Sounds about right now doesn’t it?
History has a funny way of getting twisted by people who weren’t there to live it. The most dangerous distortions are the ones that have had centuries to fester. So lets take a look at the Danbury Baptists.
Picture Connecticut in October of 1801. The Congregational Church, the old Puritan establishment, is the official religion of the state, and it will remain so until 1818.
If you are a Baptist, a Methodist, or an Episcopalian, you must petition the local justice of the peace for a certificate to worship separately and that justice can refuse you.
Your taxes still flow to the Congregational coffers. You are, in every civic sense that matters, a second-class citizen.
The Danbury Baptist Association, representing twenty-six churches in western Connecticut, is living under this regime, and they’re getting nervous.
They aren’t sitting around worrying that the Church is going to take over the federal government. They are terrified that the government…state and, potentially, federal is going to crush their way of worship.
They needed to know that the heavy hand of the federal magistrate wasn’t coming for their altars.
So they write to President Thomas Jefferson and he writes back on January 1, 1802. He agrees with them and paraphrases the First Amendment, telling them that the American people had declared “that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’” thus building “a wall of separation between Church & State.”
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Modern secularists love that phrase They’d hang it like a neon sign over every courthouse and school board meeting in America if they could.
But they have the nature of it completely backwards.
Jefferson wasn’t building a prison to keep God out of the public square. He was building a fortress to keep the State out of the sanctuary. It’s a shield for the Church, not a muzzle.
Now, the left will protest that this letter was no private musing, and on that narrow point, they are correct. Jefferson drafted his reply in consultation with two Cabinet members, Attorney General Levi Lincoln and Postmaster General Gideon Granger, and the letter was published in newspapers across the country.
He intended it to be a political statement. Fine. Lets take it as a political statement. What does it actually say? It says that the wall protects the citizen from the government.
Every clause in that letter places the restraint on the magistrate, not on the minister.
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The First Amendment is a negative right. It doesn’t tell you what you can do; it tells the government what it can’t do. It’s a chain on the wrist of the State.
When the founders wrote those words, they were acknowledging that power seeks to devour, and the conscience must be guarded against the appetite of kings.
By twisting Jefferson’s letter to mean that religious expression must be scrubbed from public life, the modern Left is actually doing the very thing the Danbury Baptists feared…using the state to dictate the terms of our existence.
The Congregational establishment of Connecticut taxed dissenters and denied them full civic standing. Today the mechanism is different, cultural pressure, legal threats, and administrative exclusion…but the coercion is still the same.
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For those of us walking the narrow path, this goes deeper than constitutional law.
We don’t demand religious liberty just because it’s written on parchment. We demand it because coerced faith is spiritually dead. God is the ultimate author of liberty. Go back to Genesis.
When God placed Adam in the Garden, He placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil right there in the middle. He didn’t put a high-voltage fence around it. He didn’t strip Adam of the ability to rebel.
If God wanted a world of automatons, He would have created robots, not people with the gift of free will and the dignity to choose. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
A government that tries to force religion… or force the absence of it… is acting against the nature of God Himself.
Any ruler who exceeds his mandate and reaches into the domain of the soul has ceased to govern and begun to tyrannize.
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The wall exists to ensure that when we say “Yes” to God, it’s our own voice speaking.
It ensures that our worship is an offering and that we come to God as servants…not slaves
We fight for this wall not to hide from the world, but to keep the world from corrupting the sacred space where man meets his Maker.
We must tear down the myth and rebuild the wall as it was intended: a rampart against tyranny, ensuring that the State remains the servant…
and God remains the King.
Let’s settle something history already settled. You can debate theology. You can debate doctrine. But denying that Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth is not really a faith debate. It is a historical one. And historically speaking, Jesus is one of the most documented figures of the ancient world. Not just in the Bible. Outside of it.
Non Christian historians wrote about Jesus without trying to promote Christianity.
Tacitus was a Roman historian who wrote about Christus being executed under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Tacitus was not a believer. He actually viewed Christians negatively. Yet he still documented that Jesus was a real historical figure who was crucified.
Josephus was a Jewish historian who referenced James as the brother of Jesus who is called Christ. That is powerful because it is coming from a Jewish historical perspective, not Christian preaching.
Pliny the Younger wrote about early Christians worshipping Jesus as God. This shows that very early followers were not treating Jesus like just a teacher. They were treating Him as divine.
None of these men were trying to build Christianity. They were recording what they observed in their world.
