Paul's Passing Thoughts

Well, it has been an interesting year, no? So far, as someone who is 63 years old and lived through the turmoil of the 60s, I haven’t been too concerned because I have seen it all before. However, the whole deal with Donald Trump makes it a little different. Well, maybe a lot different. First, this ministry totally predicted 11 years ago that the church would be in bed with leftist ideology and an arm of the Democrat party. Sure, there are some churches still confused about what matters and mean well, but most churches are now what we call, “woke.”

Church was never defined as being apart from the state. Church is a product of the 4th century and was created in a church state and for the express purpose of church state. To connect church with the book of Acts is a rewriting of history. The church is not the biblical ekklesia (called-out assembly). The only ekklesia history is the New Testament in general and the book of Acts in-particular. Church history begins in the 4th century and is just that, church history, and nothing else. The dawning of America confused church identity. There was never any separation of church and state before America came along. America is a historical parenthesis regarding church. Don’t forget: we know from the book of Revelation that the church state comes back with a wrathful vengeance before Christ’s visible second coming.

In my study of church history, I concluded early on that church is like seeing a group of ducks walking down the road. You know where they are going; they are going to a body of water. Likewise, church is always heading back to the state. That’s inevitable. That’s how church started, and that’s how it will end. As far as things that are certain in life, you can add this to death and taxes, and we are seeing it today. The woke church is merely courting the state and dressing up its whoredom in Bible verses. This is what church wokeness is about totally.

I will give you two wild guesses regarding which state the church wants to remarry. The one that broke up its first marriage, or the one it was originally married to? Now look, I am going to stick with the really big picture in this post; we are talking about boiling things down to the least common denominator.

So, what’s with the present-day insanity that we are seeing? Well, here is the problem: America pulled the genie out of the bottle. It opened Pandora’s box…however you want to state it. Americans have been allowed to live according to man’s intrinsic purposes for the past 200 years plus. Why is America the home of the brave? Because it has experienced something worth dying for and discovered that it is more valuable than life itself: freedom

You can’t argue against the American dream. You can’t argue against what is “self-evident to all.” There is only one way to beat America: burn it down. That’s what we are presently seeing. Those opposed to the freedom of the individual have tried to manipulate the populous politically to redefine America, but then the information age came along. Now, there is only one way to defeat Americanism: burn it down. Again, that is what we are presently seeing: nothing more; nothing less. There is little discussion about what will come out of the ashes, but I have an answer for that. Answer: anything but America’s idea of self-rule. Anything would be a lesser evil, so whatever it is, bring it. That’s the mentality at hand.

This explains every dynamic we have seen between the COVID pandemic and massive rioting. Leaders on both sides are watching our cities burn and doing nothing while the rioting is clearly being endorsed by woke church leaders. The left and the woke church have one thing in common: they have a huge problem with the individual being free to do what he or she wants to do. Even churches confused by Americanism struggle with that. Let’s look at the best of them who say, “God’s law is higher than man’s law” and think it would be wonderful if every member of congress was a church-going Christian. Supposedly, that would make this country a Christian utopia. Would it really? We should remind ourselves that many former governments were controlled by the church and it did not turn out well. Since America came along and divided the two, there has never been a greater force for good in world history.

Many child level commonsense arguments could be used to refute the present narrative of systemic American racism. When America was the only country on earth with the A-Bomb, why didn’t we just take over the whole world? Wouldn’t a free world be better? Who would have blamed us? In fact, General Patton and others wanted to end communism while we had the chance. Why didn’t we take over Africa and enslave all of them? We could have. What did we do instead? Rebuilt all the countries that couldn’t stand on their own two feet and those of our enemies.

