Church – Page 2 – Divine Council

America

Why is ‘separation of church and state’ so misquoted?

By Guest Post February 5, 2019

After King Henry VIII broke from Rome in 1534, England began enforcing Anglican religious uniformity. Some wanted to purify the Anglican Church from the inside, being given the name “Puritans.” Others separated themselves completely from the Anglican Church as dissenters. Of those were Thomas Helwys, John Murton and John Smyth, who founded the Baptist faith in England.

Thomas Helwys wrote “A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity,” 1612, considered the first English book defending the principle of religious liberty: “Queen Mary … had no power over her subjects consciences … neither hath our Lord the King … power over his subjects consciences. … The King is a mortal man, and not God, therefore he hath no power over the mortal soul of his subjects to make laws and ordinances for them and to set spiritual Lords over them. …”

He continued: “If the King’s people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all humane laws made by the King, our Lord the King can require no more: for men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the King shall not answer for it, neither may the King be judge between God and man.”

Thomas Helwys was arrested and thrown into London’s notorious Newgate Prison, where he died in 1616.

Another Baptist dissenter, John Murton, was locked in Newgate Prison as punishment for spreading politically incorrect religious views. Prisoners were not fed, but instead relied on charity of friends to bring them food, such as bread or bottles of milk.

Roger Williams referred to John Murton in his work, “The Bloody Tenet (Practice) of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience,” 1644: “The author of these arguments against persecution … being committed (a) prisoner to Newgate for the witness of some truths of Jesus … and having not use of pen and ink, wrote these arguments in milk, in sheets of paper brought to him by the woman, his keeper, from a friend in London as the stopples (corks) of his milk bottle. … In such paper, written with milk, nothing will appear; but the way of reading by fire being known to this friend who received the papers, he transcribed and kept together the papers, although the author himself could not correct nor view what himself had written. … It was in milk, tending to soul nourishment, even for babes and sucklings in Christ … the word of truth … testify against … slaughtering each other for their several respective religions and consciences.”

Williams wrote: “Persecution for cause of conscience is most contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace. … Enforced uniformity is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants.”

Roger Williams was a contemporary of John Bunyan, who wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress” while in prison for conscience sake. When the government sought to arrest Roger Williams for preaching religious liberty, he fled to Boston, Massachusetts, on Feb. 5, 1631.

To his dismay, Puritans in Massachusetts had begun enforcing Puritan religious uniformity. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote in Engel v. Vitale, 1962: “When some of the very groups which had most strenuously opposed the established Church of England found themselves sufficiently in control of colonial governments … they passed laws making their own religion the official religion of their respective colonies.”

A controversy raged among inhabitants of Massachusetts, between “a covenant of grace” versus “a covenant of works.” The “covenant of grace” leaders were Sir Henry Vane, Rev. John Cotton, Rev. John Wheelwright, and his sister-in-law, Anne Hutchinson.

Rev. John Wheelwright fled Puritan uniformity in Massachusetts in 1637 and founded Exeter, New Hampshire. Roger Williams was briefly the pastor a church till “notorious disagreements” caused the Massachusetts General Court to censor his religious speech. Upon hearing the sheriff was on his way to arrest him and send him back to England, Williams fled again, in freezing weather, January of 1636. For weeks he traveled alone till he was befriended by the Indians of Narragansett. He founded Providence Plantation, Rhode Island – the first place where the church was not controlled by state.

Roger Williams wrote in 1661: “I having made covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all the Sachems (Chiefs) and natives round about us, and having in a sense of God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress called the place Providence … a shelter for persons distressed of conscience.”

A historical plaque reads: “To the memory of Roger Williams, the Apostle of Soul Liberty, Founder of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation.”

The reverse of the plaque reads: “Below this spot then at the water’s edge stood the rock on which according to tradition Roger Williams, an exile for the devotion to the freedom of conscience, landed. 1636.”

In 1638, Roger Williams organized the first Baptist Church in America.

A plaque reads: “The First Baptist Church, Founded by Roger Williams, AD 1638, The Oldest Baptist Church in America, The Oldest Church in this State.”

Physician John Clarke came to Rhode Island and founded another Baptist Church in Newport. Other dissenters arrived in Williams’ Rhode Island Colony, such as William Coddington, Philip Sherman, and Anne Hutchinson. Anne soon left again to settle in the Dutch settlement of the Bronx in New York City, where all her family was scalped and beheaded by raiding Indians in 1643. There was only one survivor, Anne’s nine-year-old daughter Susanna, who was taken captive. After several years, she escaped and married an innkeeper, Samuel Cole. Their descendants included three U.S. presidents.

The Governor of Massachusetts from 1636 to 1637 was Sir Henry Vane, who helped found Harvard. He supported the efforts of Roger Williams. Due to the “covenant of grace” versus “covenant of works” controversy, Governor Sir Henry Vane was not reelected, being replaced by John Winthrop.

In 1639, Sir Henry Vane returned to England where he backed the Puritan Revolution, led by Oliver Cromwell, though he did not support the Rump Parliament which beheaded Charles I.

During the brief English Commonwealth, Vane helped draft for Roger Williams the Patent for Providence Plantation, which was unique in that it did not acknowledge a king, and it guaranteed freedom of religion and conscience. Vane later defended the Patent on behalf of Roger Williams against a competing charter.

Roger William wrote of Vane in April of 1664: “Under God, the great anchor of our ship is Sir Henry Vane … an instrument in the hand of God for procuring this island.”

A statue of Sir Henry Vane is in the Boston Public Library with a plaque that reads: “Sir Henry Vane … An ardent defender of civil liberty and advocate of free thought in religion. He maintained that God, Law, and Parliament were superior to the King.”

The Plantation Agreement at Providence, Sept. 6, 1640, stated: “We agree, as formerly hath been the liberties of the town, so still, to hold forth liberty of conscience.”

The Government of Rhode Island, March 19, 1641, stated: “The Government … in this Island … is a Democracy, or Popular Government; that is to say, It is in the Power of the Body of Freemen orderly assembled.”

