obtained on every stratum of human existence through lowering one’s self-esteem and self-confidence.”
Institutional Religion has always been a tool for psychological control, hence it was nearly always closely allied with the state. Constantine, in a manner recognizable to all who have experience with Calvinism, merely co-opted the growing body of believers, corralled them and claimed authority over them. He granted approved Religious Leaders territories, if you will, allowing them to accumulate wealth, status and power – as long as they supported the state and state-approved ‘orthodoxy’.
Until the body of Christ understands this, and extracts herself from the corrupt institution(s) of so-called Christianity, she will continue to be controlled, abused and oppressed by both church and state. I do tend to believe that naive, brainwashed ‘christians’ are being used to bring in ‘the mother of all church states’, as we have been warned would happen in the last days. They will never know what happened. They have been lied to and deceived into believing they are building the kingdom of God. If they read scripture without their distortion lenses, they would see that the kingdom of God cannot be built by human hands. The kingdom will not arrive before her King.
“If you pay attention to what is going on in church lately, you will hear much about, “submitting to governing authorities.” No matter how loathsome and anti-freedom an administration is, we hear, “they are preordained by God.””
This never made sense to me when I heard it so frequently from the pulpit. Long before I had any idea of how corrupt the concept of authority was in the church, something deep in my spirit felt that warning twinge that something was amiss here. This is one of the reasons I reject ‘the authority of man’. I know without a doubt that the Spirit of God, whom Jesus promised, resides within me, and will endeavor to lead me more and more into truth as I am willing and able. The authority of man always seeks to stand in the way of that, insisting instead that men and women reject the leading of the Spirit and submit instead to the governing authorities ‘given by God’.
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About the illusion of the “secular”:
It is not that our society is any less religious than any previous civilization, instead all the sacred qualities that were once invested in the natural world (Sun worship, tree worship, stone idols, etc.) have now been invested in the predominantly technologically saturated realm (far removed from the natural world) – fast shiny cars, large screen TVs, iPhones, etc.
In other words, when faced with any individual in this world, we need not to make a distinction between that person being religious or “secular”. Instead, we only need to discern what or who that person holds as most sacred in his or her life. For example, the epidemic of the obsession of taking selfies is indicative of the prevalent way of beholding that which is most sacred, the false image of oneself that betrays self-centeredness.
Thus church-state arrangements are two sides of the same sacred coin. Politics is just as sacred to some as religion is to others. There is a lot of politics in the institutional churches as there is a lot of guilting/blaming in politics. The fan base, in both cases, is willing to kill or silence the opposition.
If Christ’s church begins at one’s home, so too the anti-Christ church-state phenomenon begins at home. A power hungry father, religious or secular, uses all means at his disposal to control his wife and his children. Our struggle is indeed not with flesh and blood, but with powers hungry for control.
That’s why in protest against control this great song was born:
“You don’t own me”
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sigh. This deceptive rhetoric stopped working here, like, 8 year ago; you might think about moving on because you have nothing to sell here. First of all, that is, in a lineup of about 25 that I don’t have time to address, there is no “Christ’s church” to begin with so your whole premise is flawed. “Church” is synonymous with institutions and institutions are synonymous with authority and authority is synonymous with control. You are supposedly against control while endorsing church which is an institution. It’s typical Reformed doublespeak. Your typical Reformed worldview excludes the possibility of any function or active reality that doesn’t need authority because of Augustine presuppositions concerning mankind (note your Neo-Platonist Augustinian view of self via Chrsitocentric epistemology; hence, taking selfies is evil). So, one of your arguments is that when you have church in the home you can have tyranny also so since we already have tyranny in the church we shouldn’t do anything different because of what might happen. Uh, ok. But…a family is not an institution, and a body has no authority (as we discussed on the Sunday BoxCast last night). As discussed last night, my arm will help me do stuff if I properly edify (nourish) my arm. Is that authority, or cooperation and mutual edification? If I make poor nourishment choices leading to a stroke, my arm can no longer help me regardless of my demands. A body does not function on authority, it functions by cooperative edification; most body functions are what we call “involuntary.” In other words, these are functions that have a mind of their own and function properly when taken care of by the head. “Christ’s body” is just that and does not function via authority; church is an authority-of-man caste system institution, not a body functioning under the auspices of God’s literal family. Church is not a body or a family; when authority is truth, mutual edification is irrelevant.
