Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim and renowned critic of Islam, has revealed her conversion to Christianity, describing her journey from Islam to atheism and ultimately to Christianity.
In a Weekend Essay published on UnHerd, Hirsi Ali, who is known for her bestselling books and outspoken views, says her encounter with Bertrand Russell’s 1927 lecture “Why I am Not a Christian” led her to atheism, offering solace and escape from the fear instilled by religious doctrine. She found Russell’s views on religion, rooted in fear, resonant with her own experiences.
“It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title,” adds Hirsi Ali, who is originally from Somalia and is a survivor of genital mutilation.
Hirsi Ali traces her initial disillusionment with Islam following the 9/11 terrorist attacks when she questioned the justifications for the attacks in the name of Islam.
During her teenage years in Nairobi, Hirsi Ali says she was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, which instilled in her a strict interpretation of Islam.
This period was characterized by a strict adherence to religious practices and a deep-seated disdain for non-Muslims, particularly Jews. However, her later exposure to atheism through figures like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins provided a stark contrast to her previous beliefs.
Hirsi Ali attributes her turn to Christianity to a broader concern for the challenges facing Western civilization. She cites threats from authoritarian regimes, global Islamism, and “woke” ideology as catalysts for seeking a unifying force. Christianity, in her view, offers a foundation of values and traditions that uphold human life, freedom, and dignity, and counters the divisiveness she associates with atheism.
Responding to her embrace of the Christian faith, conservative Christian philosopher Dr. Robert George wrote on Facebook: “Two decades ago, under the influence of the writings of Bertrand Russell, she became an atheist. Her thought was that atheism was smart and sophisticated — it was allegedly what really intelligent people believed (the ‘brights,’ as Daniel Dennett embarrassingly labeled himself and his fellow unbelievers). It was the way to a world of rationality and civil liberty. Hirsi Ali is not the first to have gone down that misguided path. She now sees that it is indeed misguided and that there is, if I may quote scripture, ‘a more excellent way.’”
Hirsi Ali’s embrace of Christianity also stems from a personal quest for spiritual solace and meaning in life.
Hirsi Ali critiques atheism for leaving a “God hole,” which she believes has led to the rise of irrational ideologies and the erosion of Western values. She argues that Christianity provides a unifying story and foundational texts, similar to those in Islam, that can engage and mobilize people.
Speaking at the National Press Club in 2015, Hirsi Ali offered five amendments to the religion of Islam that Muslims should take seriously if they really want to bring about a peaceful reformation to their religion.
She suggested Muslims should view the Quran and the hadith as creations of human effort, potentially divinely inspired but ultimately human in origin. This perspective challenges the traditional view of Muhammad as a moral guide post-Mecca, which Hirsi Ali finds problematic.
As the second amendment, Hirsi Ali advocated for a change in how Muslims prioritize life after death over life before death. She called for a reorientation toward valuing earthly life more.
She also argued that Shariah law is responsible for widespread violence and oppression in Muslim cultures, exemplified by regimes like Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Islamic State terrorist group.
As her fourth amendment, she called for the elimination of the principle of “Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong.” This principle, according to Hirsi Ali, leads to vigilantism and mob justice, as seen in cases where citizens punish individuals for alleged violations of Shariah law or disrespect toward Muhammad.
Hirsi Ali also called for an end to the concept of Jihad as Holy war, advocating instead for a focus on peace.
In the early 1950s, oil and gas were discovered by seismograph crews deep in the earth on land owned by many of my relatives in South Louisiana. In 1957, the first well was drilled on my grandparents’ farm on what became known as the Perry Point Oil Field. Over the next few years, many wells were drilled, and most became oil producers that revolutionized the lives of those who had leased acreage within the survey pool. Rice farmers who owned lots of acreage were richly blessed.
The greatest resources discovered by man have been formed by unusual events and elements deep in the earth over thousands of years. This was all done in secretly, known only to its Creator, Almighty God. In His infinite wisdom, God knew that there would be a time when man would need resources to sustain his progress and existence. That which He formed in secret has been revealed in the fullness of time by man’s increasing knowledge and ingenuity.
There is a greater creation of God that surpasses the temporal value of oil, gas, coal, gold, diamonds, and all precious metals, which were also formed in secret. The Psalmist identifies that in Psalm 139:13-18: “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast are the sum of them!”
You and I are extremely valuable in God’s sight. He allowed His own son, Jesus Christ, to be involved in His creation and then to provide through His earthly birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven the promise of salvation and hope of eternal life for all who will believe in His name. Remember, God Loves You!
Author: Chaplain Ron Perry with Marketplace Chaplain
“Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever.” C.S. Lewis
While the government is not God—a truth they tend to forget from time to time—their burgeoning relationship with the companies developing artificial intelligence serves as a helpful parable for understanding a key component of our relationship with the Lord.
Scripture is clear that when our sin takes us outside of God’s will, there will be consequences (Galatians 6:7). And though that cost may be delayed at times, it doesn’t go away. As such, it is much better to work with God than to wait for him to correct us when we go off the right path. That doesn’t mean the Lord can’t redeem our mistakes, but it’s still far better to have never committed them in the first place.
C. S. Lewis described this principle well when he said of God, “Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever.”
As Christians, we must not make the mistake of giving up the good that God has prepared for us simply because it’s not what appeals to us in the moment. The Lord wants to direct our path because he alone knows what is ultimately best for us and for his kingdom. But he also loves us enough to give us the freedom to make that choice for ourselves.
So which path will you choose?
Will you take the road that seems best to you, deciding that it’s worth the risk of God “bringing down the hammer” to correct you in the future? Or will you let the Lord lead and submit to his will as you partner with him in advancing his kingdom?
Put that way, the choice should be simple. And, ultimately, it is. But it’s also one that all of us get wrong from time to time when we lose sight of what is really at stake.
So take some time now to pray and ask God if there are any ways that you have strayed from his will. If the Holy Spirit brings any to mind, repent and commit to whatever steps are required to correct those mistakes.
And don’t wait to do so. Every day spent outside of his will is filled with moments and opportunities you can’t get back.
Let’s make sure we don’t miss them today.
Source: Ryan Denison, PhD,Is “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy” AI Possible? Biden Issues Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence. November 3, 2023, Denison Forum.
Today, over 3,000 people groups have no missionary presence and likely have no access to the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The lack of accurate knowledge about God’s saving grace is not limited to just these distant groups. You and I are surrounded by THE LOST every day regardless of what nation we live in.
Fellow Christian, what are you doing to fulfill the Lord’s commandment to:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28: 18-20)
(Dear Reader: This ministry was recommended to us by a friend who served in Communist China for years and it is worthy of your support. May God bless you and the church in China. Carl)
This newsletter shares insights into the current situation in China, both politically and for the Body of Christ. In addition to our standard newsletter, we want to share links to articles and videos that give further context into some of the claims we have made.
For those who are serious about learning more of the situation in China today, please click on this link to go to a page with a list of links to extra resources on the situation in China.
Please note we have selected just a few of the most interesting and helpful pages out of hundreds that are available online. Pages from other websites should open in separate windows on your browser.
President Xi Jinping and His Role in the World
“How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, Lord; they oppress your inheritance….
Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.” – Psalm 94:3-5, 10-11
OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS many people from around the world have asked us to help them understand what’s going on in China.
Many Christians are shocked, because for years all they heard was how revival was bringing millions of Chinese into God’s kingdom.
Suddenly, all news from the Church in China stopped in its tracks, as a new Emperor, Xi Jinping, caused the Body of Christ to adopt a defensive posture.
Who is this man who has “purged” (i.e., killed or imprisoned) hundreds of thousands of people, and who has created such a stench across Asia that 20 neighboring countries — from Central Asia to India and the Philippines — now have disputes with China.
Let’s take a closer look at this man who has so enlarged the Chinese military and covert influence that a World War seems inevitable if things continue on their present trajectory.
We deliberately used the term “Emperor” to describe Xi Jinping. While technically he is the atheistic head of the Chinese Communist Party, for thousands of years China was ruled by Emperors whose authority was absolute.
There were no elections, debates, or protests against emperors. Any perceived hesitancy to obey an emperor’s edict was met with swift and severe punishment. In there paranoia, many Chinese emperors killed millions of their subjects to consolidate their power.
Although emperors have not officially ruled China since 1912, in reality Communist leaders like Mao and Xi have been emperors in all but name. It is important to understand that Chinese emperors were never viewed merely as leaders of China.
You may know that the Chinese name for their country, Zhong Guo, means “Middle Kingdom.” The belief that their country is the center of the world is deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of every Chinese generation.
Emperors are believed to have a “Mandate of Heaven,” by which they receive the authority to rule. This philosophy, which dates back 2,500 years, assumes that because there is only one heaven, there can only be one emperor and one state with legitimacy in the whole world.
Over the years we have frequently met Chinese from all walks of life who are glad and proud that China is now throwing its weight around in the world. From taxi drivers in Singapore to businessmen in San Francisco, countless Chinese believe that now is the time for China to rise up and seize its destiny as world leader—economically, culturally, and militarily. It
is not so much a desire as a statement of fact. Even among Chinese Christians we have met few who would ever dare to openly criticize Xi Jinping or his decisions. After all, he is the emperor, appointed by heaven itself. Opponents are seen as evildoers and are mercilessly crushed. Just ask people in Hong Kong how life has changed since Xi came to power.
The Mandate of Heaven philosophy spread to many parts of East Asia in the centuries before Christ. It explains why countries like North Korea have been unable to throw off its heavy yoke of rule by the Kim family for so long, Japanese emperors were also seen as heaven- sent leaders who were invincible because of the Mandate of Heaven. The Japanese belief of invincibility abruptly ended when two atomic bombs fell on Japan in 1945.
In 2016, we began to report that a major shift was happening in China, and the new dynamic would change the way Christians function in China, while the country itself would become a huge threat to democracies.
China decided it was time to throw off its “Century of humiliation” at the hands of foreign powers and take its rightful place as leader of the world, with Xi Jinping on the throne.
A Prediction…
WE DO NOT BELIEVE THE RISE OF CHINA will lead to world domination.