Roger Williams responded to Puritan leader John Cotton’s accusations by publishing “The Bloody Tenet (Practice) of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience and Mr. Cotton’s Letter Lately Printed, Examined and Answered in 1644.” In this, Williams first mentioned his now famous phrase, “wall of separation”: “Mr. Cotton … hath not duly considered these following particulars. First, the faithful labors of many witnesses of Jesus Christ, existing in the world, abundantly proving, that the Church of the Jews under the Old Testament in the type and the Church of the Christians under the New Testament in the anti-type, were both separate from the world; and that when they have opened a gap in the hedge, or wall of separation, between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broken down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, &c. and made his garden a wilderness, as at this day. And that therefore if He will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly unto Himself from the world, and that all that shall be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world and added unto His Church or garden … a separation of Holy from unHoly, penitent from impenitent, Godly from unGodly.”

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Apologetics

Life under ISIS led these Muslims to Christianity

By Guest Post February 4, 2019

By Yuliya Talmazan

“If heaven is made for ISIS and their belief,” said one convert, “I would choose hell for myself instead of being again with them in the same place, even if it’s paradise.”

Four years have passed since the Islamic State group’s fighters were run out of Kobani, a strategic city on the Syrian-Turkish border, but the militants’ violent and extreme interpretation of Islam has left some questioning their faith.

A new church is attracting converts. It is the first local Christian place of worship for decades.

“If ISIS represents Islam, I don’t want to be a Muslim anymore,” Farhad Jasim, 23, who attends the Church of the Brethren, told NBC News. “Their God is not my God.”

Religious conversions are rare and taboo in Syria, with those who abandon Islam often ostracized by their families and communities.

“Even under the Syrian regime before the revolution, it was strictly forbidden to change religion from Islam to Christianity or the opposite,” said Omar, 38, who serves as an administrator at the Protestant church. (He asked for his last name not to be revealed for safety reasons. The church’s priest declined to be interviewed.)

“Changing your religion under ISIS wasn’t even imaginable. ISIS would kill you immediately,” he added.

While residents are still dealing with the emotional scars left by the brutality of ISIS, Omar says many people in Kobani have been open-minded about Christianity.

Omar reads the Bible at the Church of the Brethren in Kobani, Syria.NBC News

“Most of the brothers here converted or come to church as a result of what ISIS did to them and to their families,” he added. “No one is forced to convert. Our weapon is the prayer, the spreading of spirit of love, brotherhood and tolerance.”

Islamic leaders around the world have spoken against the extremists’ ideology, accusing the ISIS militants of hijacking their religion.

In 2014, more than 100 Muslim scholars wrote an open letter to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi saying the militant group has “misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder.”

>”I saw dead bodies of young men being thrown from high buildings for being gay.”

Only 4.6 percent of Syrians are believed to be Christian, according to a report by the Aid to the Church in Need. The Catholic charity estimates that 700,000 Christians have fled the country since the civil war erupted in 2011, an exodus that has halved their proportion of the population.

Jasim, who works as a mechanic, converted to Christianity late last year.

He says he was jailed by ISIS for six months in early 2016 after the militants discovered he didn’t know the basics of Islam. He says he was tortured in ISIS captivity and forced to read the Quran.

Farhad Jasim worships in the Church of the Brethren in Kobani, Syria.NBC News

“After I witnessed their brutality with my own eyes, I started to be skeptical about my belief,” Jasim said, anger rising in his voice.

After hearing about the Church of the Brethren — which opened in September and is part of a denomination with its origins in 18th-century Germany — Jasim decided to visit and see for himself what it was all about.

“It didn’t take me long to discover that Christianity was the religion I was searching for,” he said.

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Theology

We Are All Theologians

By Guest Post February 1, 2019

by Dax Swanson

Humility is so not something we work on. It really is what we are, what it means to come to trust Jesus, to need Jesus, because our own works are a crumbly mess.

Thinking that the church at Corinth had the same basic theology as Paul. He calls them saints. He says that they have all things, that they are Christ’s, and that they, like him, have nothing they didn’t receive. Basically they both have received the gift of the gospel. They are Christ’s people, his church.

But then he really goes after them for not living it out. For what kind of theologians they are. He paints this incredible contrast in chapter 4. The “Corinth-way” of being theologians is that they are rich, they have all they want, they are wise in Christ, they are strong, they are held in honor. They are leveraging the gospel to affirm their self-righteousness, their standing.

I’m struck by how amazing this is. You can hear the gospel, believe in Jesus, and live it out in a way that doesn’t go to the core of what the gospel is. You can, as a Christian, see the Christ and the cross as a means to self-improvement.

Against that way, Paul illumines another way of living out the theology of the gospel. He calls it the apostles’ way. They are a spectacle to all, sentenced to death, fools for Christ’s sake, weak, held in disrepute, considered scum of the earth, refuse. No leveraging, no honor, no climbing some ladder to self-improvement through the gospel.

I’ve never seen this passage used as support by Forde or Luther, but this passage fits right in with the contrast of being a theologian of glory or being a theologian of the cross. Do you see through the cross to a grander purpose for yourself, to be honorable, strong, improved, and not to die? There you are, the way of Corinth, the theologian of glory.

Or do you see the cross… and stop. The hidden mystery of God in suffering and death. It proclaims our total unworthiness. And we identify with this Jesus, and we await the resurrection from the dead that brings no status here, no strength that the world is attracted to.

Being a theologian of the cross, it seems to no small degree, is essential humility, because it is being struck with the suffering and death of Jesus for me. All is him, naught is me. And in my own suffering, in my own death, in the insufficiency of all I do, is not futility to be railed against, but a trust that, in Christ, I will be raised. There is no hope in me; there is no hope but Christ.