The present-day narrative is ludicrous and the arguments for it are things that even children scoff at, so what’s really going on? I said I was going to keep this basic and constrained to the least common denominators. So, here is the answer to “what’s really going on?” The essence of sin is what’s going on. Sin is in the world and the essence of sin is a desire to control others. This is very central. When America broke up the church-state, communism filled the void. The timing of communism entering the world is no coincidence. Americanism not only changed America, it greatly influenced the world and created a huge tyranny void. Communism filled that void. The uniting of the church and Marxist ideas should be of no surprise to us.

Of course, slavery and freedom are a major theme in the Bible. Those who have not been born again are said to be “enslaved to sin.” The Bible is very specific about how this dynamic works, and the dynamic can be seen clearly in politics right now. If you want to understand today’s politics, merely understand Genesis 4:6,7.

(to Cain): 6 Why are you angry? And why do you look so despondent? 7 Don’t you know that as long as you do what is right, then I accept you? But if you do not do what is right, watch out, because sin is crouching at the door, ready to pounce on you! You must master it before it masters you.

Sin masters (enslave) people through condemnation and guilt. If you are a bad person, you should let “good” people rule over you, no? If you have low self-esteem, you will likely capitulate to anyone who wants to control you. That’s the way it works. Sin crouches like an animal ready to pounce waiting for a reason to condemn as a means of control. The prey can be controlled by people supposedly wiser, more intelligent, more spiritual, or the so-called highbred. Those who want to control you will attempt to make you believe things about yourself so that you will be self-condemning and easy to control.

Sin’s biggest client is the highbred. And since what family you are born into seems to be something beyond human control, this is a kissing cousin to predeterminism. Church leaders are said to be “called by God” to “oversee” God’s people. “Called by God” or receiving God’s call resulting in being an “overseer” is soft terminology for being preordained to rule over God’s people. One verifies this predetermined calling by buying a church license to rule over God’s people commonly known as a seminary degree. Likewise, we allow experts to rule over us because they have psychology degrees from leftist universities. It should be noted that caste systems have totally dominated human history since the day Eve ate the apple. It is also astounding to note how much money we pay control freaks to rule over us.

The primary idea of being saved in the Bible is not being under condemnation. Those under condemnation are still, according to the Bible, “enslaved to sin.” Sin is able to enslave through condemnation. The Bible refers to this unsaved condition as “under law,” “under sin,” and “under condemnation.” The law (Bible imperatives) empowers sin (1Corinthians 15:56), but where there is no law, there is no sin (Romans 4:15).

This is not some biblical legal loophole, the new birth does bring about a change of nature and heart. It also calls for the Christian to look at reality in a whole new way. It is the difference between an under-law worldview and under-love worldview. Under law depends on authority for unity around a given ideology whether the ideology agrees with one’s conscience or not. Under love depends on a cooperative body of willing members functioning on common principles that are self-evident. The Bible states that people are born into the world with the works of God’s law written on their hearts and their consciences either accusing them or excusing them. I believe this refers, in part, to people being born in God’s image. Murder is the destruction of what God has created. This seems to be another basic characteristic of sin; it disdains anything God has created.

All of these principles are seen dominating the political realm in our present day. Issues of more or less government, white guilt, freedom of conscience, and predetermined white racism rule the day. Tyranny never before seen in our society is on the march. What is good for the goose is not good for the gander; the new nation of Chop has border walls, no free speech, and segregation which otherwise proves white racism. Everything going on is the epitome of divide and conquer. In order to burn down America, it must be divided.

And with predeterminism, repentance under compulsion will not bring unity, only total and perpetual repentance will sustain peace. Remember, if your lineage predetermines your sin, their is no hope of change, and the best you can hope for is ongoing atonement as a way to broker peace and a life that will be determined for you by others. If you are repentant enough, your existence may be bearable. In our day, politics, and religion of old have found unification in these principles.

For certain, true Christians should support America wholeheartedly. Regardless of our kingdom that is coming, God demands freedom and justice in the here and now, and no country has ever defended justice more than America. If God wants us to feed and clothe the poor, and he does, capitalism has done that better than any other financial system. Americanism is the closest thing on earth to biblicism that has ever been, and therefore, Christians should defend it.