“Emperor” Xi’s harsh authoritarian rule, as he has consolidated absolute power in China and made enemies all around Asia and the world, has not been working out too well.
The economy in China is in tatters (far worse than reports in Western media), and a growing number of Chinese are beginning to quietly question if their leader is taking the country on a path that will end well for them.
Many nations now see China as the number one threat to global security and Xi’s aggressive stance has brought about the formation of military alliances to counter his plans.
It has been said that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Strongmen like Xi Jinping believe they operate with impunity, as it is their birthright. Above all else, the thing they desire most is regime survival.
For that reason, Xi constantly purges his leaders, isolating himself more and more while at the same time changing the constitution to guarantee he will never be replaced. Emperors of China were never changed. They ruled for life.
Do we think that Xi and the Chinese Communist Party will reach their goals of world domination?
No, for the following SEVEN REASONS:
1 GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY.
We believe it is not a coincidence that as soon as China launched its campaign to systematically destroy Christianity in 2016-17, their economy began to disintegrate. Ultimately, the battle for the 1.4 billion souls of China is what is at stake.
The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased a pure bride numbering over 100 million believers in China. They are the apple of His eye, and He will not stand by and let His precious inheritance be decimated.
2 THE DEMOGRAPHICS FOR CHINA ARE A NIGHTMARE.
With a rapidly ageing population and a lack of young people of tax-paying age to pay for Xi’s military expansion, things are likely to stagnate and deteriorate in China.
Some economists estimate that China needs 400 million more people of working age to keep its economy going forward and fund their military aspirations, but they have “sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)
The Communist Party’s one-child policy, accompanied by hundreds of millions of forced abortions, has wiped out a generation of Chinese. The very people they need to pay for their plans don’t exist. They were sacrificed on the altar of the Communist Party death cult.
3 THE POPULATION OF CHINA IS ALREADY IN RAPID DECLINE
with some provinces shrinking by millions of people each year. Some experts calculate that by the end of this century the population of China may be half of what it is now. Two years ago, it was hardly noticed when the government lowered the national population by 121 million from previous inflated figures.
An increasing number of young people in China today have no desire to have children, which are considered an economic inconvenience. That unnatural instinct has been suppressed by generations of Marxist propaganda that work and money—not faith in God and a loving family—are the keys to happiness.
4 STRETCHED TO BREAKING POINT.
Xi’s reign has been greatly helped by his access to technology that previous rulers like Mao Zedong could never have dreamed of.
A friend who recently returned from his first visit to China in several years was shocked at the changes he experienced. He said:
“Everywhere I experienced anti-foreign sentiment from unfriendly people, and I saw many people paying for things with their faces. By allowing their faces to be scanned, payments are deducted directly from their accounts. No phone or bank card is needed, and cash is practically unheard of.”
With more than 400 million facial recognition cameras watching and evaluating their every move, and Xi demanding complete obedience to the Marxist-socialist agenda, many people feel stretched to breaking point and are increasingly fed up with the system.
5 XI HAS TRIED TO REPLACE GOD WITH A CULT OF HIMSELF.
He wants to be all-seeing, all- knowing, and all-powerful. He has erected giant billboards and posters of his face (like the one on the cover of this newsletter) and he demands unwavering devotion and commitment to his cause. In tens of thousands of churches across China, crosses and Scripture verses have been forcibly removed and replaced with posters of Xi and Mao, or with Chinese flags.
The Chinese Communist Party always claims there is no God, while setting themselves up as gods who must be obeyed and worshipped at all times.
Interestingly, in churches where posters of the Ten Commandments were displayed, instead of the authorities removing them they just scratched out the first commandment that says: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
They didn’t object to any of the other nine commandments, but only the first one upset them. Why? Because like Satan, they desire to fill the role of God in people’s lives.
6 A GENERAL MALAISE HAS COME UPON THE YOUTH OF CHINA.
After studying hard all their lives, tens of millions of university graduates can’t find any work at all, and a new expression, tang ping, or “lying down flat” swept over many Chinese young people.
Countless millions have lost the desire to excel, and they now see life as meaningless.
More recently, during Xi’s harsh Covid restrictions, tang ping has been replaced by a new catch-phrase: bai lan, meaning “let it rot.” These developments refer to a voluntary retreat from pursuing goals and will expediate decay in Chinese society and the economy.
7 XI JINPING SEEMS TO HAVE A PERSONAL HATRED FOR CHRISTIANITY.
After systematically expelling almost all foreign Christians from China over the past 6 or 7 years, a widespread persecution has afflicted God’s people in every part of the nation, but especially in the border provinces.
The Communist Party has even been working on a new Bible, removing passages they don’t like, and replacing them with socialist teachings.
One proposed change is the story of the woman at the well. The Communist Party didn’t like that she was forgiven, so they are reportedly changing it.
So instead of Jesus telling her, “Go and sin no more,” the new Communist Bible has Jesus picking up a stone and stoning her to death! Let’s see if God will allow such blatant blasphemy and corruption of His holy Word to go unpunished.
College student becomes first to unlock the Herculaneum scrolls
Nathan Steinmeyer October 16, 2023
Text visible in the Herculaneum Scrolls. Courtesy Vesuvius Challange.
The Herculaneum scrolls may be one of the most important sources of information on the ancient world ever discovered, yet they are practically unreadable, having been charred by the fires and ash of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. That may no longer be a problem, thanks to the ingenious work of a 21-year-old computer science student from the University of Nebraska, Luke Farritor. Answering the call of the Vesuvius Challenge—a million-dollar competition to read the scrolls—Farritor became the first person to identify a full word within the nearly 2,000-year-old charred scrolls.
Unlocking the Herculaneum Scrolls
Training an artificial intelligence (AI) program to identify faint “crackles” in the 3D scans of the Herculaneum scrolls, Farritor successfully detected ten letters within a 0.6-inch square area of a scroll. While that may not seem like a lot, it was a major step on the journey to unlocking what may be one of the most important sources of ancient history ever discovered. The feat won Farritor the First Letters Prize, worth $40,000. Farritor’s ten letters included several lone letters and one word, porphyras, which means “purple.”
“This word is our first dive into an unopened ancient book, evocative of royalty, wealth, and even mockery,” Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky who helped launch the Vesuvius Challenge, told The Guardian. “What will the context show? Pliny the Elder explores ‘purple’ in his ‘natural history’ as a production process for Tyrian purple from shellfish. The Gospel of Mark describes how Jesus was mocked as he was clothed in purple robes before crucifixion. What this particular scroll is discussing is still unknown, but I believe it will soon be revealed. An old, new story that starts for us with ‘purple’ is an incredible place to be.”
The Herculaneum scrolls are thought to be one of the only intact libraries from antiquity. They were excavated within a villa in Herculaneum near Mt. Vesuvius, which some believe to have been the home of the father-in-law of Julius Caesar. While some of the scrolls were able to be unrolled, most were too damaged to be opened without being destroyed. Many of the texts that have been read are works of Stoic Greek philosophy, such as that of Philodemus. However, no one knows what the rest of the scrolls contain, and they may even include early Christian writings, lost works of philosophy, or other unknown works.
Shortly after Farritor’s submission, Youssef Nader, an Egyptian bio-robotics student in Berlin, sent in a submission in which he was able to identify the same section of text with even more clarity. Nadar was awarded a $10,000 prize for taking second. A grand prize, worth $700,000, will go to the first person (or team) that can successfully read four passages of text from the two intact scrolls provided as the test source for the competition.
In 2023, Seales and his team announced an exciting competition. Releasing their software and thousands of their X-ray images from three different scrolls, the team hopes someone else will have the next breakthrough. But this is not just for fun: The University of Kentucky team, supported by two Silicon Valley donors, is offering a staggering one million dollars worth of prizes, including a $700,000 grand prize, to any group that can make significant headway in reading the Herculaneum scrolls. “We’re having a competition so we can scale up our ability to extract more and more of the text,” Seales stated. “The competitors will be standing on our shoulders with all of our work in hand.”
For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10 (emphasis added)
Scripture tells us that God’s love for mankind is a foreign love.
A love not found in or exercised by the human race. This fact alone proves the divine source of the good news about Jesus Christ.
The Scripture says that “ while we were enemies” Jesus went to the cross for ALL humans after being scourged terribly. He died the most despised manner of death known in the Roman Empire. He hung naked nailed to the wooden cross before the very creation He had spoken into existence.
Jesus did this for ALL of God’s enemies. Humans do not die for their enemies.
Not only did Lord Jesus suffer physically, but also, became the sin offering for our sins. He took the wrath of God for the guilt of our sins and for the sins of ALL of mankind, the whole world. He took the wrath of God for God’s enemies so we would not have to experience the justified wrath of a Holy God.
Would you die for your enemy? Do you know of anyone who has or would?
Finally, Lord Jesus cried out on the Cross, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?” (Matthew 27:46) The precious fellowship with Father God which He had always known, was broken due to Him becoming the sin sacrifice on the cross. He had never known this separation before.
He did that for God’s enemies.
The Greek word for enemies denotes hating, hostility and is used as a noun signifying an enemy or adversary. As unbelievers we “were … alienated and hostile in mind” toward God and “engaged in evil deeds” (Col. 1: 21), opposing and breaking His commandments. Paul, in Philippians 3:18-19, describes God enemies when he writes, “For many walk…that…are enemies of the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite. and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things…”
James, Jesus’ half-brother, tells us that “friendship with the world is hostility toward God” and “whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4: 4)
Haven’t we all, at one time or another loved the things of this evil, Satan controlled world system, that are so anti-God and anti-Jesus.
These biblical descriptions of God’s enemy describe every human being on earth, before he or she comes to trust in Jesus Christ and receive God’s love for them.
God’s love for humanity is a foreign love.
No way around it. It is not of this earth nor practiced by humans. It only flows from His Being and expresses the high value He puts on His greatest creation, man. That He would give His Beloved Son for you and me reveals the high value He puts on each person’s soul.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
Believe in Jesus today as your Savior and Lord. Please do not reject God’s love for you. If you do, you will eternally suffer for your sins, separated from His great love.