I’m coming to see you, Paul says to the church in Corinth, we will see. The issue is, where is the power? Is it in us, seeing through the cross, stronger and better now? Or is it in our identification with Jesus, because the power is the resurrection? May we all be theologians of the cross.

by Dax Swanson, Pastor – Grace Church Bellingham

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Catholic

Why Thomas Aquinas Stands the Test of Time

By Guest Post January 29, 2019

by Casey Chalk

The 2016 data breach of the personal Gmail account of John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, garnered much attention from Catholics. They took umbrage at an email exchange discussing the possibility of a “Catholic Spring” aimed at fundamentally changing their identity and beliefs. In that conversation, John Halpin, a Catholic and fellow at the Center for American Progress, noted that many “powerful elements” in conservatism are Catholic. He speculated that “they must be attracted to the systematic thought,” and added, “they can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.”

I’m not sure Halpin knows “what the hell” Thomistic thought is, but I certainly wish he—and all Americans—did. Thomism, 745 years since the great theologian’s death, remains perhaps the best philosophical system available to the West.

As I’ve argued elsewhere at TAC, we are all philosophers in the sense that we all develop, either consciously or subconsciously, a system of thought for evaluating ourselves, the world around us, and what counts as truth. We make choices, form opinions, and offer arguments, all based on philosophical presuppositions. When we go with “what works,” we channel the pragmatism of William James and John Dewey. When we seek to maximize sensual pleasure and minimize pain, we are drinking from the well of John Stuart Mill’s utilitarianism. When we act off of scientifically verifiable data, we are the intellectual heirs of empiricist David Hume. Those who believe morality can be changed by will honor the memory of Friedrich Nietzsche. And those who reduce human persons to their economic output have embraced the thinking of Karl Marx.

There are fundamental problems with all of these philosophies. One error that unites them is a belief, either explicit or implicit, in materialism, or the idea that man (and reality) is reducible solely to what is material, what can be sensed, and what can be empirically studied. Even that which separates man from all other animals—his intellect and will—are explained away as physical properties. Yet without an intellect and will, appeals to an essential human dignity quickly collapse. We are all just a bunch of colliding atoms in a universe of colliding atoms. It’s just that our atoms are a bit more evolved and sophisticated than everything else.

Thus do all these philosophical systems tend to dehumanize man and overemphasize certain goods at the expense of others. For example, pace the pragmatists and utilitarians, of course we should prefer things that work over things that don’t work and pleasure over pain. But sometimes what “works” isn’t immediately perceptible to our senses. Additionally, the greatest pleasures in life sometimes require great sacrifice and suffering. Making decisions based on empirical data is a good, but not all things worthy of our attention can be empirically derived (e.g. the arts, human love, knowledge of eternal truth). There is something to Nietzsche’s argument that knowledge can be an instrument of power, but his claim that reality as we know it is simply an artificial creation of our minds unravels when one asks whether his own presuppositions are really real or just perspectives he has created and thus just as ephemeral as everything he attacks. Marx was right to recognize that man’s economic output contributes to his dignity and value—but it certainly isn’t the sum of his worth.

Who can save us amid this messiness? I would offer Aquinas. His philosophy doesn’t get as much attention as other philosophers, and certainly not as much as those of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment. When Americans think of Aquinas, if they ever do, they’re more inclined to think of his role in Christian theology, especially his contribution to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. Perhaps if they’ve taken introductory theology or philosophy courses, they’re aware of his famous “Five Ways,” or proofs of the existence of God, which prominent New Atheist Richard Dawkins sought to take to task (and failed) in his bestselling book The God Delusion.

Yet Aquinas is a philosopher par excellence who is worthy of our attention. He stands tall on his own merits as the one who “was able to provide the principles,” to quote French philosopher Pierre Manent, for political communities governed by reason and grace. Yet his value also lies in the larger intellectual project of which he is a part. By this I mean that Aquinas, in a way that was perhaps unprecedented in the 12th and 13th centuries, consolidates the wisdom of the Western tradition into a coherent whole. He draws upon an impressive variety of sources. Certainly Holy Scripture and earlier theologians like Augustine, John of Damascus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Anselm loom large in his work, though he is also incredibly well-versed in the history of philosophy.

It was Thomas who “baptized” Aristotle by appropriating significant chunks of his philosophy, including such concepts as act and potency, hylemorphism, the four causes, essence and existence, transcendentals, and being. Even Aquinas’s proofs for God’s existence, as many Thomists have noted, are drawing upon Aristotelian premises. He also builds his philosophical system upon the shoulders of Plato, Cicero, Boethius, Avicenna, Averroes, Al-Ghazali, Maimonides, and John Scotus Eriugena. This enterprise reflects conservatism at its best: studying, honoring, and incorporating the very best of our intellectual forebears, while carefully and humbly critiquing where they went astray.

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Church

Where Did All This Pentecostalism Come From?

By Guest Post January 25, 2019

By Tim Challies

It is impossible to consider the modern history or contemporary state of Christianity without accounting for the sudden rise, the explosive spread, and the worldwide impact of Pentecostalism. To that end, I’ve been reading several books on the subject, focused especially on the Azusa Street Revival, which most historians consider the setting in which Pentecostalism began. Here are a few key points I’ve learned about the Azusa Street Revival and the Azusa Street Mission that housed it.

Its roots were in the Holiness Movement. The roots of the Azusa Street Revival and the Pentecostalism it birthed are entwined with the Holiness Movement of the late nineteenth century. This was a renewing movement within the Wesleyan tradition that emphasized complete sanctification and taught that moral perfection is available to Christians. It was marked by a heavy emphasis on personal holiness, most often displayed through a close adherence to the law as a means of drawing near to God. In general, early Pentecostal theology took Wesleyan theology as its starting place, then added to it certain new elements.

It was led by William Seymour. The Azusa Street Mission was led by William J. Seymour, an African American son of former slaves who was born and raised in Louisiana. In his early twenties he traveled to Indianapolis where he had a conversion experience at a Methodist Episcopal church. He left that tradition, though, after becoming convinced of premillennialism and special revelation. He likely migrated to a group called Evening Light Saints where he was exposed to their policies of non-sectarianism, non-creedalism, and equality between races and genders, all of which he adopted and promoted. Though he felt the call to ministry, he battled it until he contracted smallpox and came to believe this was God’s chastisement for his disobedience.