With that said, we need to start taking the Bible literally regarding our identity. We are literally of God’s lineage through the new birth. We are literally citizens of his kingdom. We are literally “ambassadors” representing our kingdom. When Christ comes and reins from David’s throne, none of this nonsense will be allowed.

In the midst of this insanity, it is time for the ekklesia, what we call the Home Fellowship movement, to focus on offering an alternative. Those who get it are doing some great things, but it is time to be a bit more consolidated. Susan and I have made a commitment to focus this ministry more on sanctification and the Home Fellowship movement in 2020 and will be sharing our ideas in a couple of weeks. When the smoke clears, we believe Christians will be looking for solid alternatives and concrete answers.

This is behind our Revelation series. What hope can be found in what the book of Revelation states objectively? Even if Donald Trump is reelected in November, his administration will be relentlessly harassed. Freedom and individualism is at war with tyranny because freedom and individualism is on the rise under the Trump administration. Before Trump, individualism was docile and easily manipulated. The empowerment of the middle class is indicative of a true open society. It is the true manifestation of a representative republic.

For purposes of keeping our sanity and practical reasons, we must refocus on our Christian identity and find hope in God’s certain plan for the future. We must find our peace and hope in that while supporting America to the best of our ability.

In the near future, church will not be acceptable to any serious Christian. It is time to come home to the true biblical expression of Christ’s called out assembly.

TANC Ministries

The Home Fellowship website. 

The Home Fellowship Network is a source for, and information about likeminded home fellowships. It is a source for starting a home fellowship and connecting with fellowships online or locally.

If you are a Christian worshipping God apart from church, and want to start your own home fellowship, you can start with just yourself! Simply list yourself on our network as someone seeking likeminded fellowship with other Christians in your area. Until you are contacted, feel free to join us online via our livestreaming channel every Sunday as we study the book of Revelation.

For those of you who have a home fellowship with your immediate family, but would like to include other likeminded Christians, add yourself to our list as well. And of course, existing groups may want to invite others in their area who are looking for a home fellowship.

To add yourself or your group to our network list, go to the Information Form page.

The public list only includes your city and state, your name or the name of your fellowship, and your preferred contact information. 

Nobody saw the Donald Trump 2016 win coming. Obviously, a huge silent majority showed up at the polls. This happened regardless of a massive propaganda onslaught by the media. Political experts literally laughed out loud at the notion that Trump would be elected president. My front yard and car are illustrations of this dynamic to some point. While I am a huge Trump supporter, I am also very busy and don’t have time to deal with drama; that’s why I don’t have a Trump sticker on my car and a Trump sign in my front yard. I don’t have time to deal with vandalism. But see, this also says a lot about who we are up against and how most have chosen to deal with them; at the polls. There is a lot to learn from football on this point. When some players are harassed on the field by trash-talkers, we see them merely point to the scoreboard. This is instructive: trash-talking either seeks to demoralize the competition as a strategy for winning or lashes out at those winning when the former fails.

A couple of days ago, Trump had his first rally of the political season. Regardless of the expected aggression from Antifa and BLM, both violent groups whose exploits are well publicized, and a pandemic, the crowd was still substantial. In fact, it represented the tip of a huge iceberg. I think most Trump supporters are like me: why go through all of that when I can just watch the Trump show on TV? Likewise, I don’t have time to replace slashed tires or broken windows, but I am counting the days to November 3rd.

How powerful is this Trump populous movement that does its talking at the polls? Trump, in 2016, was up against the full wrath of the Democratic party, all of the media, and 50% of his own party known as the “Never-Trumpers.” Trump absolutely trounced a huge field of impressive Republican candidates in the primaries using schoolyard mentality. Many surmised that Trump really didn’t want to win. And, all in all, huge issues were not really front and center. Yet, Trump beat Hillary Clinton by a substantial margin.