Lord Jesus has ALREADY died for ALL of your sins. He has taken the wrath of God ALREADY for you, so you do not have to experience it.
Receive God’s forgiveness for every sin you have ever committed, turn from your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
How did the Bible trigger the West’s passion for medical advancement?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Mainstream Hinduism taught that matter (including the human body) was evil—illusion or maya. In contrast, the first chapter of the Bible declared the material realm, including the human body, to be very good. Genesis 3 taught that sickness and death came as a curse upon human sin. The Lord Jesus came to give us abundant and eternal life. His soul did not reincarnate. His crucified body was resurrected and glorified. The Bible teaches that God will resurrect our perishable bodies as immortal and glorified bodies.
Because of God’s high view of the human person, including his body, the Lord Jesus healed the sick and commissioned his disciples to a ministry of healing. Therefore, medieval Roman Catholic monasteries did not simply pray, preach, and practice piety. Many of them took care of the sick. They studied, and taught medicine. The Schola Medica Salernitana became the world’s first medical school in the South Italian city of Salerno. It grew out of a 9th century dispensary in a monastery. This monastic tradition blossomed into modern medicine after the 16th century biblical Reformation.
What is the biblical ideal of human dignity and how did it inform the West’s social structure?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, saw human life as suffering. Thomas Hobbes, the only atheist in English Enlightenment, viewed life as “nasty, brutish, and short.” Pope Innocent III detailed “The Misery of Man.” Secular intellectuals have no option but to see man as nothing more than an evolved animal.
Species, races, and individuals do not evolve equal. Evolution does not bestow any rights upon any animal. Western notions of human dignity, equality, and inalienable rights are the Bible’s unique contribution to the modern world. Pico della Mirandela (1463-94) articulated the Bible’s case for human dignity in An Oration on the Dignity of Man. His case rested upon (a) creation of man in God’s own image and (b) God’s incarnation in the Jesus of Nazareth.
God became man in order to save man, because man was made in God’s image – precious and immortal. Full implications of these doctrines are still being worked out. Yet, much of our future will be shaped by the question: Is man merely another animal (organic intelligence) or is he uniquely God’s image—so precious to God that He would come to this earth to save him?
How did the Bible equip the West to cultivate compassion?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Through parables such as that of the Good Samaritan, the Lord Jesus explained the command ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ He exemplified it by blessing those who cursed and killed him. Jesus courted the wrath of religious establishment by caring for the sick even on Sabbath. He reinforced prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Amos, by teaching that God’s holy law was made for man’s good. Therefore, a religiosity that did not care for individuals was worse than worthless. It was obnoxious. What we do for the littlest of his brothers, we do for him.
What is your response to people who say the Bible subjugates women?
Vishal Mangalwadi: The women’s lib movement started in America because social inequality between men and women was obvious. Many women got paid less then men for the same work. They were allowed to serve coffee after worship, but not communion during the worship. They could play piano in a church but not pray. Yet, crucial questions are: who told America that men and women were created equal; that sin brought subjugation as a curse; that the curse was nailed upon the cross of Calvary? The question that triggered my reflections was: Why didn’t the Saudi women burn their burqas and their bras? What empowered American women to launch the women’s lib movement? Was it because American women were more oppressed than the Muslim of Hindu women? Or was it because something had already made American women stronger than other women around the world? My counter-intuitive discovery was that it was the Bible that empowered women.
No culture has ever required a husband to love his wife. Every culture, including Jewish and post-Christian Western cultures, have permitted husbands to divorce their wives and/or take other women. In 1831-32, French magistrate Alexis de Tocqueville observed that American women had become much stronger than European women because the biblical ideal of marriage had had the biggest impact in America. No country in the world will even try to impeach a president who lies about his private sex life.
The Bible emancipated Western women because it alone asserted theological equality of male and female and also because it defined God’s idea of marriage as a one-man one-woman lifelong and exclusive relationship. A woman is liberated to develop herself and to strive for her dignity when she knows that her fallen husband is not permitted to despise her, divorce her, covet his neighbor’s wife or to take another woman as a girlfriend, concubine, or wife. He has to love her, irrespective of the level of her intelligence, charm, abilities, and fallenness.
Roman wives were the victims of Rome’s playboy culture. Many of them followed and financed the Apostle Paul and (over time) won the Roman empire for Christ, because they understood better than modern feminists that Paul was emancipating them.
Men and women are equal, but husbands and wives (like parents and children and all other formal relations) have to live in a hierarchical relationship. No institution can function on the basis of equality-without-hierarchy. Christian marriages are being destroyed because the Western church has surrendered to the world’s folly that equality precludes authority. The Christian idea of marriage is unique. It can be sustained only if we take seriously the Bible’s idea of the fallenness of men and women and the necessity of wives submitting to fallen husbands, and husbands loving fallen wives.
How is human equality a biblical principle?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Sociologically, the modern idea of human equality was born when Martin Luther discovered the New Testament doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers.” Gradually, this truth began to challenge the West’s social/racial injustices.
George Whitfield was the first white revivalist in America, who began preaching to the blacks. His preaching evoked protests: “Do you really want us to kneel with our slaves and drink communion from the same cup?”
In order to counter deep rooted prejudices, in 1740, Whitfield began writing a series of articles. These explained how and why the Bible teaches human equality. Whitfield’s writings created the consensus which Thomas Jefferson articulated in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence as, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable that all men are created equal.” By “sacred” Jefferson meant derived from sacred Scriptures. Under pressure from Benjamin Franklin, the Declaration was changed to read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”
To Indian sages, inequality was self-evident. That is why they invented the caste-system which still survives. Equality was “self-evident” even to American Deists because their worldview was shaped by the Bible. Now that evolution is shaping everyone’s intellectual lenses, only a fool will be able to assert that all men have evolved equal.
What role did the Bible play in the establishment of the university?
Vishal Mangalwadi: No Hindu ashram ever grew into a university. No Orthodox Christian monastery developed into a university in Eastern Europe, Greece, or Russia. Augustinian monasteries and Cathedral schools blossomed into West European universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Prague, Heidelberg, and Wittenberg because St. Augustine taught that the human mind was God’s supreme gift to mankind. The mind was made in God’s image, therefore, in order to be godly, one had to cultivate the mind as well as piety.
These monasteries were different than every other center of religious education. Young boys came to a monastery to learn to pray and become a priest. But in these monasteries they had to study logic, literature, philosophy, mathematics, and rhetoric as well. This is what created the West’s uniquely rational religious leader, who prayed as well as studied birds and the solar system.
Following the Reformation, Christian thinkers realized that God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4-7). In order to know truth, man has to study three books: The book of God’s words (the Bible), the book of God’s works (in nature and culture), and the book of God’s reason (logic and mathematics that run the human mind and physical universe.) This insight was captured in Harvard Crest in 1643. VERITAS is written on these three books. Today, the university has degenerated into a factory producing laborers for the market and the state because, without God’s word, the university has been forced to shy away from the very concept of truth.
Since the Bible is not a “fax from Heaven,” explain how sentences written by humans can be considered the Word of God?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Prophet Elijah said to king Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word” (1 Kings 17:1). By the end of the chapter, the Sidonian widow of Zarephath exclaimed, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” (vs. 24). Eventually Ahab was forced to acknowledge that Elijah’s words—a man’s words—were, in fact, the word of God.
God said to Jeremiah, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth…I am watching over my word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:8-11). God’s word includes the words He gives His men and also men’s words which He watches to perform, fulfill, and honor. Daniel and his friends were willing to go into the lions’ den and fiery furnace because 70 years of Jewish history had confirmed to them that Jeremiah’s words, disregarded by their fathers, were in fact God’s word.
The gospel is that Jesus Christ died “according to the Scriptures,” was buried and rose again the third day, “according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). That means that Jesus didn’t have to die. In the Garden of Gethsemane Peter gave him the opportunity to evade arrest. During his trial, Pilate gave to Jesus plenty of room to escape crucifixion. The Lord Jesus sacrificed his life because he believed that the words of Scripture, written by fallen and fallible men, were in fact God’s words.
As you observe the West’s treatment of the Bible, where do you see western society headed?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Germany, the birthplace of biblical Reformation, became the arch villain of the 20th century, because during the 19th century, German theology undermined the Bible’s authority. I see post-biblical America as the greatest terror to the 21st century. I think the future of greed-driven American capitalism is best captured by James Cameron in his terrible, pagan, and commercially hit movie, Avatar.
Muslim nations cannot be the world’s biggest threats because while Islam can build a strong Caliphate, it does not and cannot build nations. Protestantism has built history’s greatest nations; therefore, the world has the most to fear from Protestant nations that destroy the very foundations of their morality and civility.
What are your thoughts about Bible Gateway as a way to reinvigorate civilization’s soul?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Bible Gateway is the only site I use to get into the Bible. (Though I am yet to cultivate the discipline to use everything that it offers.) I appreciate this interview because the new generation needs to learn why the Bible must be studied, trusted, obeyed, and applied.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Christianity has lost America because the church forgot that “God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth…” for this reason Paul the apostle was appointed a “preacher” and a “teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth” (1 Timothy 2:4-7). The American church has the capacity to disciple the nation, but for over a century it has lacked the theology for discipling nations. It has been preoccupied with saving souls, not with discipling nations.
The good news is that the state of Minnesota just started an education revolution that can disciple America. Students will enroll in an accredited college, but go to the local church to study online as a cohort in a face-to-face mentorship with a credentialed Academic Pastor. A student will get a college degree for under $10,000 a year. Check out www.VirtuesCampus.com.
Bio: Vishal Mangalwadi, LLD, was born and raised in India. He studied eastern religion and philosophy in India, Hindu ashrams, and at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland. He is a dynamic and engaging speaker who has lectured in 35 countries. He is a social reformer, political columnist, and author of 14 books. Christianity Today calls him ‘India’s foremost Christian intellectual.’
