Paul's Passing Thoughts

Apparently, the Bible answer man, Hank Hanegraaff, has converted from mainline Protestantism to the Greek Orthodox church. How could someone so immersed in the Protestant tradition for so many years switch to another religious system? The answer is simple: it’s all the gospel of authority ice cream—different flavors. One is saved by displaying humbleness in submitting to “the authority of godly men.” When it gets right down to it the only cardinal sin is thinking for yourself and being accountable to God as an individual.

Nevertheless, what is more evident than the fact that we will all be accountable to God as individuals anyway? Yet, as one example in volumes of Protestant cognitive dissonance, the church demands that we give up individual discernment and submit to its authority while assuming that Christ is in total agreement because they say He is. And oh, by the way, you are charged a temple tax for all of this as well.

According to an article posted on Pulpit and Pen,

The Orthodox Church is a false expression of Christianity, much like the Roman Catholic Church, that is highly driven by graven images and denies the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, and instead, trusts in meritorious works and a sacramental system for salvation. This flies in the face of Ephesians 2:8-9, which states,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Um, excuse me, BOTH Protestantism and the Orthodox Church hold to progressive salvation. Although Protestantism excludes graven images of people in exchange for graven images of crosses everywhere you look, BOTH have sacrificial systems that maintain salvation. While more ambiguous than Mass, the Protestant “means of grace” [viz, means of salvation] are the Lord’s Table, church membership, prayer, sitting under formal preaching, and a perpetual return to the same gospel that originally saved us through “a lifestyle of repentance” or “deep repentance.” What Protestantism calls “faith alone” really includes works to maintain salvation that are classified as faith alone works. Preaching the gospel to yourself every day is obviously a work, but since the gospel is by faith alone anything that is a gospel work or the “obedience of faith” isn’t really a work. Right.

In contrast, the real gospel ends works under the law because the law is ended and interprets all good works via the motive of love. If one is still under the law all works must be categorized by church orthodoxy as faith alone works or work works with each claiming the others as heresy because of how they categorize the works and other issues. For example, people raising their arms to a huge cross behind a praise band isn’t idol worship. Right. Being faithful to the “means of grace salvation” isn’t really a “means” of salvation either. Right. I guess it depends on what “means” means.

Whether Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or whatever, it’s all the pot calling the kettle black. And it’s all a morass of contradiction scripted in a soap opera on steroids. Examples are found by poking the institutional church’s Jabba the Hutt body anywhere you choose while blindfolded. According to Pulpit and Pen this is just another example of the great falling away that we should expect in the last days while the Neo-Protestant movement lays claim to a great “Resurgence” expressed in viral conferences attended by thousands, a plethora of dynamic teachers hanging on trees everywhere you look, and thousands of megachurch campuses located in every American city. Yes indeed, a great revival during a great falling away. I remind you that Christ asked if He would find any faith at all when He returns. In addition, Pulpit and Pen decries…

… this is merely an example of what happens when professing Christians elevate something other than Scripture as the final authority on all things.

Right, we can tell that the Bible is an evangelical authority by the massive volume of books about the Bible that have all but totally replaced individual Bible study. Yet, after 500 years and oceans of Protestant ink, Pulpit and Pen bemoans the following,

So what is the significance of this? This should be a testimony of the dismal state of the evangelical church in our modern day. There is a sure lack of biblical truth and doctrinal stability to which many can be left wandering.

Dismal state? Again, the Neo-Protestant movement is defined by billions of incoming dollars and thousands of splendid megachurch temples with huge infrastructure budgets. Yet, Protestant teachers effectively pull on the heartstrings of their followers while picturing the movement as a destitute few huddled together in the wilderness suffering for Christ…while sitting in a multimillion dollar sanctuary.

Trust me folks, there is nothing more willingly ignorant than a Protestant.

As history moves forward, all of these religions will come together as one because they are all predicated on progressive justification and positional justification apart from the new birth. What is the element of progressive justification that will bring them all together?