This time, there are a myriad of issues not helpful to the Democrat party. For the first time in many years, blue states will be in play. The new issues have offended those with TDS on both sides of the aisle, and most of them will merely stay home and not vote. They hate Trump but have been offended by their party as well. Undecideds will break for Trump in large numbers. The Democrats are also likely to lose the House. The only chance Democrats have is to steal the presidential election. Other than mail-in ballots, one governor has signed an executive order allowing prisoners to vote. However, things like that will likely fall short of making up the difference. The following are the issues that will make the difference.

The COVID Misstep 

COVID-19 presented a possible gift from on-high to the Democrats, but they blew it. Had they carefully played the pandemic well, they could have used it to trash the economy going into the election which would have been their best shot for winning, and at the very least, would have enabled them to hang on to the House and maybe gain a majority in the Senate. But, they blew it; they took their eye off the ball, and played the race card. Endorsing huge demonstrations circumvented arguments for keeping the economy closed. While people, who are also Democrats, were not allowed to go to church or take their children to the park, others were allowed to protest and riot. While many were not allowed to go to clothing stores, others were allowed to burn them down. Party loyalty only goes so far in the face of these types of outrages, and there have been many. Remember, Democrats have families also.

Democide

People are not up with hating Trump more than loving the lives of others. COVID was not partial to political parties. It was evident that the left politicized treatments for COVID. A Democratic state representative even credited Trump for saving her life by endorsing hydroxychloroquine. Then, there is the nursing home controversy that claimed at least 40,000 lives. FYI, Democrats, and their extended families, have family members in nursing homes. Few hate Trump enough to sacrifice their own family members to unseat him.

Second Amendment

The riots revealed the fact that government cannot be depended on to protect us. Gun sales to first-time gun owners have skyrocketed. Even Democrats expect the government to protect them. Security is a bipartisan issue, and Democrats are clearly on the wrong side of the argument. Videos of innocent people being randomly assaulted on the streets are viral on social media. This will cost the Democrats at the polls. Blue voters will vote red or stay home.

Black on Black Crime

It is apparent that Democrats refuse to address the real issues facing black people. The recent riots have brought this issue to the forefront. Many Democrats are black. Again, the Dems should have stuck with COVID and taken a pass on the race card.

Blexit

Blexit is a Black movement out of the Democrat party led by Candace Owens who is quickly becoming a household name. The black populous has been the Democrat bread and butter for a long time, and they can ill-afford to lose the strength of this base. More and more, black people are overtly showing support for Trump in large numbers. This is unprecedented in political history and will weigh heavily in November.

Turning Point USA

Turning point USA is another movement that is making inroads into the Democrat base, and in this case, better stated as the very life-blood of the Democrat Party: education. TPU is organized on 2000 college campuses and led by another political household name, Charlie Kirk, who is a data base engineer and prolific speaker. Again, this is another significant example of things eating away at the Democrat base.

LGBT

The LGBT community has been a stalwart of the Democrat party for years, but Donald Trump has brought them into the Republican party and hatched a conservative LGBT movement. This is because Trump is a pragmatic, commonsense, live and let live, liberal who finds common ground with liberals and conservatives alike. Yes, it can also be argued that his experience as president so-far has made him more religions and a bit more conservative, but you can take the boy out of New York, but you can’t take New York out of the boy. At any rate, the LGBT community wants a higher quality of life as much as anyone else. This is another front that is hurting the Democrats.

Democrat Business Owners

Democrats are also small business owners, and most of them are in blue urban areas. This is where Democrat politicians stood by and passively watched businesses burn in the rioting and did nothing. This is after many of them survived the COVID shutdown and were helped by Trump’s stimulus package which was held up by Democrats. This part of the base will either vote red or stay home.