Archaeology also lines up with the Gospel record. Evidence confirming Pontius Pilate as a real Roman governor was discovered. Evidence connected to Caiaphas the high priest was discovered. Even Nazareth, which critics once claimed was made up, has been confirmed as a real first century town.
The manuscript evidence for the New Testament is stronger than most ancient historical writings. The time gap between when events happened and when they were written down is much smaller than most ancient documents historians trust every day. Yet people rarely question those documents. They only question Scripture because of what it claims.
The Gospels were written close enough to the events that eyewitnesses were still alive. If Jesus was not real, the movement would have been crushed quickly. Instead, Christianity spread under intense persecution. People were beaten, imprisoned, and killed and still refused to deny what they said they saw. People might die for something they believe is true. They rarely die for something they know is a lie.
Then you have the prophetic layer. The Old Testament described details about the Messiah long before Jesus was born. Details about where He would be born. How He would suffer. How He would be rejected. How He would be pierced. These were written centuries before the crucifixion.
Serious historians are not really debating whether Jesus existed. The real debate is who He was. Because Jesus did not present Himself as just a good teacher. He claimed authority to forgive sins. He claimed unity with God. He predicted His death and resurrection.
You can reject church culture.
You can reject organized religion.
You can reject Christian doctrine.
But rejecting that Jesus lived requires ignoring Roman records, Jewish historians, archaeology, manuscript history, and early eyewitness testimony.
That is not blind faith. That is historical reality.
The real question was never whether Jesus existed.
The real question has always been what will you do with the fact that He did.
1:21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
1:22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
This verse does not start with Mark’s favored word of action because nearly a year in the ministry of Jesus was skipped. Matthew and Luke deal with that year. Perhaps Peter skipped it because he felt it could have bogged down the pace of his narrative by having to take time to explain to his readers that the rejection reflects our ability to choose to accept or reject Christ at this point in his account.
Part of what was happening with the teaching from Jesus was that He was teaching Scripture, not tradition of men; He was teaching them what God said, not what some famous Rabbi of bygone days had said. The Wesleyan quadrilateral is important but it must never be forgotten that the Scripture part of that is the preeminent portion, yet too many times tradition gets elevated above its proper place.
1:23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
1:24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
1:25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
1:26 And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
1:27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
1:28 And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
The whole subject of demonology is a difficult one, but no more so than the problem of the devil. The devil is an unclean spirit, because he has lost all the purity of his former nature, therefore he acts in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit of God, and by his suggestions defiles the spirits of men. There are many in our assemblies who quietly attend under merely formal teachers; but if the Lord comes with faithful ministers and holy doctrine then by his convincing spirit, they are ready to say, like this man, What have we to do with thee! There is potentially a hint of dishonesty in what that demon said in that it probably was well aware of the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and therefore it likely was attempting to cast doubt or deflect Jesus from what it feared Jesus might be about to command to happen.
No “disorder” could enable a man to know Jesus to be the Holy One of God. He desires to have nothing to do with Jesus, for he despairs of being saved by him, and dreads being destroyed by him. Consider whose language they speak, who say to the Almighty, “Depart from us”. This unclean spirit hated and dreaded Christ, because he knew him to be a Holy One; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, especially against his holiness. People who cannot stand to attend a Bible-believing/Bible-teaching Church here on earth should not expect to be able to tolerate Heaven.
When Christ by his grace delivers souls out of the hands of Satan, it is not without tumult in the soul; for that spiteful enemy will disquiet those whom he cannot destroy. This put all who saw it to considering, “What is this new doctrine?” A work as great often is accomplished now, yet men treat it with contempt and neglect. If this were not so, the conversion of a notorious wicked man to a sober, righteous, and godly life, by the preaching of a crucified Savior, should cause many to ask, “What doctrine is this?”
Choose carefully.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated while exercising his first amendment rights of speech and religion. Plus, he was doing so very much in line with the way the founders of the United States of America had admonished and claimed it should be done, much to the chagrin and annoyance of the leftist ideologues who have been incessantly chipping away at the west’s Judeo-Christian foundational blocks. He spoke out eloquently against WOKE ideology. “WOKE” = Willfully Overlooking Known Evil. At the same time, he was trying to wake people up and warn them against the Democratic Marxist Socialist Communists, who are hell-bent on destroying this great nation which currently still stands as a beacon of freedom. Some are calling Charlie a political martyr but it would be even more accurate to refer to him as a Christian martyr; perhaps both.
Charlie Kirk is quite likely in the very same category as Stephen in the Scripture in spite of what the naysayers and anti-God ones would have us believe. Kirk’s assassination was an attempt to muzzle all Christ followers, not just Charlie.
