the problem with ecumenism

Ecumenical charitable efforts seem really great on the surface.

I agree that we need to cooperate on some things and that it is good to help people.

The thing is, it does no good to help people without presenting them the gospel.

It is great to give food, comfort, shelter, and clothing to those in need.  However, to give people these things without the gospel only makes people more comfortable living in their sin.

It is akin to giving someone a glass of icewater on their trip to hell.

How loving is it to give someone a pair of shoes when they are fixing to walk off a cliff?

Fine to give them a pair of shoes, but also turn them in the right direction while doing it.

The problem with ecumenical efforts comes when it is time to present the gospel…

Which gospel do you present?

Do you tell them they need to confess their sins to a priest, take the euchrist and perform seven sacraments in order to maybe reduce the time they spend in purgatory?

Do you tell them they need to be a good person, wear special underwear, baptise the dead, have lots of kids, and tithe every penny faithfully so that they can get access to the temple and maybe someday get to one of the levels of heaven or even become a god?

Do you tell them that, since God loves everyone, that everyone who is a “good person” is going to heaven and it doesn’t matter what you believe?

Or, do you tell them that we have all sinned against an eternal, Holy, and Perfectly Just God and that the only way they can pay for their sins themselves is death and an eternity in hell.  That God Himself, because of His Perfect Love, made a way out for them by becoming a man, Jesus, and paying their debt for them, then rising again in victory over sin and death.  That they need to repent (turn) from their sin, turn to Jesus, accept what He did, and live for Him.

Look at what people do, not what they say

Look at what people do, not what they say.

For example, Obama has made
more affirmations to being a Christian and believing in Jesus than any other
President in American history. Yet how many people believe him? And, why
should anyone doubt him? It is because of what he has done, not what he has
said.

You who claim to love freedom and support the Constitution, are you
carefully examining the voting records of the people you are supporting?

Politicians will say anything to get elected. What these people do with
the power they are entrusted with is what matters, not what they say.

they had a good start…

Saul had a good start.  He was humble and merciful in his dealings and was annointed by God to be king over Israel.  However, in time he began to concern himself with what people thought of him.   It got to the point that he started doing things to please the people instead of obeying God.  Saul went back on his word and even broke his own laws against necromancy.  The final result was the loss of his son, his kingdom and ending his own life in suicide.

David had a good start.  Even as a boy he was a good shepherd and able to face down bears and giants because of his trust in God.  However, in time he became complacent and self serving in his success.  Because of this, David committed adultery and then murder to try and cover it up.  The effects of David’s sexual sins and permissivness with his sons led to incest, rape, and murder within his own family as his sons rebelled against him.

Solomon had a good start.  He sought after Godly wisdom rather than riches and is to this day regarded as the wisest man (second only to Jesus).  His kingdom knew peace and prosperity that was unmatched.  However, he began to compromise for the sake of peace by taking wives of the surrounding nations.  His ecumenism extended to building temples to appease the desires of his many wives to worship their pagan gods and idols.  The result of this was that the kingdom if Israel was divided and later overthrown and the people taken captive by a succession of pagan empires because of their idolotry.

We get in trouble when we put too much stock in personalities.  Leaders may start out really good and in the right direction, however, it is important to know when NOT to follow them if they begin making wrong turns.

political spectrum

This is what is taught in a lot of schools and popular media concerning the “political spectrum”
It creates fallacious paradigm of the “Left-Right” dialectic (basically, the two sides of the argument are positioned in such as way as to point to a predetermined outcome).  This spectrum is designed to give students the idea that Communism and Fascism are some kind of extreme bogey-man and Socialism is the “not so bad” happy medium.