(Blog note: every Christian needs to read this article. Please share it with someone you know. Carl)
Part 1
What triggered the West’s passion for scientific, medical, and technological advancement? How did the biblical notion of human dignity inform the West’s social structure and how it intersects with other worldviews? How did the Bible create a fertile ground for women to find social and economic empowerment? How has the Bible uniquely equipped the West to cultivate compassion, human rights, prosperity, and strong families? What is the role of the Bible in the transformation of education? How has the modern literary notion of a hero been shaped by the Bible’s archetypal protagonist?
Why did you dedicate The Book That Made Your World to Arun Shourie, a Hindu who is critical of the Bible?
Vishal Mangalwadi: In 1994, Arun Shourie, at that time one of India’s foremost public intellectuals, attacked Western missions and the Bible. He powerfully rehashed some of Thomas Paine’s arguments from The Age of Reason (1793-94). Mr. Shourie studied in the best Christian college in India before getting a PhD from an American university that had been founded by Methodists. I realized that this good and learned gentleman was clueless about what the Bible is and what it has done because his Christian professors in India and in America had no idea.
In spite of Western skepticism, many Chinese intellectuals sense that the Bible was the foundation of the West’s amazing development. In contrast, Hindus such as Mr. Shourie follow ill-informed, in fact, arrogant and foolish, Western repudiation of the Bible. They think that India can be made a great nation by returning to Hindu worldview, which destroyed India in the first place.
One book will not convince skeptics, but it can become a seed that multiplies into many PhD theses, popular books, TV shows, and films. I dedicated the book to Arun Shourie to help intelligent Indians discover the rock upon which India can realize its potential to be a great civilization—a blessing to all the nations.
You write that your book is not so much about the Bible as it is about great literature, art, science, technology, heroism, and virtues. Explain what you mean.
Vishal Mangalwadi: My book is not “Bible study.” It is a study of the global impact of the Bible and it’s worldview. The Bible was the book of the last millennium. No other book was translated, published, distributed, studied, or debated like it. What impact did it have on the world? That is the question my book explores.
Why do you call the Bible the soul of Western civilization?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Although the West has amputated its soul, I call the Bible the soul of Western Civilization because it propelled the development of everything good in the West: its notion of human dignity, human rights, human equality, justice, optimism, heroism, rationality, family, education, universities, technology, science, culture of compassion, great literature, heroism, economic progress, political freedom. Take, for example, democracy.
The myth that modern democracy came from Greece was invented only in the 20th century by John Herman Randall of Columbia College (New York) and Mortimer Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of Chicago. The reality is that in his classic, Republic, Plato, the greatest of Greek philosophers, had already condemned democracy as Mobocracy—the worst of all political systems. Plato proposed that the ideal republic should be ruled by philosopher-kings. His disciple, Aristotle, trained Alexander-the-Great to be a philosopher-king, who turned out to be one of the most ruthless conquerors in history. In turn, Alexander inspired India’s first empire builder, Chandragupta Maurya.
Later Alexander inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince—which examines how a successful prince acquires and retains power. Machiavelli was the flowering of European Renaissance that produced tyrants such as Napoleon. The biblical Reformation led to the birth of modern democracy. Without the Bible, western democracy will become obnoxious as did the Greek democracies.
To give another example, the West’s confidence in human reason came not from Greece, but from the Bible via Augustine. Hinduism, Buddhism, and their products such as Greek gnosticism knew that unaided intellect cannot know truth. The Enlightenment corrupted western confidence in reason by (over time) separating it from revelation. After Nietzsche and Freud, everyone knows that here is no reason to trust human reason, unless it is made in the image of Logos and strives to conform to it.
Why do you begin your book recounting the suicide of rock musician Kurt Cobain and then contrasting him with Johann Sebastian Bach?
Vishal Mangalwadi: The first chapter uses music as an entry point into the West’s soul. It contrasts Christian West with (post-Christian) West without its soul. The chapter inquires: What made the West a uniquely optimistic and musical civilization, able to sing “Joy to the world (fallen, miserable and full of suffering)?”
Bach and Cobain were musical geniuses. Both lost their parents at nine. Bach’s parents died and Cobain’s separated. Bach’s faith in resurrection enabled him to celebrate “The Passion” (Suffering) of St. Matthew and St. John. Cobain inherited Bach’s musical tradition without its philosophy. Therefore, his music could only scream at suffering, making him an icon of a generation lost without a map of reality. Buddhism offered no hope to Cobain. Therefore, he cursed life and committed suicide.
Buddhism originated in India. Its pessimistic philosophy gave us great art and literature, but no hope, music, or musical instruments. Islam (and Orthodox Christianity) also ruled out music; therefore, it too pre-empted development of technology.
The German publisher published 10,000 copies of the first chapter as a stand-alone booklet. It is proving to be an excellent work of worldview evangelism. I hope someone will print it in Japanese, since Bach is Japan’s fifth evangelist.
How was the Bible “the force that created modern India”?
Vishal Mangalwadi: Why are “native” Americans Indians? Why are “native” Australians Indians? Why is Indonesia, Indian-Asia? Why were Columbus and Vasco de Gama looking for sea-routes to India (and not to “Spice-land”)?
The European mind was fascinated with India, because India, not Japan, Korea, or China, is the Eastern-most land mentioned in the Bible (Esther 1:1). By “India” the Persians meant “Sindustan,” the land around the river Sind (now in Pakistan). Up until the 1850s, no one living in Bengal or Kerala ever thought that he was living in “India.” That is why Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-1873), the pioneer of ‘Indian’ nationalism, actually wrote only about ‘Bengali nationalism.’
The pre-Columbus European concept of geographic India came from the Roman Catholic reading of the Bible. That is why Vasco de Gama’s coming to Kerala and Goa was the sea-route to “India.” Protestant reading of the Bible coined the ‘abstract’ concept of India as a geo-political nation state, half-a-century before England actually made India a nation in 1858. Prior to William Carey, no “Indian” had ever existed who started a paper (or organization) such as Friend of India (1818).
Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, persuaded British Parliament in 1833, that Britain must govern Indians in such a way as to train them to govern themselves as an independent nation. Macaulay grew up in the company of the evangelical member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, in the Calpham community. He followed up his rhetoric by coming to India to give us the ‘Indian Penal Code’ along with the Jewish-biblical idea of rule of law. He helped transform our education and civil services. He played a critical role in the establishment of our first universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras in 1858. These began as examination-conducting institutions to fulfil the vision of Macaulay’s brother-in-law, Charles Travelyan. The latter had defined the mission of Christian education in 1838 in his classic On the Education of the People of India. The objective of that herculean mission, he said, was to prepare Indians to govern themselves as a free nation.
After Macaulay and Travelyan, it took five more decades before an Englishman could inspire a few graduates of Calcutta’s Christian education to create the “Indian National Congress” (1885). Then it took 70 more years to prepare leaders such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Nehru, who could, in fact, lead and govern a free India.
India became a free nation in 1947. It could have attained that status if it had even one Indian, who thought of India as a nation during the “Mutiny” of 1857. When Indian soldiers started killing Englishmen and liberated Delhi, educated Brahmins and Hindu merchants organized prayer meetings around the country to pray for British victory over Indian mutineers. This was partly because the rebels who succeeded in defeating the British in Meerut and Delhi decided to revive the Mogul Empire by declaring Bahadur Shah as their emperor.
Most Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh soldiers and rulers disapproved of the revival of that exploitative and useless empire. Many decided to fight against fellow Indians to defend the British Raj. This was because, contrary to current, ill-informed (or deceptive?) debaters such as Shahi Tharoor, most of the Indians who actually lived under the British, perceived it as better than all other options available to “India”.
Mogul Empire had been so corrupt and inept that in 1738-39, the Persian invader Nadir Shah, met hardly any resistance as he travelled 1000 KMs. within the Mogul’s (Indian) empire, from Ghazani to Delhi to plunder the Mogul capital. The Empire’s rottenness had encouraged the Marathas to conquer and plunder Hindu and Muslim kingdoms. This threat of the Marathas and/or invaders from the Khyber Pass had forced Hindu/Muslim kings to take refuge under the Company Raj. Most Indians opposed the 1857 Mutiny, now called the First War of National Independence, because they could not trust Indians to rule India with justice and equity.
While the Hindu and Muslim rulers, intelligentsia, and merchants preferred the Company Raj over Indian rajas, it was the Bible-shaped conscience that saw the Company as a “gang of public robbers” (Macaulay) and its rule as the “rule of evil genii.” Yet, Independent India chose to remain a member of British Commonwealth and import its political, economic, and social ideals and institutions, because the Bible succeeded in (a) transforming India’s governance under the British, and (b) training enough Indians to govern India as a modern, democratic, nation-state.
Dr. Babu Verghese’s massive study, Let There Be India: The Bible’s Impact on Nation-Building, details how the Bible translators created modern India by turning our dialects into literary languages, bringing modern education, printing, literature, and modern press, and the modern ideas of human equality, dignity, and rights (his book is available from ManagerGoodBooks@gmail.com).
Part 2 will follow Part 1 on Psalm 119:38 Blog. Thank you, Carl
Torah Scroll. What is said about tattoos in the Bible? Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible, prohibits them without giving an explicit reason. Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos? Photo: “Open Torah and Pointer” by Lawrie Cate is licensed under CC-by-SA-2.0.
19:28 says, “You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Although this passage clearly prohibits tattoos, it does not give an explicit reason why. This begs the question: Why does the Bible prohibit tattoos?
In his Biblical Views column “Unholy Ink: What Does the Bible Say about Tattoos?” Mark W. Chavalas, Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, examines the taboo on tattoos in the Bible. Not only does he analyze traditional explanations for this prohibition, but he also investigates what tattoos signified to ancient Near Eastern peoples, including the ancient Israelites, which suggests the real reason why tattoos were taboo.
Leviticus 19 denounces idolatry and several pagan mourning practices. Some have thought that because of the proximity of the taboo on tattoos to the prohibition of other pagan mourning practices in Leviticus, tattooing must have been a pagan mourning practice. However, we find no evidence of this in ancient texts from the Levant, Mesopotamia or Egypt. As far as we can tell, tattooing was not an ancient mourning practice in these cultures.