It built upon a previous movement. Though it’s fair to say that the Azusa Street Mission marked the beginning of Pentecostalism, William Seymour had based much of his doctrine and certain of his practices on Charles Parham. Parham had become convinced that Christians needed to rediscover the miraculous spiritual gifts, especially that of tongues. These tongues would allow mission work to advance in foreign lands and help usher in the Lord’s return. Parham founded a Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, where in 1901 one of his students received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. Though Parham was an unabashed racist and unorthodox in many key doctrines, Seymour studied at his college for a short time—enough to absorb his view of the ongoing spiritual gifts. Seymour was soon called to a church in Los Angeles and left Parham, whom he was soon to eclipse as the father of Pentecostalism. Parham seems never to have forgiven Seymour for this.

It began near Azusa Street. The Azusa Street Revival actually began in a small house on nearby Bonnie Brae Street. On April 9, 1906, Seymour was three days into a ten-day fast with several other people (all of whom were African American), when he laid hands on one participant and prayed he would receive the Holy Spirit. That man fell to the floor, then began to speak in tongues. They hurried to the house of Richard and Ruth Asberry on Bonnie Brae Street where others were waiting. Soon many of them had a similar experience of Spirit baptism and also spoke and sang in tongues. This drew the interest of neighbors and within days the house became so packed that they were forced to move to the nearby vacant building at 312 Azusa Street. (That building has since been torn down, but the house on Bonnie Brae Street remains as a museum.)

It was distinctly egalitarian. From its very beginning, the Azusa Street Mission permitted both men and women to fill all positions of leadership, including preaching. The revival was also racially egalitarian, so that whites and minorities worshipped together in a way that many at the time considered scandalous. Some of the early critiques of the movement ooze with malicious racism as onlookers express their revulsion with black men worshipping alongside white women. The multi-ethnicity of the earliest Pentecostals contributed to what would become Pentecostal worship, which absorbed elements of various cultural traditions. (Seymour would later amend his views to allow only men to hold certain leadership positions.)

It was a revival of a particular view of sanctification

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Church

Discipling Gen Z College Students: 3 Challenges and 3 Opportunities

By Guest Post January 15, 2019

by Moses Y. Lee

Generation Z has taken over college campuses across the country. While social psychologists and authors write books analyzing this generation, college and campus ministries have been on the front lines, seeking to contextualize the gospel to this fresh generation of college students.

As a college pastor myself, I’ve thought a lot about effective discipleship for Generation Z. I believe the following six points are of increasing importance for the current generation of college students.

Three Challenges

1. Radical Individuality

We have more options than ever to find the ideal worship service. Whether through online sermons, podcasts, or apps, choosing the right “church” is only a swipe away. In the context of Christian communities on campuses, the crushing burden of individuality and declining in-person interaction due to a spike in smartphone usage has resulted in unrealistic expectations for socializing (as well as rising rates of depression and anxiety).

Students seeking raw, authentic friendships often find Christian settings wanting, especially when vulnerability is covered by a thin veneer of Christian niceness. On the other hand, radical individuality also raises unrealistic expectations for having personal needs met, pet sins untouched, and the “service” to be on par with one’s favorite restaurant or local gym—leaving little room for “dry” seasons and mistakes by other community members. Strangely enough, I’ve seen this more often with students who grew up in the church than with new believers.

Radical individuality raises unrealistic expectations for having personal needs met, pet sins untouched, and church services to be on par with one’s favorite restaurants or local gym.

Unbridled Speech

I’ve lost count of the number of college students I’ve personally known who stopped coming to campus ministries and churches because of gossipy Christians, an increasingly growing problem in an age where unfiltered, dehumanizing speech via social media has become normal. This commonly plays out as either character assassination of peers or discrediting leaders, ministries, or churches through complaining to other students instead of having the courage to talk to their leaders directly (1 Tim. 5:1). Unfortunately, with ongoing revelations of misconduct by Roman Catholic priests and high-profile pastors, some of their distrust of church leaders is justified.

However, we often forget that after sexual immorality and the teaching of false doctrine, few sins are as strongly and explicitly condemned in Scripture as gossip, slander, unbridled criticism, and sowing division among believers (Prov. 6:16–19, 19:5; Ps. 101:5–7; Jas. 1:26). In addition to condemning those who spread strife and division, Scripture also chastises those who entertain or give audience to lies, gossip, slander, or divisive speech (Prov. 16:28; 17:4).

3. Hyper-Sexualized Culture

Whether due to our hyper-sexualized culture, new attitudes toward sex and gender, the solidarity and courage inspired by the #MeToo movement, or a combination of all three, I’ve observed (and heard from other leaders) a disturbing increase in the number of sexual assault crimes committed against female college students in recent years. Further, if Gen Xers introduced online pornography to the world and Millennials normalized it, Gen Zers are the true generational victims of pornography.

If Gen Xers introduced online pornography to the world and Millennials normalized it, Gen Zers are its true generational victims.

Rarely do I meet college students whose addiction to pornography began after middle school (many start in elementary school), and rarely do I meet students who haven’t at least entertained the thought of engaging in hookup culture. In my context, there are also many female students just as addicted to pornography as male students are. It shouldn’t surprise us, then, to see this generation’s confusion over sexual ethics.

Three Opportunities

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Church

DC Has Product Sponsor for Logos Mobile Ed Subscription!

By divinecouncil November 14, 2018

First off, thank you to the 42 believers who responded to the question posed in the last email, “Would you take advantage of free access to ALL the courses in the Mobile Ed catalog?”

Now that FaithLife has agreed to reinstate our subscription from last year, it’s truly heartening to hear how these courses would bring scholarly insight into God’s Word all over the globe.

We even had five subscribers donate $95 towards this mission which is more helpful than you might imagine.

I’m excited to share the news that we now have a product sponsor who will put 100% of the proceeds of sales of “First Words” towards DivineCouncil.org’s Logos Mobile Ed yearly subscription!

