American Digest:
Modern liberalism is an acid that burns through everything it touches. The Church has shriveled in proportion to its exposure to it. Now those who have long sought its death present themselves, carrying more of this acid, as its healer, and even, as Thomas Cahill wrote in the New York Times, finger Pope John Paul II, who resisted it, as the Church’s enemy…. He then proposes a “solution,” which amounts to trading the teachings of Jesus Christ for modern liberalism.
— St. Peter’s in Chains By George Neumayr in The American Spectator
NEWMAYR’S OBSERVATION that “Modern liberalism is an acid that burns through everything it touches” is of the moment. Today’s progressivism/liberalism (ProgLibIsm) is as dark as the various icons it worships with an almost perverted frenzy.
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
Give me Christ
Or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby: It is murder
– – Leonard Cohen
As a one-time card-carrying member of the Culture of Death, I’ve felt the acid burn out the soul and replace it with the dead-end secular totems of possessions, fashion, sexuality, and ego-uber-alles. There is no faux-Randian “virtue of selfishness” when the ProgLibs wield it. I’ve used selfishness to “enhance” my own life and I’ve had “selfishness” used on me in turn to enhance the lives of others.
Money and things drive the ProgLib elites and their unAmerican culture. Vows have zero meaning to them. Truth, less than zero.
In ProgLibIsm people are traded for houses much as a fresh bottle of wine is picked up at the grocery store while the drained ones are hidden in the trash.
Commitment and duty have no place in ProgLibIsm — everything is reduced to “lifestyle” choices in which, since people are only things — only soulless lumps and clumps of cells that have grown credit ratings — they can easily be replaced by other things or other people to be used as things, as draft animals for hauling bloated egos around the landscape, as checkbooks that pay for frantic feminine fantasies and self-fulfillment until at last they are overdrawn. The is no god in this Brave New 1984 World unless it is the god of Get Yours. read more
The next world war will all be within our own countries, getting rid of this fucking poison in our borders.
Thank god killary is a has been, she’d have excelerated it.
Thank god for our god, guns, and conservatism.
There is cancerous heretical doctine infiltrating mainstream churches. Sometimes called the “Emerging Church”. There is no adherence to the Word of God. Congregations are mainly millenials with a belief system structured like a Christian church, but filled with no absolute truth, heathenism and social justice issues. A form of godliness – very dangerous territory.
“THE Church” ?
The only “THE church” acknowledged by God is the Body of Christ, a spiritual organism made up of all who believe the gospel of God’s grace in its unadulterated purity (1 Cor 15:3-4), which almost no institutional church preaches or believes.
Grool, You need to get out more. There are churches who preach and teach the Word of God, they exist today. Though I do have to admit that I’ve never seen a “Mega Church” on TV that had much use for God or His Word. But I have been in several churches who are filled with those who follow and believe in the Truth and the Word as written (Not as it has been re-interpreted to fit today’s PC society).
A man who was desperate, prayed to God, “Please Lord, my son is in terrible pain and requires a surgery that I do not have the money to pay for. Please Lord, I have always served you faithfully and will always serve you faithfully not matter what happens. But I ask this for my son who suffers and not for myself” The man is stunned to hear a booming voice from above – “You have been faithful and I will give you the money you need for your son to be healed. You will win the local lottery and it will provide what you have prayed for!”
The man falls on his knees thanking God –
Two weeks pass, two times the lottery has been drawn and yet the man still hasn’t won. Sheepishly, the man prays to God once again…”Lord, I trust you and all that you have said, but it has been two weeks since you told me I would win the lottery, and still I have not won, why Oh Lord, why?”
Then the booming voice from above answers the man –
“Listen up dude, you have to do your part, YOU have to buy the lottery ticket if you expect to win!”
Silly example but it speaks of our most common failure to be blessed. We must do our part. If you need a real fellowship of believers that actually worship in spirit and in truth, believe the Word and treat each other as we should, then you have to step out and actually visit churches and search for that fellowship. Do not expect the fellowship to find you while you sit in your cave and complain about the lack of authentic churches.