This is not to give the impression that tattooing never appears in ancient Near Eastern texts; it does—just not as a mourning practice. In the ancient Near East, tattoos were used to mark slaves. Often the name of a slave’s owner would be tattooed or branded on his hand or forehead. If then the slave were to run away, he could be easily returned to his master. Thus, tattooing was seen as a sign of ownership.
Chavalas thinks that this might be behind the taboo on tattoos in the Bible:
“Tattooing, an insignia of ownership, was perhaps condemned in Leviticus because it reminded them [the Israelites] of their past. After all, they had just spent the last four centuries as slaves in Egypt, where tattooing was also used as a sign of slavery. No longer considered slaves, the Israelites now were prohibited to mark their bodies with permanent signs of servitude to former masters. This did not have to be explicitly articled to them; no one need ask prison inmates why they shed their orange jumpsuits when they are no longer incarcerated.”
Chavalas also notes that there might be a positive reference to tattoos in the Bible. Isaiah 44:5 reads:
This one will say, “I am the LORD’s,” another will be called by the name of Jacob, yet another will write on the hand, “The LORD’s,” and adopt the name of Israel.
By writing God’s name on his hand, the Israelite in Isaiah 44:5 “was willingly proposing to become a servant of God.” At least in this case, it seems that tattooing was acceptable because the person was marking himself as belonging to the God of Israel.
Part Two – The Second Advent of Jesus, The Messiah
Lord Jesus’ SECOND ADVENT is when He physically returns to the Earth again. In light of the turmoil in the Middle East today, I thought we should republish this post.
In the larger scheme of end time prophecy, His return is at the end of the seven years of tribulations when the Antichrist will be defeated and destroyed.
JESUS IN HIS HOME SYNAGOGUE
When Lord Jesus read part of Isaiah 61 to announce that that He was the Messiah, He stopped halfway through verse 2 where it says “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” and did not read the second half of the verse which says,
“And the day of vengeance of our God…” Isaiah 61:2b
If He had read the second part He could not have said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Because the second part has to do with His return to Earth as a Warrior King-Priest to reveal Himself to Israel, purify Israel and save Israel from the armies of all the nations of the Earth who will try to destroy her.
In God the Father’s plan, this day of vengeance had not arrived when Jesus was speaking in His hometown synagogue around 30 AD. By reading verse 2 and 3 we see what His Second Advent involves:
“The SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, FOR HE ANOINTED ME…TO PROCLAIM..
“…the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:2b-3
This section of Scripture reveals a SECOND ADVENT and reveals the specialized task the Messiah, Jesus, will perform as Warrior King-Priest:
…to proclaim…the day of vengeance of our God
…to comfort all who mourn… in Zion
…giving a garland instead of ashes
…giving the oil of gladness instead of mourning
…giving a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting
He will make the people of Israel into oaks of righteousness
He will cause glory to rebound unto God, by the changes in the people of Israel.
The specialized task deal with two things: the day of vengeance and the salvation of Israel physically and spiritually. This is after the church has been raptured and at the end of Antichrist’s rule.
FIRST TASK – MINISTER TO THOSE WHO ARE MOURNING
The setting is the end of the seven years of tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon is ongoing. Armies from all the nations of the earth are besieging and close to overwhelming the defenders of Jerusalem. Some of Israel has fled to the wilderness (Petra), some have been killed by the invading armies and some are besieged in Jerusalem. Zechariah 13: 9 tell us that two-thirds of the people in Israel will die during this time but much of the Jewish population will have already fled to the safety of the wilderness. The one-third remaining in Israel will be refined or purified by the Lord.
It is my understanding that at that point in the battle, Jesus will physically set His feet on the Mount of Olives coming to help Israel and will reveal Himself to Israel. They will understand that He was their Messiah all along. This is why the Messiah’s specialized tasks mention mourning, ashes, and fainting. Listen:
Zechariah 12:9-14 NASBS
[9] And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [10] “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. [11] In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. [12] The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; [13] the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; [14] all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.
And again:
Ezekiel 20:43-44 NASBS
[43] There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. [44] Then you will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.'”
Concerning those who have fled to the wilderness:
Ezekiel 20:33-38 NASBS
[33] “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. [34] I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; [35] and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. [36] As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord GOD. [37] “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; [38] and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.
Can you imagine what it will be like for the Jewish people to realize that Jesus of Nazareth was their Messiah all along? To realize that all the judgements that they as a people had endured over 2000 years could have been avoided. Is it any wonder that Ezekiel 20:43 says speaking about the Jewish people who realize this, “you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done.” The shock of the realization and then the remembering of all they had done individually and nationally. It will be a time of “being stunned” by what is being revealed to each individual.
But…now we see the reason that the Messiah will comfort all who mourn in Zion, giving a garland instead of ashes and a mantle of praise for the spirit of fainting! Though this realization that Jesus is the Messiah will happen to the remaining nation, it is through personal repentance and faith in Jesus the Messiah that the Jewish remnant will be born again. That is what “…by themselves…” in Zechariah 12:12-14 means.
It will be a glorious transformation of Israel that will rebound to God’s glory.
Ezekiel 39:25-29 describes this time:
[25] Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. [26] They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. [27] When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. [28] Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. [29] I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.
Isaiah 61: 4-9 describes what the Lord will do for Israel after they acknowledge Him and repent of their sins:
[4] Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. [5] Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. [6] But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. [7] Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs. [8] For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; And I will faithfully give them their recompense And make an everlasting covenant with them. [9] Then their offspring will be known among the nations, And their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.
PROCLAIMING THE DAY OF VENGEANCE – THE SECOND TASK
The second task of Jesus during His second advent is to proclaim the day of vengeance. To understand this let us begin with Isaiah 63: 1-6 which is a picture of Lord Jesus on this day. Note what Lord Jesus says in verse 4.
Isaiah 63:1-6
[1] Who is this who comes from Edom (modern day Jordan)
With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah (Petra),
This One who is majestic in His apparel,
Marching in the greatness of His strength?
“It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
[2] Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?
[3] “I have trodden the wine trough alone,
And from the peoples there was no man with Me.
I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath;
And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,
And I stained all My raiment.
[4] “For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
And My year of redemption has come.
[5] “I looked, and there was no one to help,
And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;
So My own arm brought salvation to Me,
And My wrath upheld Me.
[6] “I trod down the peoples in My anger
And made them drunk in My wrath,
And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
(Clarification added)
Did you notice in verse 4 that Jesus said the day of vengeance was in My heart? Remember in Isaiah 61:2b the Messiah would proclaim the day of vengeance? Here we have Jesus The Messiah proclaiming this when He physically comes to Earth to destroy all the armies intent on wiping out Israel and the Jewish people.
After the day of vengeance is finished, Lord Jesus will establish His earthly kingdom in Jerusalem for a thousand years. The new temple described in Zechariah will be built and from there He will rule all nations. Isaiah 61: 10-11 describes the Lord Jesus at this time:
Isaiah 61:10-11
[10] I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. [11] For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
JUDGE – THE FINAL TASK OF THE MESSIAH
After the thousand years, the Great White Throne judgment will occur. Read Revelation 20: 11-15.
All the dead who rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will appear before the One whom God the Father appointed Judge of all mankind, Jesus Christ Himself (Acts 17:31). The book of life will be opened and the books containing the deeds of each individual will be opened. The people will be judged according to their deeds written in the books. Those who have rejected Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior causing their name NOT to be written in the book of life will be thrown into the place prepared for the devil and his angels forever (Matthew 25:41), the lake of fire.
The followers of Jesus Christ will inherit a new heaven and earth where they will dwell forever. Read Revelation 21: 9-22:7.
Dear Reader, where will you go? Will you be thrown in the lake of fire or enjoy eternity in the presence of Jesus in the new heaven and earth? You must decide this side of death. Follow Jesus…you will not regret it!!
In two different post we have discussed the two appearances of the Lord Jesus on Earth and the difference of each. We are in the first advent and the second advent is steadily approaching.
Even so, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20)
Genesis 32:10a “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant.”
How would you like to be a dental hygienist for a crocodile? That’s how the crocodile bird makes his living.
Of course you do need to know that the crocodile bird doesn’t show up to do his work with any drills or needles. He and the crocodile are on good terms with each other. After eating, the crocodile climbs the river bank and relaxes with his mouth open. The little crocodile bird enter the crocodile’s mouth to clean up the scraps that are left. While the crocodile bird makes most of his living as sort of a crocodile dental hygienist, he also helps keep the crocodile free of pesky insects that lodge in his skin.
The crocodile also receives one other service from the crocodile bird. Whenever the bird senses approaching danger, he gives his sharp warning call and flies off. The crocodile, now warned, can quickly roll over into the water where virtually no animal can get the best of him.
This is but one of many unlikely cooperative arrangements that we find in the plant and animal kingdoms. Every one of these relationships speaks for a Creator and against the idea that either these creatures, or their cooperation, evolved naturally. Evolutionists have written whole books on the subject. Yet they don’t seem satisfied that they have explained how these relationships could develop through evolution. We agree that they have no explanation. Nor are they likely to find one as long as they deny a Creator who cares for His creation.
Prayer: Father, because of the innocent suffering and death of Your Son, Jesus Christ, I know that Your love for me is certain and sure. I thank You for this. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Noted theologian and preacher John Piper recently listed eight ways he says the Old Testament doesn’t apply to modern Christianity while also believing that the promises of the Hebrew Bible largely apply to the Church.
In an episode of the podcast “Ask Pastor John” posted last week, a listener named Maureen asked Piper, “Which Old Testament verses are for me, as a Christian, today.”
“Sometimes I select a verse that is meaningful to me from my Bible reading in the morning. But then later in the day, as I further reflect on it, it feels like I’ve lifted the verse out of context and misapplied it to myself. How, Pastor John, do I know which Old Testament promises are for me?” Maureen asked.
Piper responded that, while he believed “all of the Old Testament is for those who are in Christ Jesus,” there were still “differences between the people of God — the Church — today and the people of God — Israel — in the Old Testament, and how God relates differently to each.”
Piper listed eight specific differences, beginning with how Old Testament Israel was “an earthly, political nation-state,” while the modern Church “is a people whose citizenship is in Heaven and who are sojourners and exiles here, scattered among all the nation-states.”