Yes! Until we reach our goal for this mission, 100% of the proceeds will be donated to DC to help get us there. So, even if you don’t happen to be in the market, you can still help by forwarding “First Words” to family, friends, or anyone you know who might be interested. For example, do you know anyone in the mission field in Latin America who might want to get a jumpstart on their Spanish?

“First Words” is a father’s quest to present (via digital flashcards) the 1000 most optimal “First Words” to begin teaching his children Spanish, French, Latin, & Greek.

These are not just any words; they are 1000 of the most frequently used words in each language (though only Spanish is currently available.) All the words on the 1000 Optimal First Words list are in the top 5000 most frequently used words in Spanish. And 787 of them are in the top 3000! That makes them pure gold for the student first learning Spanish.

You can read the story of “First Words” discovery here and how the quest began. The Sales Page explains in detail precisely why learning these words first is the optimal way to jumpstart your way into practical usage and language mastery overnight.

America

Legal Threats to House Churches & Bible Studies

By Terence Gillespie September 21, 2018

Those who would attack the church require only the slightest pretense. Where no basis in law exists, a legalistic pretense will be created as illustrated in two recent examples (with thanks to WND for reporting on them.)

Town Changes Rules to Ban Church

The first occurred when a town changed their rules to ban a church from the civic center.”

In this case, a misguided fear of “violating the Constitution’s establishment clause” led the city council to ban church worship services.

The case is not yet resolved, but will likely go in the church’s favor (with no help from the constitution’s establishment clause.) The city was inconsistent when implementing their policies: they let other groups use the civic center for similar events and rented office space in the same building to a Lutheran church. But that didn’t stop “their fears” from making up ad hoc rules to exclude the church.

If cities should implement their policies consistently, or cleverly revamp them from scratch to exclude the church, protection from the constitution’s establishment clause will be revealed to be merely rhetorical. Practically, only those with the resources to press the issue will be heard in federal court. In the meantime, ministries will be shut out or shut down until the local domains excluding them have a compelling reason to relent.

‘Constitutional’ Protection?

The federal constitution doesn’t prevent a city from making policies and ordinances. There is no agreement between these entities (fedgov and city). The state constitution might have a clause to which churches may appeal, depending on the state. Such will only be tested if churches in their domain have the will and resources to protest.

The church in this first example protested to local authorities and will likely prevail. Their victory will stem from the inconsistent policy implementation by the city.

Retired Pastor Threatened With Eviction Over Bible Study

The second case hits close to home when a “retired pastor is threatened with eviction over his Bible study meetings.

A company that runs a senior-living center in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has decided that a Bible study is a “business” and consequently has threatened to evict a retired Lutheran pastor and his wife for conducting one in their residence.

From the start, the retired pastor characterized his Bible study as a “book review” to avoid friction with the management company. Then we see another example of a private entity making ad hoc changes to their policies to justify an eviction. In this case, they recategorized the Bible study as a business.

As in the first example, the company ’s mistake was inconsistently implementing their policies. Other groups were permitted to meet in the same space to engage in activities ostensibly identical to those of the pastor’s Bible study. The company would have to show that holding a Bible in your hands when meeting others somehow makes it a business meeting to justify their eviction of the pastor.

The legal defenders of this small group say the federal housing act (FHA) may be the remedy for the pastor:

The actions by the Evergreens “violate the Fair Housing Act and its accompanying regulations,” First Liberty contended. “The FHA prohibits discrimination ‘against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of the sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith, because of … religion.”

Private Homeowners in HOA Domains

The FHA might be a remedy for church activities under its domain. But what about private homeowners? 40 million households (53% of households in America)¹ are in the legal domain of a Home Owners Association and bound by the agreement that defines it.

Fortunately, four small groups recently prevailed when an aggressive atheist brought suit against the HOA of a retirement community in California to put an end to four Bible studies.

HOA agreements control the use of the home. Could the language in those agreements be changed, after the fact, to restrict Bible studies or house churches?

Of course, they could.

What if the atheist in the previous example was on the HOA board of your community? What would prevent him from making up an ad hoc rule as was done in the first two examples in this article?

Most of those who’ve signed HOA agreements have little knowledge of their contents. After the fact, homeowners may object to their restrictions. But those restrictions are clearly outlined in a document bearing an essential legal feature: the signature of the homeowner. Indeed, participation in this domain is entirely optional.

As faith-based attacks on homes in the domain of an HOA increase, believers must be mindful about their voluntary consent into these domains.

First Line of Defense

A believers first line of defense is prayer and God’s supernatural protection. However, Christians should take notice of Walter Williams’ description of the first line of defense in secular terms.

A civilized society’s first line of defense is not the law, police, and courts but customs, traditions, and moral values. Behavioral norms, mostly transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings, represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error.²

The “customs, traditions and moral values” Williams refers to came directly from the foundational document of western civilization: The Bible. So did common law, although the current legal system in America is commercial.

In other words, whereas the Bible, itself, was the primary legal document in Christendom, Americans must now appeal to its faint echo filtered through society and commercial law.

Recommendations

While not possible or righteous to avoid all persecution, we are sent out “as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Mt 10:16.)” As hard as dove-like innocence may be to some, and serpentine-like wisdom to others, the fulfillment of the great commission requires both. Where one is lacking, believers are compromised.

Any justice received by Americans is limited to what they can or will afford. For ministries already entangled by legalistic pretense, it will cost money to break free. More often, what’s required is the wisdom to navigate the various domains of the territory to remain on task.

