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Extreme Christianity

By Jack Kinsella

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Representative Sheila Jackson Lee [D Tx] interrupted a hearing about Muslim radicalization in US prisons recently to interject a comparison between Islamic and Christian extremism.

According to Representative Lee, the government should be holding investigative hearings to analyze Christian militants in America because they too might try to “bring down the country.”

In an exchange with witness Patrick Dunleavy, Representative Lee mentioned the case of a man who blew up an abortion clinic and proposed that this perhaps was an attempt to undermine U.S. law that allows a woman to procure an abortion.

The conversation went back and forth as follows:

Rep. Lee: “As we look to be informational, we should include an analysis of how Christian militants or others might bring down the country. We have to look broadly, do we not?”

Dunleavy: “I don’t know that Christian militants have foreign country backing or foreign country financing.”

Rep. Lee: I don’t think that’s the issue. The issue is whether or not their intent is to undermine the laws of this nation. And I think it is clear that that is the case. So it’s not -- your distinction is not answering the question.”

Lee drew a straight line from the bombing of an abortion clinic to the interference with a woman's right to choose to kill her baby, inferring that interfering with that right was the equivalent to wanting to bring down the country.

There ought to be some kind of mental fitness test one must first pass before one can run for Congress. If there was, there would be no Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee to propose legislation eliminating the southern border, for example.

Or propose legislation legalizing all illegal aliens clever enough to make it past the Border Patrol and into the country.

Lee voted against a bill that would require states to verify the identity of driver's license applicants and opposed bills allowing electronic surveillance of terror suspects.

In 2009, Sheila Jackson Lee introduced legislation honoring drug-addicted accused pedophile Michael Jackson as a global humanitarian.

So when Lee proposed hearings into Christian extremism, one is tempted to dismiss it as the rantings of a racist militant Marxist anti-American radical anti-Christian.

While Representative Sheila Jackson Lee's reputation and Congressional record confirm she is all that and more, dismissing her would be a mistake.

When it comes to hate-mongering, she is practically without equal.

Assessment:

One of the hallmarks of the last days is widespread persecution of Christians on a scale not too dissimilar to that imposed on Jews by the Nazis.

Jesus said that at it's height during the Tribulation, persecution would be so extreme that left on it's own, "there would be no flesh saved".

I don't think most Christians realize what is coming our way. Consider the following paragraph from a website called "religioustolerance.org". These folks believe they are the voice of tolerance.

"Violence by extremist Christians in the United States has been responsible for attacks on Jewish centers, attempts to poison municipal water supplies, bombing of abortion clinics, and shooting of abortion providers. Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City during 1995 killed 168 people, including 19 children. It showed that extremist Christians can be as deadly as their extremist Islamic counterparts.

There is a substantial number of organizations that are closely involved with actual terrorists. The members of these organizations are convinced that the forces of truth wage a perennial, cosmic battle with the forces of falsehood, and that they face the challenge of protecting Christian truth by any methods available.

That they are allowing Jesus’ cross to become Mithras’ sword does not occur to them. There are fewer attacks by extremist Christians than by Muslim terrorists because the various Christian organizations are less numerous, their individual agendas differ, and there is a lack of cooperation – their actions are not coordinated."

Do you know of any Christian doctrine that could be interpreted as justifying terrorism? Do you know of any New Testament verse that justifies either terrorism or rebellion against civil authorities?

Let me help cut through all that research. There aren't any.

Jesus specifically rebuked Peter for drawing his sword against those that arrested Him in the Garden. When questioned about taxes, Jesus paid His and told His followers to render unto Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's and unto God the things that are God's.

The Apostle Paul spoke out against rebellion against the civil authorities, reminding us that God determines who rules what.

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God."

That seems pretty clear-cut to me. I have a soul, so Paul is talking to me. I am subject to the higher powers. I believe that all power originates with God and that nothing happens by accident. As to the powers that be being ordained of God, if they weren't, I'd be very, very afraid.