The second difference Piper pointed to was that Israel was “a theocracy to carry out God’s punishments for those who broke His law, including capital punishment for idolatry and various other sins.”
“The Church is not a civil government and is not authorized as a church to carry out God’s punishments. Excommunication from the church through church discipline replaces execution through the judicial processes,” Piper said.
A third difference is that Israel was “basically one ethnicity” while “the Church is made up of all ethnicities.” Piper added that “practices that were designed to separate Israel from the surrounding peoples and ethnicities” are “done away with as requirements for God’s people.”
The fourth difference Piper laid out was that while Israel “had defined geographic borders and a geographic religious center,” the New Testament Church “has no geographic borders or religious center.”
A fifth point of difference, according to Piper, was that individuals were born into ancient Israel, while “people are born again into the Church.”
“The new covenant is entered by the miracle of God’s forgiving sins through faith and through God’s writing the law on our hearts,” he explained.
Difference number six was that Israel did not have a “great commission,” specifically a call on members to evangelize, whereas the New Testament believers are called to evangelize.
“The Old Testament religion was mainly a ‘come and see’ religion, while the New Testament religion is mainly a ‘go and tell’ religion,” Piper said.
A seventh difference, according to Piper, was that ancient Israel had a sacrificial system in place, “but that entire system was done away with when Jesus fulfilled it by becoming the final sacrifice and by acting as the final High Priest.” theologian saying that “the people of God in the Old Testament did experience the working of the Spirit of God, but they did not experience or know the Spirit as the indwelling Spirit of the risen Christ.”
“Today, we know the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ. He works in His Church, therefore, in a way that he did not work in the Old Testament, because the Church is His body, the body of the risen Christ,” he added.
Despite the key differences, Piper added: “We can take any text in the Old Testament and make it our own by treating it as fulfilled in Christ, with the necessary changes implied in those points.”
In May 2018, megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley garnered controversy when said in a sermon that Christians needed to “unhitch” the Old Testament from their faith.
Stanley referenced Acts 15, in which the leaders of the early Church decided that Gentile converts did not need to strictly observe Jewish law to become Christians.
“[First century] Church leaders unhitched the Church from the worldview, value system and regulations of the Jewish Scriptures,” said Stanley. “Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish Scriptures, and my friends, we must as well.”
Critics, among them Messianic Jewish author and radio host Michael Brown, argued that “throughout the New Testament,” Gentile believers “were called to live holy lives, based on Old Testament teaching.”
“Pastor Stanley forgets that the Old Testament also tells us the story of Israel, including Israel’s blessed future,” wrote Brown at the time.
“Cut out the Old Testament, and you cut out much of Israel’s destiny, which all believers should understand. Cut out the Old Testament, and you also cut out the destiny of the nations.”
For his part, Stanley told Brown in an interview in July 2018 that he still considered the Old Testament inerrant, and that his comments were centered more toward an audience that does not trust the Bible.
“I told my kids growing up, if anyone ever asks you, ‘Do you believe Adam and Eve are real people?’ here is how you are to answer: do not say ‘yes’ because the Bible says Adam and Eve were real people,” Stanley said.
“You say this: ‘I believe Adam and Eve were historical characters because Jesus did. And when somebody predicts their own death and resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever they say.'”
White House walks back Biden remarks about seeing images of beheaded Israeli children
ChristFollower01
Pray for discernment. Pray for all who are suffering. Understand that “the first casualty of war is truth”. All wars employ propaganda.
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Why does the Bible contain prophecy?
Marshall
The Church Age is the period of time from the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) to the Rapture, otherwise known as a “gap.” If you don’t believe in any of this, then you will not have the missing pieces of the puzzle.The Prophet Daniel is my favorite because he wrote prophecies concerning Greece and the Macedonian Empire that turned out to be Alexander the Great. Not only that but he also wrote about the Antichrist and the Tribulation which is the 70th “week” (which is not 7 days but 7 years due to the translation). It’s like a dozen means 12. There is a gap after the 69th week in which God stopped the game time clock. The 69 weeks have already happened (69 x 7 = 483). Sir Robert Anderson studied Daniel and wrote the book, The Coming Prince, in which he explained the prophecy that the Jewish Messiah would come 483 years after the commandment (of Artaxerxes, king of Persia) to rebuild and restore Jerusalem. Anderson’s calculations showed that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem in Luke 19, known as the Triumphal Entry, on the precise day that was prophesied by Daniel. God warned Israel about the 70 weeks (70 x 7 = 490 years). Due to the pause, there are the final 7 years remaining (490 – 483 = 7 years). And that is one reason why the book of Daniel is so helpful in learning about the Antichrist.
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Thoughts on leftwing support for Hamas and radical Islam
Jan Shay
We knew the end times were coming and told to be prepared. I agree with Wayne. We are to pray for Israel, support them and stand with them. I will follow God’s direction as He tells us what to do in His Word.
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Dr. Ben Carson lists 7 ways communism has won in America
Tiresias
His speech is just a red meat for conservatives. The choice between capitalism and communism is a false choice. We can choose what the role of government is going to be and how to socialize those costs across the population. I’d like to see him give a speech of what programs to support and how to govern rather than mere rhetoric.
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John Piper lists 8 ways the Old Testament doesn’t apply to Christians
Roger McKinney
“Israel was ‘a theocracy to carry out God’s punishments for those who broke His law…'”No, Israel was not a theocracy. Theocracies are ruled by human religious leaders. Israel had no human executive. God did not rule Israel day to day as human kings do. And God was no less king under the monarchy. We learn from the prophets that God is king of all nations in a similar way as he was king over Israel.And no, Israel wasn’t one ethnicity. Caleb and the Kennites who joined Israel during the Exodus were Israelites. And Israel had pagans living among them from the start, any one of whom could become a citizen of Israel simply by converting, as Rahab did and Ruth.We shouldn’t try to apply OT law woodenly, but we shouldn’t ignore it, either. It represents God’s wisdom for governments. We should try to distill general principles from it as Paul did with thecommand not to muzzle the ox.
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Pastor arrested for allegedly raping family member at least 600 times since age 7, getting her pregnant
Wes
If this is true I hope he enjoys spending the rest of his life in prison as a recipient of what he has perpetrated.
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DDonald25 minutes agoBeginning at Genesis 1:1 and ending at Revelation 22:21, the Word of God is for all of God ‘s people regardless of anyone’s ethnic background. When Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Tim. 2:15, to “rightly divide the word,” (KJV) he doesn’t mean to actually divide the word up for people groups. He means t…See moreReplyShare
JJohn1 hour agoPiper’s fifth point of difference fails to recognise the difference between the visible and the invisible church. The Reformed view is that the children of believers are part of the visible church. The Paedobaptist view is that they must be baptized into the visible church as soon as physically pos…See moreReplyShare
JTJames Tucker3 hours agoIf you don’t at least have a basic understanding on how your behavior should be like the 10 commandments because Jesus did not or at least did not point to all things that were good and bad except when he said go and sin no more which points to the 10 commandments. The other Jewish laws where the o…See moreReplyShare
DHDonald Hannigan3 hours agoMatthew 5:17-19 Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! Therefore, whoever nu…See moreReplyShare
MMarshall4 hours agoI appreciate John Piper giving us 8 specific examples and the fact that he was on a podcast when a listener called in that question; it means that he was able to field that question without having advance notice of it. I say, “Good job!” However, at some later point, it would be instructive for Pip…See moreReply1Share
HHospes1 hour agoFYI, Piper does not field live questions on his podcast “Ask Pastor John”. The questions are sent to him beforehand.ReplyShare
JJim5 hours agoIf you need the old Torah to live rightly then you aren’t following Jesus and His commands and expectations. Jesus, “upped the ante” so to speak by making following Him having greater expectations than OT Torah.Hating another is akin to murder according to Jesus.Just lusting is committing adultery …See moreReply1Share
TTruthTeller5 hours agoEverything JP writes or states should be carefully examined before anyone agrees with him. Check out his statements on Christian hedonism or CRTJP often uses words to deflect true meanings to “ride the fence” so as not to offend. We must learn from the OT or we loose our sense of a Holy God and how…See moreReplyShare
RRecognizingTruth14 hours agoThat is some AWFUL theology right there.Reply3Share
MPModerate Politically15 hours agoThis does not mean we get a get out of jail free card and can do anything we want. We are to follow Christ. Most everything in the law is about showing love to God, and others. There are also some health and religious laws mixed in as well.ReplyShare
JJohn55 minutes agoWe get a get out of jail free, but with it a new nature added, so we will not do everything we wanted to do before. And if there isn’t a signifcant difference from what happened before, that puts the new nature in doubt, giving us reason to suspect we may not actually have got out of jail either.ReplyShare
LKLen Kinzel15 hours agoIs this saying there are parts of the Old Testamant from which we may need to unhitch ourselves? Asking for a friendReplyShare
HHospes59 minutes agoYes, unless you want to adhere to sacrificing lots of animals.ReplyShare
Kat Von D was many things: A tattoo artist on TLC’s “LA Ink.” A fashion mogul with her own makeup line. A Californian who struck against the grain with her pagan, artistic expressions. How things have changed.
The latest shows her being baptized a Christian in an unnamed church in Indiana in a video posted on her Instagram on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
As inked-up friends of the artist are seen in attendance, Ms. Von D sings before the ceremony, and then a pastor is heard: “I baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” He dips her head and white-robed body—tattoos fully concealed—into the pool. She rises and immediately they embrace.
The dramatic metamorphosis isn’t her first, but the latest in a series of moral moltings for Ms. Von D in recent years, taking her in a less pagan direction and toward a more traditional one. Her Hispanic parents were Seventh-day Adventist Christians.
Once a fashion magnate partnered with Sephora, her makeup line, formerly Kat Von D, exceeded profitability expectations by vast margins. Then in January 2020, she announced she’d sold all shares in the brand of her namesake and was no longer involved in any capacity.
In another surprise move, in December 2020 the former TV star left High Voltage Tattoo parlor in LA, announcing she had bought a home in Indiana. She cited California’s taxes, “terrible policies,” and “tyrannical government” as reasons.