In the greatest Commandment we are instructed to Love the Lord with ALL of our Heart, mind and strength and our neighbor as our selves. I don’t know about you but I believe that the Word is true and that each and every word was spoken with purpose and not just as a sentence filler. When we are told to Love God with ALL of our heart, mind and strength – that not only tells us to love with our heart – but also that we are to THINK and LEARN and DISCOVER the Word, His fellowship and His Creation. And that all of these things teaches us so that we may grow closer to Him and what He wants us to be. The Commandment also says we are to use our strength, which means that God expects us to GET UP and go out and find those elusive churches. If you haven’t found that fellowship yet, that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist, it simply means that you have not done your part – GET UP and GO find!
MSG Grumpy
Fortunately for me and my family I have been part of a church that accepts me for who I am. It literally saved my life when I was younger and messed up and a basket case. Grace is what saved me and still is and my Church preaches the true gospel and I’m thankful for that. We’ve had our ups and downs, the worst being when we became a larger so called mini mega church with lots of programs and music and doing all we could just to prove how great we were compared to other churches and doing all this because we thought it would please God. It didn’t, we forgot how screwed up we were thinking our shit didn’t stink and forgot about grace and fell flat on our faces after the church broke up in 2004. Now, it’s a much smaller church full of grace and mercy and we’re better off this way then when we thought we were the bomb. I don’t miss any of that church anymore because we returned to our roots and are far better for it. Don’t get me wrong a lot of great things happened but it was more about us than allowing God to work in our lives on a daily basis. And I prefer it that way because I’m still screwed up, not as bad as I was but saved by grace. I don’t even want to know what my life would’ve been like without God saving me when I was in my early 20’s. God is good all the time, hallelujah to save a mess like me.
MSG,
I get out just fine, thanks. Please allow me to lay out a few facts for you.
FACT: almost no church preaches what the Paul, apostle to the Gentiles (that’s us), was given BY CHRIST HIMSELF to preach: salvation by grace without works, through faith in Christ’s death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection for our justification. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 that’s what they’d believed and they were saved by believing it. That means that THIS SPECIFIC CONTENT (1 Cor 15:3-4) is THE saving gospel [good news].
FACT: But ever since then, grievous wolves have come in among believers. Even before Paul died this was happening. The #1 thing all wolves do is make additions to Paul’s gospel. Those additions are always in the form of work, usually taken out of Israel’s Law (which Paul said has no place in the Body of Christ). These additions are too numerous to list and often too subtle to easily be recognized…but anyone who adds to what Paul said is the saving gospel is preaching a false gospel that will damn all who preach and believe it.
FACT: anyone who preaches a false gospel is accursed by God (Gal 1:8-9). That means every preacher, teacher, church, ministry and denomination that adds ANYTHING on top of the content of 1 Cor 15:3-4 is preaching a false gospel and is accursed by God.
FACT: this also means anyone who trusts in any false gospel is still lost and is in for a horrible surprise when they die. Doesn’t matter how many people may sincerely believe it — because false is false. All are damned who have believed any false gospel other than what Paul was given by Christ to preach.
That is the gospel I believe and the gospel I preach. Believe me when I tell you that I’m in a very, VERY tiny minority of Christendom because of it.
Oh, and guess what?
Catholic canon law, still on the books from the council of Trent, has everyone under an official curse who says that salvation is by grace through faith without works. It says “If anyone says…” salvation is obtained through faith alone without works, he’s accursed. That is still official Catholic canon law.
But that’s what Paul preached is the good news given him by Christ.
FACT: The Roman Catholic church has the apostle Paul under a curse and, by extension, Christ Himself.
Unfortunately humanity is what messes up the church and what messes up the world. We are fundamentally flawd to always seek a selfish angle/agenda on everything and too many people treat the church like a buffet.
We take a doctrine here, a belief there, a ritual from over there and so on to build and model our own private set of values/expectations/solutions to our problems.
Few of us stop to listen and discern that God desires us to commit to Him as He is and has been revealed through His Holy Word and the through His Son, the Only Begotten Risen Christ. That act requires us to continuously (not just an hour on Sunday morning, Saturday evening (on whenever it’s trendy) services, but continuously.
It is a way of life, an outlook on life, and a way to relate to life.