Pray for God’s supernatural guidance on every premise and decision of your ministry.
Look for states, counties, and cities with widely shared Christian beliefs; without a history of making ad hoc ordinances to quell irrational fears or provide temporary convenience.
Disabuse yourself of the false mindset that your first line of defense is the law. The legal system is the last line of defense and available only to those who can afford it.
Look for protection from the inconsistency of your opponent’s policy implementation or the customs and traditions of the domain of your ministry.
Think carefully before signing a home owner’s agreement that might one day be used as a lever of control over your Bible Study, ministry, or house church.
Where they don’t “receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.” (Matthew 10:14)
Where escape is impossible, stand your ground for the truth and God’s glory. Bear your cross with steadfastness and joy and “consider this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Co 4:17–18).

https://hoa-usa.com/about.aspx ↩
Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University. Copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate ↩

Church

Bergoglio Knew . . . Everything

By Terence Gillespie August 30, 2018

Taylor Marshall’s explanation of the Catholic Crisis is so accessible and succinct I thought a transcription of it would be the perfect way to bring non-Catholics up to speed on just what in the world is going on.

Below, see Taylor’s video and, below that, a full transcription of it to make for quicker apprehension.

In short, Bergoglio knew everything. He knew about the Vatican Bank scandal, and he knew the names and details about the widespread homosexual infestation of the Catholic church up through its highest levels.

Unfortunately for Bergoglio, he not only ignored the warnings of the cardinals and papal nuncios reporting to him but promoted the guilty into positions of vast influence.

The real crisis, then, is Bergoglio’s non-Christ-like behavior in just about every way that matters, except for appearances.

Bergoglio is Probably Not the Pope

According to Catholic Canon law 188, if Ratzinger’s (Benedict XVI) resignation was invalid (made out of grave fear that is inflicted unjustly or out of malice, substantial error, or simony), then Ratzinger is still the rightful sitting pope. What does that make Bergoglio? The proper Catholic term for Bergoglio would be an anti-pope.

The recent testimony by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was a direct eye-witness and in the catbird seat for everything, leaves Bergoglio with few options for maintaining credibility, outside of resignation.

Why did Pope Benedict Resign? McCarrick, Vigano and Vatican Bank Scandals Explained in Detail

Transcript:

Why did Pope Benedict XVI resign the papacy on February 28, 2013?

This has been a big mystery for most of us, but we now have many more clues in the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI because of the testimony of Archbishop Viganò.

Viganò was at Ground Zero when the Vatican Bank scandal broke out in 2010-2011. This led to the VatiLeaks scandal and more scandals culminating in this 300-page dossier that was presented to Pope Benedict XVI months before he resigned.

And so, Viganò has really opened this up, and his role in this recent testimony isn’t new; it actually goes back into his days with Benedict XVI in 2010 with the scandal at the Vatican Bank.

So, let’s look at what the Vatican Bank is.

Now, the Vatican Bank is officially known as the IOR, Institute for works of religion. IOR stands for the Latin Institutum pro Operibus Religionis, that’s the Institute of Works of Religion.

Now, in newspapers and the news, they call it the Vatican Bank. I’m gonna use the term Vatican Bank and IOR interchangeably; they refer to the same Institute.

Now, the IOR was founded in 1942 by Pope Pius the 12th. So it’s a new Institute. It’s recent within the last 100 years. And what’s interesting about the IOR is it’s not the property of the Holy See. It remains outside the jurisdiction of the prefecture for the economic affairs of the Holy See. This makes it independent, and therefore many people have conspiracies about what it is and how it works.

Now the IOR is governed by a commission of five Cardinals and a lay board of superintendents. Now let’s look at the scandal of the IOR the Vatican Bank going back to the year 2009.

In 2009 Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the same Viganò released the 11-page document accusing Cardinals, and yes even Pope Francis himself. In 2009 he was appointed by Pope Benedict to the Secretary General of the Vatican City governor. This elevated Viganò to be the second-ranked Vatican administrator to Pope Benedict XVI to the secretary of state.

From 2009 to 2010, under Viganò’s leadership, the Vatican City went from a 10.5 million negative deficit to a 44 million positive surplus under Viganò’s supervision.

How did that happen, was Viganò really good at the stock market? No, it seems this 54 million dollar swing into the black, into the positive, was in fact not great investing but the consolidating of hidden funds; hidden funds that were being used all over the place in Vatican City without oversight, off the books, not audited, not being accounted.

And so it seems that Viganò and those with him consolidated all of these accounts and put them into one place to be seen. And so, suddenly, the Vatican City went from a negative 10.5 million deficit to a 44 million dollar surplus. 54 million dollars, the equivalent of US dollars, suddenly appeared in the Vatican checking account.

Not surprisingly, in September of 2010, that same year, the Italian government seized 23 million euros from the Vatican Bank, from the IOR, and alleged that there was money laundering conspiracy going on with the IOR. It fell under the anti-money laundering laws of Italy.

About 6 months after the money was seized on March 27th, 2011 archbishop Viganò, the same Viganò, addressed a letter to Pope Benedict the 16th describing the financial corruption in the Vatican Bank, the IOR.

Then a few months later on May 8, 2011, Archbishop Viganò addressed a second letter this time to the Cardinal Secretary of the state again describing financial corruption in the Vatican Bank.

Now just a few weeks later, Rome’s Attorney General released the 23 million euros, those assets, back into the Vatican Bank. So, the charges of money laundering were dismissed or taken care of, somehow.

A few months after that onAugust 13th, 2011 Pope Benedict XVI removes Viganò from within the Secretariat of state and instead appoints him as papal nuncio to the United States of America where he will live in Washington DC next to Cardinal McCarrick and Cardinal Wuerl. Reuters reported that Viganò was unwilling to take this assignment but Benedict the 16th insisted, and so Viganò said yes.

Why did Pope Benedict do this? Well, it seems that Pope Benedict knew that he could trust him to go and make an honest investigation into the alleged corruption of the infamous Cardinal McCarrick. We now know that because of the 11-page testimony that Viganò released. Again, now with this new document if it’s true these stray ends are coming together and being wrapped up.