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Paul,
“there is no “Christ’s church” to begin with” & ““Church” is synonymous with institutions…”
The beginning of the book of Revelation the First and the Last addresses the seven churches (ekklésia = an assembly). Surely He is addressing His own people, Christ’s church = Christ’s body (Ephesians 5:23)
Taking selfies is NOT evil. Taking an excessive amounts of selfies is indicative of narcissism.
“But…a family is not an institution, and a body has no authority…” A body is always ruled by the head. “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Ephesians 5:23)
All your arguments against the institutional church I’m in complete agreement with. I too left the institutional church years ago.
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Lesley Gore. Mm . . . a lesbian icon, right? That’s why “It’s My Party” only makes sense to me now, darn decades later . . . Johnny and Judy left at the same time, but it was Judy she was worried about. Heck, I am so slow most of the time.
Silliness aside; thanks, Paul, for setting Martin straight; I simply don’t know anymore. BTW, we had been taking selfies for decades before the current trend of selfies came along, which, surprisingly, does not automatically mean self-centredness (ya, in many cases; just flip through Fakebook and Instafool), but sometimes one is somewhere where there is no one to take a pic of you when you need one (alone at the billboard-sized Deformation500 poster, which sports the faces of the devils Luther and Calvin . . .you know, at the local “church of lies and control” down the road, for instance. Taking a selfie then is not self-centeredness, it’s being pragmatic.
To hear Martin’s Reformed rhetoric is boring and predictable, but at least he is being exposed to the body of believers here. Hope he comes round. He’ll be welcomed, of course.
Here’s Lesley Gore (in color) because it’s her party and her choice, after all. God did not make her that way, no matter what the Gaga says, or what was “predestined” for Lesley. Here’s the beautiful thing: Had she accepted the gift of salvation and trusted on the name of the Lord and lived 1 John 3:21 (God does renew the heart of an unsaved person), then guess what . . . Yip. Ultimately, we’ll answer for our own mistakes and for walking into doors, yes?
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John,
I heard a rumor from Heaven. Being a lesbian is NOT the worst sin. NOT loving others, who appear as sinners in your eyes, is far worst. He loved us while we were still sinners – Romans 5:8. You might be unwilling to die for someone like Lesley Gore, but the Good News is that Christ did die for her so that in Him she could live. And the Heavenly rumor has it that she is now singing far more truthful and beautiful songs.
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I meant “far worse”.
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I have heard nada from heaven, Martin, but my last paragraph with this sentence, “Had she accepted the gift of salvation and trusted on the name of the Lord and lived 1 John 3:21 (God does renew the heart of an unsaved person), then guess what . . . Yip.” is self-explanatory, meaning she’d have been saved had she accepted that, and then, yes, she is with Jesus.
I’ve also not heard any other heavenly rumors, but I have read this in a real book (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, et al).
You seem to know a lot more than we mere mortals do. How do you know, for instance, that I’d not die for another? Is that another heavenly rumor? Who whispered that to you?
I have also not received the list with sins, listed from bad to worse. You see, my sins were dealt with for good (taken away by Christ completely, not just covered) when I was born again. There is no more condemnation for him/her who is IN Christ, Martin. But please send the sin list to Paul so he can publish it. It would help us all. Maybe I’ll crack the top ten twice.
And the rumor that Gore is singing now in heaven? You are in the company of MacArthur and others who know things that the rest of us simply can’t know. I call them modern-day Gnostics.
What’s the latest gossip from heaven? Is Hugh Heffner enjoying it there? Or was your heavenly informant silent on that topic? Or is pornography far worse than being a lesbian by choice? See why we need the list?
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