Most people are too selfish and self-absorbed to ever want to give up their idols, habits, progressive ideas, and sexual behavior. Those of us who do are not special, we are just forgiven and live to a higher calling that is hard to manage in our whacky world that despises God and follows the god of lies, the satan.
There are churches out there with good pastors and people who are willing to share the continued struggle for discernment and faith with you – don’t give up but don’t settle for second best – I know I have been encouraged to stop preaching God’s Word because the people don’t want to hear it.
“Progressive/Liberal” gives them a patina of some sort of civilized ideology.
“Nihilistic/Totalitarian” is what they are, what they believe, and what they practice.
Words have meanings; and inferences for those who don’t know the meanings.
We cannot allow the hateful nihilistic totalitarians to control the dialogue.
(How’s that?)
izlamo delenda est …
I never understood and still don’t understand Catholic doctrine. And I was married to an ex Catholic for over 30 years. Too much guilt for me to have to go a priest to confess my sins. My wife made stuff up when she went to confession at times just because. And she almost became a Nun, thank God she didn’t. It probably doesn’t help either that I have Protestant roots stretching way back into the 1600’s when some of my ancestors came to America with the Puritans.
I’ve seen self-professed Christians slowly embrace liberalism over the years and now they are little SJW Obama worshippers. They even question your faith as to why you voted for Trump! So yeah. Liberalism poisons everything it touches.
14 years ago we moved, so I had to find another church to grow with. I paid little attention to the names on the building. My only criteria was that it had to be a Bible believing, Bible teaching church; reading from God’s word and preaching from those words. I attended 8 churches and was surprised/disappointed that 5 did not even open the Bible during the service. Yes there may have been a bit of scripture printed in the program, but nobody in the congregation, nor the pastor read from God’s word. That is the whole point of going to church.
I can attest to what grool said above, it is a minority of churches that teach from God’s word and do not add to it.
Geoff,
Your confusion is understandable. The fault is Rome’s.
But the good news is, Paul assures believers of the complete (plenary) forgiveness of ALL sins, because of the cross and the believer’s subsequent death to sin, in Colossians 2:13:
“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you ALL trespasses…”
Thus Romans 8:1 is true when it says there is now NO condemnation for those in Christ. NONE. Dead to sin, dead to Law, alive to God in the Son…condemnation is off the table for the Body of Christ.
Here’s the problem:
ALMOST NO ORGANIZED DENOMINATION OR RELIGION, to my knowledge (and I’ve studied it for years) will tell its member that they are 100% and forever forgiven ALL sins in Christ. Every one of them wants to stay in business so they need some hook to keep people coming on Sundays and whenever else.
And they’ll go to the Lake of Fire for it for enslaving those Christ died to free.
Grool, I agree that Paul gave the essence of the Gospel, but then again so did Matthew Mark and John. And while it is true that many have strayed from the truth and added things to it (which is also a crime as told in Revelations as well) there are churches that do teach the truth of God’s inspired Words and no others. They preach the saving by Grace and not works and that none are too low that Jesus can not reach them. And there are non so high that Grace is the only thing that can save them.
By saying that “almost no church preaches what the Paul, apostle to the Gentiles (that’s us), was given BY CHRIST HIMSELF to preach” You dare sit in the seat of judgement. And you pass judgement on churches and fellowships you have never met let alone know of what they do and do not preach.
Again, God gave us the Greatest Command, before you judge your fellow man and fellow church and fellow Bride of Christ, don’t you think you should at least have been able to say that you have stood before that congregation and heard what was taught before you condemned them from you own judgement seat?
Again, I implore you GET UP, and find those churches that Teach the Word and Love their fellow man so that you might be Blessed!
MSG Grumpy
Opps, I should have said Luke as well gave the Gospel,
My bad, I am flawed yet saved, I have not myself to thank for that,
Because it is not how saved I am that is remarkable…What is remarkable is how Great a Savior is that saved me.
When we claim to be Christians, it does not speak of how righteous we are, but is instead a public admission that we are broken sinners saved not because we are so good, but because Jesus is so Good.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
This is the heart of the Gospel it does NOT speak of works or any man-made ceremonies, only belief in Jesus. And it is what Paul also testified to in Corinthians.