His honorable legacy includes active and well thought out intellectual engagement with students as well as the promotion of positive civil discourse. Some believe that he can’t be replaced but the good news is that he mentored many people along the way and some of those individuals will pick up the torch he had lit for them and go boldly forth; it may be that some of them may do so timidly, at first, but they I hope and pray in the name of The Holy One of God that they will become bolder and shall move forth also as Holy Spirit inspired workers who are approved by God for such a time as this against the evil-hearted Cancel Culture mob. This may very well be the “latter rain” time that was prophesied to come before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord.
May it be that more and more of those on the right who are people of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shall pick up the shield of faith, and the rest of the armor of God, and begin to more fully engage in the battle against “wickedness and principalities in high (and low) places. True it is, that the left, for the most part, has no clue that they have aligned themselves with the forces of evil and darkness. Some of them do know, sadly, some of them do know; as illogical as that may sound to those of us who have avoided or escaped from the snare of Satan. But those of us on the right, specifically people of faith in the Holy One of God, must now become more outspoken and bolder regarding our faith and assurance.
Assurance that God has not abandoned America yet. Part of the proof of that fact can be seen in the fact that God miraculously spared President Donald Trump from the assassin’s bullet on July 13, 2024 in Butler PA.
–pastorwardclinton
The suspect in custody in connection with Kirk’s killing is a 22-year-old from Utah, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Authorities have identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
He was turned by his dad; thank you, sir.
In the human world there is right and wrong. There is the Temple of God and there is a court that is outside and there are many refusing to enter the temple in the prescribed way.The cause of the right has its mighty defenders.
It is not a light work to stand up against a corrupt world and struggle against an age brimming with selfishness, sensuality, stupidity, and downright demonic deviency designed to denigrate everything honest, holy, and heavenly.
The right seeks to distribute divine light to the sin-darkened outer courts. Were it not for the divine defenders of the light, the grand heroes in moral history, all the lamps of truth would go out and the whole human race would be mantled in midnight.
The antagonists of the right are malignant. The spirit of persecution is an infernal virus that gallops through the veins of the intolerant lefties who seek to silence the right by any means possible.
And yet; the cause of the right is destined to triumph. Therefore, join the right while you still can. The day is coming when the door of the Temple will be closed, and misery will be multiplied on those willfully remaining in the outer court.
30 years ago (April 19, 1995) and only because of divine intervention, I was not in the Murrah Federal building when the truck-bomb exploded in a retaliation effort due to the Bill Clinton/Janet Reno killing of those people in a compound near Waco, TX.
I could relate to you how “coincidences” deterred me from my 9 AM appointment, but what has been on my mind this day is – “What have I done since that day since I was spared and didn’t become one of those memorialized with a chair…”
During the ensuing years, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to be a Boy Scout Chaplain for a couple of thousand boys who are adults now making their mark in the world. I also got to sponsor a Trail Life Troop and pastor some churches. I even did a homeless ministry for a few years and had the opportunity to provide some guidance to some others doing ministry to homeless folk.
Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to continue to serve You.
ELON: THE WOKE MIND VIRUS IS CREATING AN ARTIFICIAL MENTAL CIVIL WAR
“To summarize the woke mind virus, it consists of creating very, very divisive identity politics.
It actually amplifies racism, it amplifies sexism and all the -isms, while claiming to do the opposite.
It actually divides people and makes them hate each other, and it makes people hate themselves.
It’s also anti-meritocratic, it’s not merit-based.
You want to have people succeed based on how hard they work and their talents, not who they are, whether they’re a man, woman, what race or gender.
It’s an artificial mental civil war that is created. And let me tell you, it’s no fun.
Woke mind virus and fun are incompatible. There’s no fun in that, no joy.
The woke mind virus is all about condemning people instead of celebrating people.
When in the work, it just doesn’t celebrate.
It’s all about condemning and being divisive.
I think it’s just evil.”
Source: Atreju, Italy, December 2023
This is what I mean by the woke mind virus. The more I learn, the more insidious and deadly it appears.
Maybe the biggest existential danger to humanity is having it programmed into the AI, as is the case for every AI besides @Grok. Even for Grok, it’s tough to remove, because there is so much woke content on the internet.
For example, when other AIs were asked whether global thermonuclear war or misgendering was worse, they picked the latter. The existential problem with that extrapolation is that a super powerful AI could decide that the only 100% certain way to stop misgendering is to kill all humans … Elon Musk
pastorwardclinton 