The Cancel Culture

Liberal icons are being led to the popularity gallows by the left on a daily bases. No one is safe in the Democrat Party. This is intolerance that dictates what people believe. The left’s cancel culture is actively seeking liberal icons to topple as a way to demonstrate their power in the name of what they consider racism. One may not like Republicans, but at least Republicans are allowed to have an opinion. Even Democrats will reject a Democrat hive mind that demands conformity. Lots and lots of Democrats watch Jimmy Fallon et al and are watching them being destroyed for something they did 20 years ago when the rules were different. This is no way to energize your base.

Education Choice

Democrats send their children to school, and care about what kind of education they get. Two things are clear: urban schools are out of control, and Democrats are against charter schools and school choice. Many think Trump can win the election on this issue alone. Few hate Trump enough to sacrifice their children’s education.

The Police

Many Democrats are police officers. The left has spray-painted the Democratic Party with the defund the police idea.  If you are a police officer, you are not going to vote for a party that wants to defund your career or is even willing to entertain the conversation. If you are the brother, sister, cousin, or parent of a police officer…likewise. This probably represents a million votes or so, in and of itself. In the debates, Biden will reject the defund the police platform, but Trump will continually make him wear it like a pie in the face. The DTP mantra has been a very prevalent talking point among Democrats, and Biden rejecting it will only confirm to Democrats that they are on the wrong side of another issue.

China

Everyone knows China is directly responsible for the deaths of 100,000 Americans and the destruction of businesses and wealth many Americans spent their entire lives accruing. That includes Democrats. While Democrats have been coddling the Chicoms for years, Trump has been railing against them for years well before he ran for office. Many Democrats lost everything because of the pandemic, and are unable to stomach any excuses for what the Chinese did. They will vote red or stay home.

Joe Biden

Few Democrats are comfortable with Joe Biden being the leader of the free world. Like the Republicans in 2016, they had a huge field of candidates that represents every nook and cranny of the party, but in the end, Joe Biden figured to be their best shot at beating Trump. It is apparent that Biden is merely a figurehead right now, and whoever is picked for his running mate is the real presumptive presidential candidate. In essence, the Democrats must depend on a base that hates Trump so much that nothing else matters. Furthermore, there isn’t another candidate on the face of the earth who has more political baggage than Biden.

Republican Primary

Though Trump is the presumptive 2020 candidate, primary voting has set new records. This means Republican voters are making a statement. Trump’s approval rating in the party is over 90% regardless of the Never-Trumpers.

The Onslaught of Conservative Candidates

Radical Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, seen to be vulnerable because of the deplorable conditions of their precincts, are being challenged by pro-Trump candidates nationwide. The Republicans do not seem to be taking anything for granted and are not conceding any political territory without a fight.

Negative versus Positive

People become weary of constant negativity. Trump’s positive outlook is the hope people are looking for. Why is Joel Osteen so popular in evangelical circles? He is an alternative to the constant negativity people hear in church every Sunday. Even if people believe they are totally depraved sinners saved by grace, they don’t want to hear about it every day. People survive on hope, and Trump is the candidate of hope. The Democrat message of doom and gloom will leave its base too malnourished to physically make it to the polls.

Conclusion

Michael Moore once said that the election of Donald Trump was the American people flipping off the political establishment. As I mentioned before, there were no huge issues front and center in the last election that elected Trump, Moore is spot-on, people were just fed-up with the political establishment in general.

But then something happened; many discovered they actually like the guy, and many are also wondering how we can ever go back to politics as usual. Would NASCAR really be that popular if there were never any car accidents? That will be an interesting question in 2024, but few are willing to give up the present experience after four short years. Has Trump lost support? If he has, how could any political figure survive the onslaught leveled against him? The full force of the Democrat machine has left him unscathed and still having fun by constantly triggering the left. Even Democrats must marvel at his staying power and may find confidence and comfort in his strength.

Perhaps this is the only real indicator we need for knowing what’s coming barring an act of God: Trump will win in an unprecedented landslide and gain seats in both the House and the Senate.

paul

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