Only time will tell.

paul

Fake Fandom pages 108-112

This convention is an interesting study regarding the deception of the Fandom. Like most Fandom conventions of late, they are beginning to target children for attendance and presenting themselves as family friendly. This is an absurd deception; at the core of the Fandom is an anti-humanity ideology that rejects the nuclear family altogether. While the latest information on furfest.org presents the conference like a cartoon fandom being held in Mayberry R.F.D. with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck greeting everyone at the front door, the history of the conference shows a different picture.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Anarchy is a kissing cousin to anti-humanity ideology. This is because anti-humanity ideology calls for the tearing down of all human institutions, but to be replaced by what? Answer: anything that is not human. The senseless vandalism is really the destruction of anything that is a norm. If it is cultural norm, it’s amoral; destroy it and ask questions later. Because Furries are anarchists at heart, senseless destruction against the very organized convention that represents them can be expected.

This is exactly what happened at the 2015 RainFurrest convention. Suffice to say that the chaotic lunacy of that convention and the subsequent vandalism of the upscale hotel it used led to the demise of that annual conference and its corporate organization. For those reading this who stay apprised concerning the contemporary BLM/Antifa cultural revolution, the annual location of RainFurrest may surprise you, or maybe not; none other than Seattle, Washington. In fact, Furries were very much involved in the counterculture takeover of inner-city Seattle, which became a temporary community called “CHAZ” and later “CHOP.” Furry art found another avenue of expression in the graffiti now covering Seattle. On Twitter, a conversation even made the connection between CHAZ and RainFurrest:

As far as Midwest FurFest being family friendly, at its 2014 conference, a chlorine gas attack occurred that sent 19 people to the hospital. In 2019, the Fandom’s toxic cancel culture banned Milo Yiannopoulos from the Midwest Furfest conference due to his conservative views. That is, as much as someone like Yiannopoulos can be conservative. He describes himself as a “disabled queer Jewish immigrant with a black husband.”

In another example of Fandom convention family friendliness, the Rocky Mountain Furry Convention, a gathering of about 1,600 Furries going back annually for 10 years, had to cancel a recent conference because of the conference’s ongoing kerfuffle with Antifa. Authorities investigated threats made by Antifa towards the conference and concluded them to be credible and alarming. Security costs for the conference skyrocketed to $22,000 resulting in the cancellation.

Apparently, Antifa is upset that a Furry group referred to as the Furry Raiders “wear arm bands that some consider Nazi iconography, but their leader, Foxler Nightfire, denies the arm bands have anything to do with Nazism. Foxler (who is gay and half Asian) is also criticized for his Nazi-like outfit (a black collared shirt with a red tie) which he says was inspired by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong.” Aside from this example among many, the Fandom itself blames ongoing violent behavior at their conferences on outside agitators. And indeed, there are a lot of Furry-hating groups
that continually harass the Fandom, but the point follows: whomever may, or may not, be at fault, any Fandom conference or gathering is hardly a safe environment for children. Violence may break out at any time and often does.

Once again, the pretense of open acceptance that rejects every cultural norm is replaced by a massive amount of laws demanding condemnation and exile based on personal preferences. It is indicative of the present-day cancel culture.
Innumerable pet peeves become law, and a toxic atmosphere ensues if not outright chaos.

Of course, Furry conferences log many peaceful hours with things like chlorine gas attacks not being inevitable, just a possibility, but the fact that Furry conferences are gathering places for sexual deviants of all kinds is well documented. There are enough Furries in the Fandom who don’t understand what it is really all about who protest accordingly. Outcries over Furries bragging about going to a particular conference on social media, while also appearing in the news for being arrested for sex crimes is fairly common.

In every case, those running the conferences claim they did not know. In all of this, the conclusion follows: there is no good reason to allow children to have any exposure to the Fandom for any reason whatsoever. To do so is to put children at risk.