After Archbishop Viganò was sent to Washington DC some hierarchs in Vatican City issued a statement against him and here’s what it said:

“The unauthorized publication of two letters of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the first addressed to the Holy Father on March 27, 2011, the second to the Cardinal Secretary of State on May 8, for the Governorate of Vatican City is a source of great bitterness”. It continued, “The allegations contained in them can not but lead to the impression that the Governorate of Vatican City, instead of being an instrument of responsible government, is an unreliable entity, at the mercy of dark forces. After careful examination of the contents of the two letters, the President of the Governorate sees it as its duty to publicly declare that those assertions are the result of erroneous assessments, or fears based on unsubstantiated evidence, even openly contradicted by the main characters invoked as witnesses”.

So, these Cardinals and secretaries of the Vatican state issued the statement directly against Viganò, and they call Viganò a liar. So was Viganò a liar? Was their corruption at the IOR, the Vatican Bank or was there not?

Well, just a few months after this happened in May 2012 a journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi published a book called “His Holiness: the secret papers of Pope Benedict XVI.” This is the controversy known as Vatileaks, it’s like WikiLeaks, but it’s the Vatican, the VatiLeaks scandal. And this book included letters by none other than Archbishop Viganò.

Just a few days later on May 23rd, 2012 the Pope’s Butler Paolo Gabriele, a was arrested by Vatican police, not Italian police, but by the police force of Vatican City itself. And the next day he was charged. And on the very next day May 24, 2012, the head of the Vatican Bank was fired. So they arrested the butler and then the next day they fired the head of the Vatican Bank. That head or president of the Vatican Bank was Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and the reason given was “failure to provide any formal explanation for the dissemination of documents last known to be in the president’s possession.”

A couple months later, August13, 2012, Pope Benedict’s Butler, Paolo Gabriele, was indicted by Vatican magistrates for aggravated theft. On October 6 the butler, Paolo Gabriele, was found guilty of theft and was sentenced to a reduced sentence of 18 months inside the Vatican. And usually, these punishments are not in a dungeon in the Vatican. They are living in Vatican City under house arrest.

And on December 22nd, 2012, interestingly enough, Pope Benedict the sixteenth pardoned his Butler Paolo Gabriele. So Paolo the Butler receives a papal pardon.

Now while all of this is going on, the VatiLeaks, Pope Benedict XVI is unnerved, and he commissioned an investigation. He chooses three of his most trusted cardinals to do an investigation on the irregularities the Vatican Bank and to find out who these people are. And these three Cardinals were Cardinal Herranz, he’s a Spanish Cardinal and member of Opus Dei, and he served as the chair of this investigation committee. Also Cardinal Joseph Tomko, he’s Slovak, and he’s bi-ritual, he serves in the Roman Rite and the Eastern Churches I think the Byzantine jurisdiction, but I’m not quite sure on that. And then also Salvatore de Georgi is an Italian.

These three men did a secret investigation for Pope Benedict XVI. They prepared a 300-page dossier inside of a red binder and presented it to Pope Benedict XVI on December17th, 2012. This red binder with 300 pages in it documented financial corruption but also deep moral corruption; allegedly describing Vatican hierarchs and Cardinals dressed in drag with lewd details about them given by Roman male prostitutes.

And so at this point, it becomes clear to Pope Benedict that the financial irregularities are also related to moral irregularities related to homosexuality inside the walls of Vatican City.

By the way, December 17th, the day he receives this red binder dossier and reads it, is the day reported that Pope Benedict XVI realized I am not up for this challenge I’m going to resign.

Just to make a connection the binder was given on December 17, 2012. It was on December 22nd, five days later, that Pope Benedict pardoned his Butler Paolo. And this has led some including myself to wonder perhaps the leak was on purpose. Why would the Butler do all this if he’s a very close friend to Ratzinger Benedict and then go through the whole process of a trial and then get pardoned within days of this binder by Benedict XVI? It’s a little unclear, but something’s going on there as well.

Now just a couple weeks after he receives the binder and reportedly decides to resign pressure is placed upon him. On January 1st, 2013 the ATM machines inside Vatican City, these are the machines that people who work there used to get cash to get money, they cease to work and all the Vatican bank accounts are reportedly closed; so much so that the Sistine Chapel the Vatican Museums can only accept cash because the systems are down.

On February 11th, so a month in eleven days later, Pope Benedict XVI announces publicly that he is going to resign at the papacy. The very next day on February 12, 2013, a Swiss company called the Aduno Group takes over the operation of the Vatican ATM cash machine and by doing so circumvents the Italian and EU regulatory pressures.

On February 28th Pope Benedict officially resigned at the papacy, and we entered into an interregnum.

On March 13, 2013, Pope Francis was elected by the College of Cardinals. What’s interesting is just a few months after the election of Pope Francis in June 2013 the money-laundering case against the ex-head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was dropped. And around the same time, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as the interim head for the Vatican Bank.

So, why did Pope Benedict XVI resign? Well, going back to 2009-2010 there’s a shake-up in the Holy See with the Vatican Bank and who is right there in the middle at the bull’s-eye? Viganò. Viganò is the one that’s shaking things up, and it leads to secular intervention and an accusation of money laundering. The head of the Vatican Bank ends up getting fired. Viganò ends up being pulled out of the Secretary of State and sent over to the United States of America. But 54 million dollars have come into the Vatican Bank, and there’s a lot of questions and the VatiLeaks begins to break that open and that, in turn, leads to Benedict discovering the moral rot of sexual deviancy within the walls of the Vatican. Something he may have suspect or not but becomes clear when those three Cardinals present a 300-page binder on to his desk.

So really it was a four-punch knockout. First off, Viganò blows the whistle on alleged money laundering; two, the accusation of money laundering leads to the VatiLeaks scandal; three, the VatiLeaks scandal leads Benedict to form a secret investigation with three Cardinals; and then four, those three Cardinals expose moral rot, sexual deviancy, that’s been paired up with financial irregularity. This is what moves the Pope to resignation. And just to make sure there’s enough pressure on him to actually do it and to do it quick something funny goes on with the Vatican banks beginning on January 1st, 2013. And it seems that the powerful Cardinals, the powerful hierarchs within Vatican City, wanted it to happen fast because they don’t want the contents of that 300-page dossier released to the public because there is moral scandal in those pages.