The Mexican native, now 41, once mentioned how she’d discovered punk rock and “subscribed more to the feeling of being free.” That explained the ink sleeves. At the same time, her former product line with her signature eyeliner and red lipstick channeled the witchcraft-inspired aesthetic Ms. Von D had long gravitated toward and became famous for.
In yet another post, in July 2022, Ms. Von D said she was tossing all her books about witchcraft and the macabre away, captioning:
I don’t know if any of you have been going through changes in your lives right now, but in the last few years I’ve come to some pretty meaningful realizations—many of them revolving around the fact that I got a lot of things wrong in my past.
Today, I went through my entire library, and threw out books that just don’t align with who I am and who I want to be.
I’ve always found beauty in the macabre, but at this point, I just had to ask myself what is my relationship with this content? And the truth is, I just don’t want to invite any of these things into our family’s lives, even if it comes disguised in beautiful covers, collecting dust on my shelves.
In no way is this post designed to put anyone down if you’re into this stuff, because I think we are all on our own journey, and I love everyone regardless of where they might be at. But right now, it’s never been more clear to me that there is a spiritual battle taking place, and I want to surround myself and my family with love and light.
With that being said, I want to send extra love to everyone out there, and hope through some of these trying times, you are making meaningful changes in your life, too!
While her Instagram still has the same pagan look it always had—the black clothing, the cobwebs, the cat eyes—her latest baptism post comes in stark contrast. Commenting on her baptism video, both supporters and detractors were vocal.
Notably, fellow LA expat and Hollywood escapee Robbie Starbuck echoed her woes about spiritual war: “We live in a spiritual battle right now and while it’s dark sometimes, other times moments like this happen and it fills my soul with joy. Welcome my sister in Christ!”
Some saw her exodus as a sort of threat or betrayal, with accusations like “Poser” and “Absolutely ridiculous.” Still, more supporters offered hope and redemption, welcoming Ms. Von D into the flock with open arms.
“Praying that the Holy Spirit has convinced your heart! Jesus is the way, the truth and the life!” wrote Paulabaluart. “He loves you! May the light of the Lord shine upon you and may this light illuminate any darkness around or within you! We love you in Christ.”
Emiliacantor.artist wrote: “I’m not religious but I totally support any change a person freely do to find inner peace, happiness and their own way to meditate and get in touch with their perception of God.”
Dolcehairextensionsmelbourne commented:
My life was full of darkness now it’s all changed Jesus is great he changed me and my family. I have a beautiful home beautiful friends and such a great surrounding. Jesus will surround you now with many like minded people enjoy your blessings.
Source: Epoch Times by Michael Wing: a writer and editor based in Calgary, Canada, where he was born and educated in the arts. He writes mainly on culture, human interest, and trending news.
As noted in Part 1 of this series, there is a coming world religion (CWR), and it is advancing rapidly. One of the significant elements that expedites its growth is mysticism, which is a belief system that ultimately rejects teachings that involve objective laws, rules, requirements, obligations, dogmas, doctrines, and the like, in favor of subjective experiences and intuitive feelings.
The goal of the CWR (also known as the religion of the Antichrist) is to bring all religions under its patronage and control. Since all religions have doctrines that separate them from one another, even to the point of hostility in some cases, their doctrines must be compromised or altered in order to be acceptable to all—or they must be removed altogether. Mysticism facilitates doctrinal compromise because of its subjective nature. In other words, the objective meaning of a doctrine must give way to one’s subjective interpretation, i.e., how one feels about it. When such a belief system is in place, there can be no absolute truth; so-called truth is whatever an individual feels it is. It’s in the mind of the beholder.
Religions that are heavily legalistic in their theology must change in order to fit in with the ecumenical CWR. Two such religions are Roman Catholicism and Islam. In part one of this series we documented how the Church of Rome is well along the way of shifting from its highly legalistic system of rules and obligations toward a more mystical process. The Catholic Church has more than a billion followers, and they also must be included in the religion of the Antichrist. Islam, too, has greater than a billion adherents, so it also must become a part of the CWR. However, it is legalistic—and aggressively so—in its doctrine and practices, far more so than any other religion in the world. Consequently, many doubt that it could ever change.
Some have suggested, therefore, that the religion of the Antichrist will be Islam itself. For that to happen, the conversion of the world to Islamic beliefs would follow its historical method, which is at the point of a sword. Although that worked to a large degree in the past, it falls far short of what is necessary to spiritually transform the entire world. Additionally, there are obvious problems for this belief system regarding the coming religion of the Antichrist. The fact that the entire world will worship the Antichrist as God is inconsistent with and opposed by the Muslim worship of Allah. Sharia law, which is the Islamic code of law, is derived from the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Muhammad’s teachings and examples). Consequences for disobeying Sharia laws are the harshest among religions. Its rules are overtly abusive regarding women. Furthermore, Islam’s collectively intense hatred of Jews and Christians, as well as “all infidels,” is diametrically opposed to the CWR’s necessary ecumenism. These doctrines of Islam work against its efforts to attract followers to the coming world religion. What then, if anything, is there within Islam that might reconcile the billion-plus Muslims to the religion of the Antichrist, with its mystical underpinnings? The answer is Sufism.
Sufism is the mystical Islamic belief and practice through which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge by way of a direct personal experience with Allah. This is Islam in the throes of experiential and subjective beliefs and practices. Being functionally at odds with Sharia laws and practices, many Sufi practitioners reject the rules of Sharia outright, regarding mysticism as the most direct way to achieve union with Allah. Moreover, where it has been historically practiced throughout the world, Sufism has had no problem coexisting with other religions. This is not the case, as we’re well aware, for Islamic Sharia Law.
One mystical aspect of Sufism is for its practitioners to put themselves into an ecstatic trance or altered state of consciousness through whirling. These individuals are known as Whirling Dervishes. According to one source, “The hundreds of the Dervish twirling rotations (20-30 per minute) coincide with the theta rhythm in the brain, and the chanting (they repeat the word ‘God’ [more likely ‘Allah,’] about 99 times) makes the dancers dissociate from reality and enter a different state of mind. When the ceremony is over, the dervishes return, side by side, in front of the sheikh [master and guide] and then move to another room to meditate. The physiological goal of the whirling is for the dervish to ‘empty’ himself of all distractions” (https://bit.ly/3ZgY9sm). It should be obvious that this is just another form of Eastern mystical meditation along with the contemplative forms practiced by more and more professing Christians in the West.
The various exercises of mysticism are similar throughout the world, even where there has been no connection between the cultures or people groups. For example, Sufi meditation and yoga employ the same lotus sitting position and a hasta mudra (with the thumb curled and touching the tip of the forefinger). Sufi whirling has the same effect as the uncontrollable shaking in the Dynamic Meditation practiced by the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Sufi Shaykh is similar to the guru in yoga in terms of the practitioner’s absolute submission to him and obedience to the guidance given. In some practices, the Shaykh is a transcended spiritual entity channeled by the meditator.
The Encyclopedia of Islam lists a number of manifestations found within the meditation practices of Sufism, e.g., “barking and howling” (MacDonald, D. B. “Darwish [Darwesh],” Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by: P. B. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs, Brill Online, Augustana, 21 Sept 2009), behavior that was also exhibited through the so-called impartation of the Holy Spirit in places such as the Toronto Airport Vineyard, Pensacola and Lakeland, Florida, International House of Prayer (IHOP), and Bethel Church in Redding, California, among numerous others.
These experiences taking place throughout the world should offer more than a hint that spirit entities, contacted through altered states of consciousness and meditation, as well as some people’s faith in the false signs-and-wonders methods, have been facilitating Satan’s goal of seducing and controlling the consciousness and beliefs of mankind. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy:4:1).
Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, is someone whom I would describe as the poster boy for everything that I’ve been noting in this article, which is the acceptance of all religions in the formation of a one-world religion. He is a Muslim—a Sufi Muslim. He is also a New Ager and a national spokesman for Transcendental Meditation or TM (https://bit.ly/3GjqXKc). TM is the pseudo-scientific title conjured up by Hindu guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Maharishi, who came to fame as the spiritual advisor and guru to the Beatles, began teaching meditation in US schools as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, but it was shut down because the courts realized that it was clearly a religion. The Maharishi simply renamed it The Science of Transcendental Meditation (emphasis added). This incredibly important alteration was not only successful in promoting his Hinduism in schools, but it also opened the door for other pseudoscientific forms of meditation such as Mindfulness and MindUP, which have been overwhelmingly accepted by our school systems here in the US.
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.Matthew:7:13-14
Although the Word of God is timeless, I’m continually amazed yet very thankful at how it speaks to what’s going on now, meaning within our very hour. These two verses from the gospel of Matthew are prime examples, so let’s start with an understanding of them.
To enter in at the strait gate—or narrow way—is to enter the Kingdom of God, which can only take place when one is born again. And when that takes place, a believer receives the gift of eternal life, the consummation of placing one’s faith in Jesus for paying the full penalty for sin. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter:3:18).
Humanity has the choice of entering through the narrow way…or throughthe wide gate. Since Scripture tells us that the consequences of entering the wide or broad way leads to destruction, it’s a wonder that “many” choose that way. Then again, given the sinful heart of man and the seductive power of Satan, it’s no surprise.
Two points need to be made regarding an individual’s choice. Since one who enters at the strait gate has chosen and received eternal life, he is eternally secure. On the other hand, if one chooses to enter the broad way, he has rejected the gospel of salvation—which is the only way of salvation—and has chosen eternal damnation. But what then of a born-again believer who is attracted to and bewitched by some of the seductions of the broad way?
Galatians:6:7-8 warns us that we’re not to deceive ourselves: “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” Colossians:3:25 adds, “But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.” We’re also told that Satan’s lies promise liberty, whereas they are actually creating deceived servants of corruption, thus bringing them into bondage (2 Peter:2:19).
Yet for the believer who sins, God’s mercy prevails as he cries out for forgiveness. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions” (Psalm:51:1). True believers indeed sin, but they don’t love or continually practice sin (1 John:1:8-9).
