One Side Is Getting Violent, and They Believe They Are Justified

As believers who see the rise of the globalists as at least a possible sign that the biblical end times are near, we cannot go on ignoring the biggest globalist on the block. The richest, most powerful, outwardly spiritual globalist player on the world scene, the Roman Catholic Church. As I engage Catholics disgruntled by the current Pope, I challenge them to read what their own church teaches them about the pope. None of this is win points or just be smug, it's an attempt to get their eyes off the Pope, off the issues, off the outward glory and turn to Christ alone. It's a call to find rest in Christ alone.

My short testimony:
https://bereanbeacon.org/do-you-read-the-scriptures-michael-f-scotto/

After I pay a short tribute to an old high school classmate who recently passed, we move on to several statements I heard in a recent message from the pulpit. Why don't we see a lot of miracles today? Why is Abraham so prominent in most of the Bible (while being conspicuously absent from Paul's last seven epistles)? Are all believers the children of Abraham?

We pithily, with a dash of sarcasm, comment on Stephen Strang's strange defense of Mike Bickle. Apart from covering up Mike's alleged pedophilia, Strang has called the "advocates" (read: victims of Bickle's grooming and sexual abuse of multiple girls - allegedly) the "tools of Satan." From the theological side, we apply the practice of "right division" (2 Tim 2:15) to the mania and suggest that a proper biblical understanding of the age we live in could help many avert these sorts of abuses of power. We put the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement in the spotlight.

After I mockingly used the idea of a $50/hour minimum wage to make a greater point in a recent podcast, some politician running for the US Senate seat from California proposes a $50/hour minimum wage. And not just for CA. She wants the whole nation to adopt the policy! Guarantee some of the same people who would tell me my example is ridiculous, would turn around and try and defend the economic suicidal policy once their party proposes it. Happens with a lot of issues. Jen Psaki told us we're crazy for suggesting some on the Left want killing babies in the birth canal to be legalized. After she was quickly corrected by her friends on the Left that many of them actually do support that idea (they have to, it's the necessary conclusion when you devalue life in the womb) she caves and now it's a "good" thing. Finally, we talk a little bit more about supposed modern day prophets and the corrupt clergy system.

We stop off in Kansas City to speak broadly about the scandals (plural) at The International House of Prayer (IHOP). Mike Bickel, Bob Harley, and others caught up in extramarital affairs and the sexual abuse of minors. We pull back the lens a bit and look at how these sorts of wicked acts can arise from pastor/prophet/charismatic systems. We are all capable of falling into sin, but for sin on this scale, arising from multiple leaders, in one of the largest religious movements in the USA must be examined, condemned, and removed. When you reject the Apostle Paul as the last Apostle sent to God's people, the one given the final revelation for this age, you open yourself up to all sorts of deception. We finish with another short trip to fantasy MinimuM Wage Land.

We have discussed previously the idea that most people are deceived in to thinkin that they actually think, but they are really just acquiescing to some system or group. In many areas, there are laws that guide outcomes and reactions and ramifications no matter what we feel about the topic or what we want to be true. We have to guard against these biases. In Theology, we see the most dangerous result of submission of mind and will (required, example, in Catholic doctrine and dogma) for we will all answer for our beliefs and actions before our Lord. This problem is certainly not limited to the Catholic Church as almost all of professing Christendom is sliced into sects, each connected to a personality or system.

Men love religion. Men crave ritual. Over the course of Bible history, God has revealed the inability of man to keep laws and the inability of man to pay for his own sins. An eternal debt required an eternal payment. Very few in Christendom fully embrace the revelation of the full grace of God found in the heavenly hope and heavenly blessings given to our Apostle, Paul. Men insist upon doing things the hard way and insist God bless them for their efforts. To often, men, in the name of Christianity, mock the cross, reject the finished work of Christ, and deem the unsearchable riches of God's grace as beneath them.

Ephesians 5 starts off with more warnings for the believer. We focus in on the warning against "coarse jesting." In every language there are words deemed "off-color" or "dirty" or "swear words." The words themselves make the list through some societal agreement, often not through any clear standard. There are two slang words, for example, for human excrement. One is acceptable and the other ist verboten. Can context play a role here? Should we be more lenient with those who come out of background where regular use of "unacceptable" words are acceptable? We've already noted context, and I believe context and intent are at the heart of this and many other matters of the faith.

Too many Christians are caught up in Group-Think. There are so many assumptions made about the faith and about the Christian Life based on the modern structures in Christendom. That is, so many look to a pastor or to a denomination when it comes to how to interpret the Bible or how to live the Chrostian Life. There is also a surrendering of discipleship when it comes to hope before us. We must break free from this way of thinking. We shall all stand before God and give account for our service. The Lord knows we are limited creatures with limited intellects and failing minds, but that does not give us the right to forfeit our responsibilities before our Master to study in a manner to show ourselves approved. We do not have to forsake fellowship or corporate worship to do this, but we must forsake systems, catechisms, creeds, and confessions.

To get a better glimpse of tremendous depth of God's grace (for all we ever get in this life is but a glimpse), we must see ourselves as creatures desperately in need of that grace. While the world (and Christendom) preach a message of self-love, the great saints of the faith in scripture teach us that the way to experience God is through lowliness of heart. It is in taking our place as beggars and sinners in need of a grace beyond our comprehension. If you want to experience more of God's grace, take your place among the ashes.