Now, that binder was left for the successor of Benedict who is Pope Francis, but nothing has been done. And what we’ve seen in the years to follow is that those who were opposed to Benedict XVI, theologically but also on administration, have been reinstalled, reinstated and promoted. Viganò says that Benedict XVI put sanctions on Cardinal McCarrick in Washington DC and that Pope Francis reversed them.

If that’s the case we can see that within the walls of Vatican City, not just Cardinals working secretly, but Pope Francis himself, has been undermining the investigation that was prompted by Viganò as far back as 2010.

So where do we stand now? Well, we had this 11-page document that Viganò has released to the public and it connects the dots, morally. He doesn’t go into the financials; a lot of that stuff is already out in the public though no one knows about it. But, if you go back into the VatiLeaks story, you’re gonna see Viganò is all over it.

Could Viganò be lying? He could be, and if so all this falls apart. It could just be that he’s been a troublemaker from the very beginning. But if he’s telling the truth and other Vatican officials and other Cardinals come forward and attest to what Viganò has been telling us then this pontificate of Pope Francis is in big, big trouble.

So there it is Archbishop Viganò and the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI.

If this helps you get some clarity or connect the dots, please like it, share it, subscribe to this channel. But more importantly pray the rosary, go to confession, draw near to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Do not lose faith, do not lose charity, do not give in to hate. Use this as a time to offer up great sacrifice because if these things are true, we are in a very difficult epoch of Catholic Church history.

Again thanks so much for watching god bless you see you in a future video.

Believers

“The Devil and Father Amorth” — Comparing A Possessed Voice with Janis Joplin using a Spectral Frequency Display

By Terence Gillespie August 29, 2018

If you’re interested in the topic of exorcism, the documentary, “The Devil and Father Amorth,” is worth your time.

It’s a professionally made documentary primarily due to the thoroughness of the director. He interviews a broad sample of observers (and participants) around the exorcisms. And, despite his expertise, the director removes all effects and technical obstacles from his subject rather than add layers of them as he did in “The Exorcist.”

If you’ve watched the clip, you’ve heard the voice of one of the possessed women (Christina) at 1 minute, 12 seconds into the above trailer.

I consistently hear three voices every time the one being exorcised cries out. If this is, somehow, faked by the director, it discredits the documentary. However, I don’t suspect there was any sound editing of the ladies voice. To satisfy my own curiosity of the makeup of these “voices,” I captured many of them from the documentary, and you can see their spectral frequency prints, below.

Dissociative Trance Disorder?

When the director interviews a room full of five doctors of various expertise, he’s quickly referred to what the doctors say is “a recognized diagnosis, worldwide”: Dissociative Trance Disorder.¹ From the abstract of that paper:

Although dissociative trance disorders, especially possession disorder, are probably more common than is usually though, precise clinical data are lacking. Ten persons undergoing exorcisms for devil trance possession state were studied with the Dissociative Disorders Diagnostic Schedule and the Rorschach test. These persons had many traits in common with dissociative identity disorder patients. They were overwhelmed by paranormal experiences. Despite claiming possession by a demon, most of them managed to maintain normal social functioning.

You can read the full paper, online.

Bishop Barron Isn’t Ready

Robert Barron, a Catholic bishop in Los Angeles, says he wouldn’t speak to the devil like Father Amorth because he’s not at that spiritual level:

Speaking to the devil like Father Amorth? I would never dare do that. I’m not there, spiritually, I think it’s a very dangerous thing…it’s dangerous ground. You have to be really, really, Holy. . . I’m not ready for that; I’d be afraid.

Jeffrey B. Russell’s Says it Best

One of the most insightful comments in the documentary is by Jeffrey Burton Russell, author of “The Prince of Darkness.” Jeffrey says that possession is merely the seizure of your body.

The way they take over your soul is by tempting you to sin. That’s how they get you because you’re using your free will to do evil.

Spectral Frequency Displays

As a musician, I have a good ear for sounds and the ability to distinguish between them.

For example, you know that feeling you get when you’re watching a movie and can’t quite place the voice? I rarely experience that since the person behind the voice is evident to me (If I know who they are in real life.)

To make a more objective visual image, however, I used the Spectral Frequency Display in Adobe Audition to show the “print” of the voices in this documentary.

For reference: human speaking voices for men range from ~85 – 180hz and for women, 165 – 255 Hz. Frequencies above this are usually attributed to harmonics, room echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds produced by the throat. All of those elements are present in the voice prints, below.

The vertical axis is frequency, and the horizontal axis is time. The brightness represents the loudness of the sound source in that frequency range. The bright yellow areas are the primary sound, the orange and purple are harmonics, echo, or non-vocal-cord sounds. The black areas are silent.

Here’s the director’s voice asking a question:

Here’s Christina answering the Director’s question:

Father Amorth praying:

Father Amorth makes a guttural sound during prayer:

Family praying together:

Christina’s first “possessed” voice:

A six-second segment of Christina’s possessed voice:

When looking at the prints of Christina’s voice during the possession, it becomes apparent why it gives the impression of either three or four voices. Two frequencies are pronounced enough to be heard separately at 1k and below. Two more are at 2k-4k. Her first print is also extraordinary in that it emits harmonics >16khz. No other voice in the documentary does that.

But look at the print when Father Amorth makes a guttural sound during prayer. Strong harmonics appear three or four times just below 3k Hz. This is an important comparison because Father and Christina are in the same room at the same time.

For an additional comparison, I’ve recorded two isolated voice tracks of Janis Joplin. The recordings attempt to isolate only Janis’ voice to be as similar as possible to the Father Amorth and Christina.

Janis Joplin, Clip #1:

Janis Joplin, Clip #2:

”Dissociative Trance Disorder: Clinical and Rorschach Findings in Ten Persons Reporting Demon Possession and Treated by Exorcism” by Stefano Ferracuti, Roberta Sacco, and Renato Lazzari, Dept. Of Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, University of Rome “La Sapienza.” Journal of Personality Assessment, 1996, 66(3), 525-539, Copyright 1996, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. ↩