I believe that God cares about me personally and that He put me where I am and when I am on purpose.

"Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves ****ation." (Romans 13:1-2)

That sounds pretty serious because Paul wanted to impress the point he was trying to make. It doesn't mean that resisting the government will cost a saved person their salvation.

The word translated "****ation" (krima) here isn't the same word translated "****ation" (krisis) when speaking of eternal separation from God in hell.

"Krima" means "crime" and as used here bespeaks legal judgment before a criminal court. "Krisis" as used in Matthew 23:33 bespeaks Divine judgment before God.

English isn't quite as precise as Greek, so we use the same word for both. It can be confusing.

Christians know that there are two kinds of Christians; those who have been born again, and those who are 'Christians' because they aren't anything else.

The latter is what we often call "cultural Christians" -- the Apostle Paul referred to them as 'having a form of godliness but without the power thereof ' and admonishes us, 'from such, turn away'.

The world has a genuine hatred for Christianity, as amply demonstrated in the example lifted from the so-called "religious tolerance" website, and there are just enough cultural Christians deranged enough to think killing an abortionist will win him the respect of real Christians to lump us all together in the same group.

Don't dismiss the Sheila Jackson Lees of the world -- when she compared Christian militants to Islamic militants, nobody jumped up and corrected her. And don't kid yourself on how quickly hate-crazed politicians can whip up a population.

In Germany in WWI, German Jews fought with distinction.

Some 12,000 German Jews died in battle, another 30,000 were decorated for bravery and 19,000 were promoted through the ranks. Roughly 2000 German Jews were officers and 1200 more served in the German medical corps.

German Jews were an important and respected part of German society and many held public office. In 1922, Germany's Foreign minister was a Jew named Walther Rathenau. The Mayor of Frankfurt was a Jew named Ludwig Landmann.

Ten years later, Jews were forbidden to hold jobs and forced to wear identifying Stars of David.

In 1922, there were 550,000 Jews living in Germany. By 1942, those who hadn't escaped were either dead or soon would be.

I used to think, "it can't happen here." I used to think that about government propaganda, too.


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Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter member features can be found at: www.omegaletter.com
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The Omega Letter is published daily by Jack Kinsella and exists through subscriptions and free will contributions. © www.omegaletter.com


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Come, Let Us Reason Together

By Jack Kinsella

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"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" (1 Peter 3:15)

I saw the following t-shirt slogan the other day. It read as follows:

Atheism: “the belief that there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason whatsoever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs. Makes perfect sense.”

I gotta get me one of those, if for no other reason than because atheists love to portray themselves as “free thinkers.”

Jordan Froese, writing for the Huffington Post, summed up atheism as he understands it thusly:

“I am an atheist, and I subscribe to the idea that humanity and all of its works are essentially the sum of water, carbon, and random electrical impulses.”

I’ve been analyzing that sentence for a few minutes now and am of the opinion that a two-word change would make it a lot clearer:

“I am an idiot, because I subscribe to the idea that humanity and all of its works are essentially the sum of water, carbon, and random electrical impulses.”

Consider what he is saying, here. The Mona Lisa is the sum of water, carbon and random electrical impulses.

Following his line of reasoning, then so too, is the atomic bomb. The Bible. A crossword puzzle. An energy-efficient home. The computer you are reading this on. The software that makes it work.

A Fabrege egg. The Sistene Chapel. The Great Wall of China. A baby’s smile.A tree.

According to Froese, all these -- simply the sum of water, carbon and random electrical impulses. Your ability to read these words are not the result of anything. Instead, they are the result of nothing.

THIS is the position adopted by those who claim that reason is on their side!

Recently, Stephen F. Hawking, hailed as one of the most brilliant scientists alive, made headlines by sharing what he knows about God, the afterlife and outer space.

Hawking certainly deserves the title of the most brilliant scientists alive – he knows things no other scientist does.