This diagram reveals the truth that it is really the spectrum of socialism.  Far left results in Communism (International Socialism) and far right results in Fascism / National Socialism (NAZI).
This still occludes the true roles of Communism, Fabian Socialism, and Fascism.  They are just the IDEOLOGIES by which Socialism is established.
The goal of Communism, Fabian Socialism, and Fascism is the establishment of SOCIALISM.
Communist, Fabian, and Fascist ideologies are the MEANS by which Socialism is established.
Communist ideology is a bottom-up revolution that throws out the old ruling elite and replaces them with a new group of bureaucrats  who are supposed to make sure everything is distributed “fairly” and “scientifically”.  The problem is, these bureaucrats will tend to treat themselves a little “more fairly” than others and they become the new ruling elite oligarchs.
Fascism is top down imposed transformation.  There is a point at which mega-monopolies use the government to squash all free-market competition and ultimately merge with the state in control over all of the markets, goods, services, and property.  The end result is the same ruling oligarchy you get with communism.
Fabian ideology, also known as “The Third Way”, “Communitarian”, or “Progressive”, is working within the existing system like a virus to implement socialism through incremental steps.  The goal is to incrementally bring a society to a point of critical mass where it is ready for a revolution and/or transformation to a completed socialist model.
Socialism is not the means, it is the goal.  The end result is always the same — SOCIALISM.  THE GOAL IS ALWAYS SOCIALISM!!!!

A more accurate representation of the political spectrum.

It is not about “left” or “right”.  It is about Liberty or Tyranny.

The end goal is to eliminate the middle class and have a two class system of the super wealthy who are supported by a manageable number of working class economic slaves.  The oligarchs have a front man who catches all of the flak for things being bad.  The general public feel they have a say in matters because they get to “throw the bum out” with an election.  However, the oligarchs have already hand picked any and all of the candidates “competing” for office, so regardless of who gets in office, the status quo will be preserved.

Power is being centralized at the apex of the executive branch of the federal government.

This concentration of power makes a dictatorship inevitable.

Those who control the president, indirectly gain virtual control of the entire country.

A better way…

1. For liberty to thrive, we start with the presumption that man has a fallen, sinful nature and that man’s wisdom is fallible and incomplete.

2. Because of this fallen nature, without anything to stop it, there would be anarchy, lawlessness, and mob rule.  Government is then necessary in order to preserve life, liberty, and property.

3. At the same time, while government has a necessary function, man’s fallen nature also means that any form of government where men are in leadership will have those same sinful attributes.  The very nature of government means that a few men will have power over other men, and those who covet this power will be the most depraved among us.

4. So, the ideal form of government is one that is only big enough to protect the life, liberty, and property of its citizens; but, not so big that the government itself begins to violate the life, liberty, and property of the very citizens it is supposed to protect.

5. To protect this balance, there must be checks and balances, division of powers, limitations on government, and rule of law–where the law applies the same to everyone whether they are a politician, judge, entertainer, businessman, farmer, or factory worker.

reformed or re-packaged?

Why anyone attempts to be an apologist for “Reformed Theology” is beyond me.

Instead of reformed theology, it should be called “Anti-Semetic Re-Packaged Catholic Theology”.

Any “theology” that has its basis in anything that came after the syncretism of gnosticism and paganism that was the foundation of the doctrines of Augustine and Roman Catholicism is sorely corrupt.

True, many of the “fathers of the reformation” did get it right in criticizing popery in the areas of soteriology. However, they failed to reject the rest of the pagan practices and gnostic doctrines that continue to this day in many “reformed” churches.

Personally, I’m more interested in what scripture actually says, rather than what a bunch of “reformed” catholic priests have to say any day.  Their major accomplishment in their criticism of Catholicism was to convieniently not get burned at the stake they way that true Christians (who totally rejected popery) had been murdered for hundreds of years both prior to and during the reformation.

Some things to keep in mind as the days get darker…

– The darker it gets, the brighter even the smallest light shines.

– The majority of people who call themselves “christian”, are not.  Most people who call themselves christian are false converts to a godless religion of works or they think is christian spirituality is really new age mysticism repackaged as spirituality.

– Persecution will first come from fellow “christians” because we are not tolerant, we are too dogmatic about the Bible, and we don’t accept just anything as “christian”.

– Teaching from the Bible is already considered “Hate Speech” because it allegedly causes “Hate Crimes”, and eventually even “Hate Thoughts” will be a crime.

– We need to be very strongly grounded in truth, or we too can fall for the lie.

– We need to be proclaiming the gospel as loud as we can for as long as we can.