It should be obvious that the “wide gate” is booming. One reason is given in Revelation:12:12 . It indicates that Satan knows that his time of destruction is coming to an end and his response is “great wrath.” That’s good news…and bad news. The devil is about to be finished! Hallelujah! Yet the effectiveness of his wickedness is nearing its greatest hour.
Are there any indications of that happening today? Some of us who are baby boomers (being in our 60s and 70s) often wonder if we’ve been transported today to another planet, something not unlike Pergamos “where Satan’s seat is” (Revelation:2:13).
My best friend in the Lord has been Dave Hunt. He passed away in 2013. I know the Bible condemns necromancy, that is, communicating with the deceased (which today is being promoted as a special dispensation supposedly given to “Christians”). Nevertheless, in my imagination I’ve wondered how I could answer a simple question Dave might ask, such as, “So, Tom, what’s going on back on earth?” I could give him no answer short of him thinking I was hallucinating or reverting back to my Hollywood screenwriting days.
Moreover, I doubt that anyone reading this who’s under the age of 20 could relate to the differences now compared to the days of my youth. It’s not that my generation was righteous—far from it. Most weren’t even Christians, that is, biblically Christian. The most you could say favorably regarding the Christianity of my youth is that this era of history was not as blatantly antichrist as it clearly is today. However, it was certainly right at the “wide gate” of Eastern Mysticism, also known as the New Age Movement (NAM). This era ushered the religion of Hinduism to the west with great success, primarily by gutting it of its spiritual terms and selling it as ancient methods for healing and self-improvement.
The NAM’s financial success at that time is incalculable. Moreover, as a religion purposefully disguised, it has both tricked and transformed American culture. If that sounds a bit far-fetched, ask this question to a group of people—that is, most any group of Americans: “Is Yoga a religion?” Their response would be more of a that’s-a-dumb-question look, meaning “Of course not! It’s an exercise program.” Or ask a group of teens what the letters YMCA stand for. Very likely the teens will tell you the “Y” stands for Yoga. Furthermore, it’s not a wild guess that the vocabulary and understanding of Hindu terms such as karma, mantra, deva, avatar, nirvana, etc., far-and-away exceed the teen’s knowledge of Christian terminology.
Although the United States is often touted as a Christian country, that’s actually not the case. In truth it is a pluralistic nation that allows the practice of different religions and the worship of numerous gods. That alone should disqualify us as a “biblically” Christian country. We have never met God’s absolute and perfect criteria. Add to that the fact that many “Christians” today wrongly consider conservatism as a chief characteristic of Christianity, so they would regard our country’s shift to liberalism or socialism or even communism and Marxism as the major change taking place in our country—at least at the political level.
Once the trend away from traditional values and works gained a foothold here, religion in the US quickly turned to Eastern Mysticism, which started in all seriousness in the 1970s. Hindu gurus flooded our shores as missionaries, promoting their religious beliefs. But then they had to change their tune, dropping the obvious religious aspects by declaring them to be health programs, or simply forms of medical science. That was necessary because religion was not allowed to be introduced into our secular schools. Eastern meditation such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement was banned in our schools because it was clearly the religion of Hinduism. But that was only a bump in the road for the missionaries of the millions of Hindu gods. It would be no problem to easily fix that.
Maharishi, who was the favorite guru of the Beatles, simply changed Spiritual Regeneration to Transcendental Meditation and sold it as a “scientific method” for achieving relaxation. That ended all the legal objections. The Beatles and other rock groups joined the promotion, as well as popular Hollywood celebrities, and the gurus had little difficulty converting the masses.
The now popular New Age Movement bewitched our country and much of the world. Here in the West, millions eagerly accepted Hinduism that has been remodeled to make it appeal to our materialistic cultures. How successful was it? It not only turned the West to the East, but it transformed our culture! As a college student, the first time I heard the word Yoga, ironically, was at the YMCA. Not so today.
Most who live here in Central Oregon may be aware of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the East Indian guru who set up his ashram on nearly 70 thousand acres just north of Bend near Antelope, Oregon. Rajneesh was ousted from this country for being a part of a plot to poison the legislators in Jefferson County in order to take political control of the county. By God’s intervention, the “Big Muddy Ranch,” as it was popularly known, was taken over by Young Life and used as a Christian camp to minister the Word of God to young people.
As noted, the influence of Hinduism and Eastern Mysticism on the West cannot be calculated. The most popular series in the history of theatrical movies was based on the theology of Hinduism. It’s called Star Wars. In addition to the nine films that spanned 42 years, it became one of the top grossing media franchises of all time, exceeding $70 billion. For four decades young and old alike have learned of a theology that is the direct opposite of biblical Christianity.
Star Wars, for example, teaches that God is an impersonal Force. This “force” has a light side and a dark side but is completely devoid of morality. It also can be manipulated by humans. Everything that exists is a part of the Force. That is called “pantheism.” The Force is said to contain powers that can be developed as one submits to it. Occult powers such as “levitation, telepathy, teleportation, mind reading and control, manifesting energy fields”—all of which are beyond the natural makeup of the universe. They are, in fact, the same demonic powers condemned in Isaiah 47. They attempt to usurp God’s power in pursuing and realizing our godhood (v 10), which manifests itself as “wickedness.”
They include “sorceries,” “enchantments,” “demonic counsels,” and seeking to know the future from the stars. However, Isaiah:47:11 warns of the consequences of such a pursuit: “Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” That warning was not just for that time period—in fact, we’re seeing the evil intensifying today.
Although much of the promise of achieving occult powers is directed at enticing young people with the dream of developing the god-like powers of superheroes, a far more widespread seduction has taken place. It involves the realm of healing through what’s being called alternative medicine. It’s actually a revival of the practice of shamanism.
A shaman, also called a witch doctor or a medicine man, is a mediator between humans and the spirit world. Anthropologist Michael Harmon, one of the world’s leading experts on shamanism, points out that the field of holistic medicine is simply ancient shamanism being practiced in our culture under the umbrella of “science” with new labels such as visualization, aspects of psychoanalysis, hypnotherapy, meditation, positive mental attitude, stress reduction, and mental and emotional psychotherapies.
The fundamental mode of a shaman is to enter into an altered state of consciousness (ASC) in which contact is made with a spirit entity who provides power and guidance in order to supposedly alleviate all kinds of illnesses. Witchdoctors and medicine men have relied upon drugs to achieve an ASC, but they also look to meditation, music, dance, and various forms of sensory deprivation. Yet no amount of psychologized labels and scientific-sounding consciousness-altering techniques can change the fact that contact with, and in many cases possession by demonic spirits takes place. That’s the documented history of shamanism.
The world today is being persuaded to believe that normal objective reality experienced in ordinary consciousness is unreal and that the illusion experienced on drugs, in Yoga, or in other altered states of consciousness is the true reality.
That belief is reflective of what Satan fed to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “…the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die…. Ye shall be as gods….” It’s the lie of godhood that completely contradicts reality. Denying normal objective reality is the wide gate and the broad way that “leadeth to destruction.” In both cases they present the lie of godhood for humanity (Genesis:3:4-5;2 Thessalonians:2:3-4), which is the utmost blasphemy. It’s also the ceaseless message received from the spirit entities contacted while one is in altered states of consciousness.
As ludicrous as the Adversary’s attempts at flipping reality is, he has no choice. Why? He has no truth…which doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a gameplan for the destruction of humanity.
It was never His design to send people to Hell. It breaks the heart of God to see people, made in His image, make the deliberate choice to go to Hell. Hell was not made for people; it was made for the angelic being, Satan, who rebelled against God.
In Matthew 25:41, Jesus says the everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. Scripture also teaches, “[God] is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
That is why God sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place—to bridge the gap between sinful people and a Holy God. The gates of Hell are locked from the inside. If you end up in Hell, you will practically have to climb over Jesus to get there.
Christians are not superior to any other person. A person who believes Jesus Christ is the only Son of God and proclaims that truth is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
The tendency of all ecclesiastical ritualism is to produce
a spirit of superstition to the subversion of faith,
of mere formality to the guidance of the Holy Spirit
and resting in our own good works
to the rejection of the finished work of Christ.
The Word of God is practically set aside,
the Holy Spirit grieved,
and the heart laid open to the inroads of Satan.
When faith is in lively exercise,
The Word of God strictly followed,
and the promised guidance of the Comforter relied upon,
the soul is strong and vigorous in the divine life,
and suggestions of the enemy are unheeded.
Satan is a keen observer
of the different states of the believer's soul,
and of the professing Church.
He knows when he will be successful
in his attempt
against the individual believer or the Church:
he waits his time --
he watches for opportunity.
When he sees the mind taking a wrong direction,
he soothes, flatters, stimulates --
solemn thought for us all!
Andrew Miller, Miller's Church History (Pickering and Inglis, LTD, London), p. 237
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. May peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.” For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, “May peace be within you.” For the sake of the house of the Lord our God I will seek your good. Psalm 122: 6-9
Please present special prayers before God’s throne of mercy and grace for Israel as they fight for their very existence against Hamas and the other terrorist organizations. That Israel’s leaders will know what to do and how to respond to this barbaric attack.
Also pray for the civilian Jewish and American hostages and the Jewish soldiers taken into Gaza. I understand that one of the hostages was an elderly woman who had survived the Holocaust in Germany during World War II. May they all be returned safely.
Also remember the suffering innocent people of on both sides that have and will lose loved ones and have and will be displaced from their homes.
The following video presentation is by the late Ray Yungen. He is sharing how the past New Age movement has been absorbed by today’s culture. Toward the end of the video, he explains Reiki Energy and how prevalent it is in today’s culture.
Ray Yungen, author, speaker, and research analyst, studied religious movements for over twenty-five years. His love for Jesus Christ and for people and his exuberance for life are reflected in his writing. He is the author of several books and booklets and lecture DVDs dealing with the New Age and mysticism, and how these relate to biblical prophecy and the church.
If you are interested in any of Mr. Yungen’s written material, please click here.
May the video open your eyes to the advances the occult is making in the West. Carl
Mystical Revolution and Reiki Energy – Ray Yungen – Berean Call Bible Conference
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Jan Shay
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Roger McKinney
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Psalm 119: 38 