“do not curse the darkness, light a candle” – There are many churches that do teach the Word and Love their fellow man, but if there are none near the abode of Grool, then START one. You have the same Command that ALL Christians have been given GO and DO, serve the Lord.
Grool, if you see a need, then it might just be that the Lord has laid it on your heart to address that need! Your Brothers and Sisters await…GO and DO!
MSG Grumpy
“Grool, I agree that Paul gave the essence of the Gospel, but then again so did Matthew Mark and John.”
But you are mistaken, sir, because God has more than one “good news” in the Bible. Failure to see that difference is (after simple unbelief) perhaps the biggest reason Christendom has been a horrible mess for 2,000 years. I want to help so please take a look at two of these gospels:
GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM: M/M/L/J, John the Baptizer, Peter and James all preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. This went all the way back to Moses. It was about God’s purpose for Israel as a redeemed nation of priests through whom He would bless the world…it is why Christ said He was sent to NONE but the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This gospel focused on knowing Christ as Messiah and is what you see preached in the four Gospels and early Acts.
GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD: Paul, on the other hand, was given a new, previously unrevealed Gospel…the gospel of the grace of God. No one knew this content before God revealed it to Paul; Paul says it was hid in God. It states there is today no national priority for Jews, but all are equally lost before God AND equally welcome to His grace in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. This good news involves knowing Christ as Savior of all who believe. It is what Paul called “my gospel” and is the ONLY gospel in force now. No other gospel, not even the Kingdom gospel, is active today.
Take a quick look at Galatians ch. 2, where Paul describes the meeting with Peter and the apostles, where these two Gospels (which ran concurrently for a time) are described…the gospel of the circumcision/Kingdom gospel, and the gospel of the uncircumcision/grace gospel. Two very different “good news.” Both focus on Christ but promise very different things to different groups of people who do not overlap.
Now I said all that to say this:
The main problem with Christendom is that almost no one sees this biblical distinction, and most try to blend the Grace gospel and the Kingdom gospel BUT THEY DO NOT MIX. The Kingdom gospel is where various works come from (for they were Israel’s, never Gentiles’ and definitely not the Body’s).
A pastor I know posted the following just this morning:
The gospel in the [four] gospels centers on the gospel of the kingdom:
Matthew 4:23 …preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
Matthew 9:35… and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world …
Mark 1:14… preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
The gospel of the kingdom was preached only to Israel, the circumcision:
Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Romans 15:8 …I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision
BUT ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW:
Paul was given the new message, the gospel of the uncircumcision, the gospel of the grace of God:
Galatians 2:7… when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;
Acts 20:24 … I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
With Paul’s new message there is no longer the distinction between Jew and Greek:
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Those who fail to distinguish between the old message of the kingdom gospel, as found in the gospels, invariably fail to understand the gospel of the grace of God with any clarity. They invariably add the works of the old message to the grace of the new message, thereby causing the cross of Christ to be of none effect.
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
Why do I take this so seriously?
Because if people are believing the wrong gospel, no matter how conservative, religious, sociable, neighborly and polite they may be, they’re still lost and going to Hell.
And there are MANY false gospels out there to choose from.
Grool, so you say that the “Gospels” of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are “false gospels”?
Well it is good to know that you are such a good diviner of truth that we should look to you for guidance rather than the Word of God?
Sorry, Don’t mean to be mean, but given a choice of the “Gospel according to Grool” or the Gospel according to the Word of God…you have been measured and found wanting…
Mark 9:21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
MSG Grumpy
Grool one more thing, you say that all of the Bible applies only to the people of Israel and that Grace for the Gentiles only comes from Paul. Yet the Centurion in Matthew 8 (who is most assuredly a Gentile) not only receives healing for his servant, but Jesus Himself states “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” If the Gospels of Matthew Mark Luke and John does not have the Gospel for the Gentiles, then how did this Centurion sneak past your perfectly contrived theology of smallness? The Bible is wonderful in that all of the individual books have a common thread and common author. To deny parts is to deny the whole truth. Either it is the inspired Word of God or it is the book of many bad parts except for the gospel of Grool.
Matthew 8:5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
MSG Grumpy