Hawking says that he knows that there is no God. Hawking says that he knows that heaven does not exist. Hawking says that he knows that everything was created from nothing according to a random process.

But as brilliant as Stephen F. Hawking is supposed to be, he was rendered speechless by former child actor Kirk Cameron’s two-word challenge:

“Prove it.”

“Ooops!”

Assessment:

It always struck me as odd that secular scientists -- who would never dream of making a blanket statement of fact concerning a topic they know nothing about and for which they had no empirical evidence -- are completely comfortable making blanket assertions-- as fact -- like “there is no God.”

The atheist’s blanket proclamation that there is no God, or that the works of mankind are nothing more than water, carbon and electrical impulses is actually a much more difficult position with far less empirical evidence in support than is the Christian position.

The atheist position is one of total negativity. There is no evidence to support atheism. There are no ‘proofs’ that God does not exist. The entire atheist argument rests on the absence of any evidence whatsoever.

It is that absence of evidence that forms the body of argument supporting atheism.

Conversely, the Christian has the Bible, two thousand years of Christian history, various and sundry Christian denominations, prayer books, liturgical worship standards, and the support of history.

These are things that can be seen, handled, examined and analyzed. In a word -- evidence.

What does the atheist offer in evidence ofhis position? Attacks on the Bible, Christian history, the various denominations, prayer and worship and history. His only defense is an attack.

He cannot offer anything in support of his position except his own doubts.

The only way that his position is in any way intellectually defensible is in the abstract – he can argue that it is at least possible that God does not exist.

His entire argument rests on that possibility. Moreover -- and this is key -- it depends on his possibility being the only possibility.

Atheists have another major problem with their worldview that immediately exposes the philosophical bankruptcy of their position. Even if they were successful in refuting evidences offered in favor of the existence of God, that in no way offers any support to atheism.

Even if the atheist refutes all the evidences placed before him, he still loses the debate, IF the standard is really as they claim, that of reason and logic.

At best, one can only argue that so far, they’ve not seen convincing evidences.

Guys like Stephen F. Hawking cannot say there are no evidences for God, because Hawking cannot know all evidences that possibly exist in the world.

At best, the atheist can only say that the evidence presented so far has been insufficient. This logically means that there could be sufficient evidences presented in the future.

If an atheist is intellectually honest, he will acknowledge at this point that he has lost the debate, since his only alternative is to deny that there may indeed be evidence as-yet undiscovered -- which then becomes the foundation of his argument.

Spelled out in words, it would read like this:

“My position is that I know beyond all possible doubt that which is unknowable, based on a total lack of evidence in support of my position.”

His opponent’s argument in summary is this one:

“The age and existence of the Bible, the historical failure to stamp it out, together with the faith and inspiration it has engendered, and the billions of people that believe it -- all qualify as hard evidences that can be examined, debated and interpreted, but not refuted, since all exist in the real world and can be demonstrated.”

Every single debate between a Christian and an atheist follows the exact same pattern. The Christian presents evidence, the atheist attacks the Christian’s presentation. The Christian always goes first because without the Christian’s prior assertions, the atheist has NOTHING to say.

Picture the debate as it would unfold if the atheist goes first.

“There is no God because I can’t see Him.”

That’s ALL he’s got. He can’t add anything to that without reaching into the believer’s evidence bag for something to attack.

By itself, the atheist position is identical to that offered by our pal Jordan Froese:

“I am an idiot, because I subscribe to the idea that humanity and all of its works are essentially the sum of water, carbon, and random electrical impulses.

And since I have no evidence of my own, the only evidence I am going to offer in support of my position is that your evidence doesn’t convince me.”

“See, I told you I was an idiot."

The defense rests.


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Archives of past issues of The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest plus many other Omega Letter member features can be found at: www.omegaletter.com
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The Omega Letter is published daily by Jack Kinsella and exists through subscriptions and free will contributions. © www.omegaletter.com



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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.


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