Israeli Arab Christian Denounces So-Called Palestinian Cause, Defends Is...

                          

Yosef Haddad, an Arab Christian and Israeli national, blasts the pro-"Palestinian" mob during his Oxford Union speech in defense of Israel and against the motion that Israel is an apartheid state. Here's a biographical summary from Wikipedia about Yosef Haddad: "Yoseph Haddad is an Arab-Israeli Orthodox Christian who was born in Haifa, Israel. His mother was a teacher and his father was a priest, businessman and civil aviator. Later, the family moved to Nazareth, Israel, where he attended the Don Bosco Technological High School named after Giovanni Bosco." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoseph_...) More people need to see this stellar take-down of those arrogant Oxonian SJWs! I learned things about Israel which I had never know before! I post this video under Fair Use, and I found it via this X post: https://x.com/LizaRosen0000/status/18...

Texas MassResistance: Parents Stand Up to Antifa Assaults and Protest Drag Queens for Kids

 

Parents stand up to Antifa assaults - while protesting “Drag” and transgenderism for children.

Heavy police presence – but no arrests of Antifa perpetrators.

Violent leftist group promotes child sexual deviancy.

Texas MassResistance earlier revealed that Drag performer for children had criminal record.

October 2, 2022

 Texas MassResistance leader Tracy Shannon talks to TV reporter during protest. She didn't hold back about "Drag" and Antifa.

We’re all learning how the Left’s storm troopers are not only violent but degenerate. They come out in force to defend those who push sexual deviancy on children – and attack anyone who disagrees.

But in Texas, pro-family activists - including MassResistance – are boldly standing up to it!

As we recently reported, Texas MassResistance leader Tracy Shannon and MassResistance activist Kevin Whitt exposed how a local leftist church in Katy, Texas, was bringing in a Drag Queen with a criminal record to perform at an upcoming event with children. This was widely reported on conservative news sites, and several pro-family groups announced they would be showing up there to protest as the Sept. 23 event was taking place.

The church, First Christian Church of Katy, had quickly dropped that particular Drag Queen after Tracy exposed his past and published his degenerate social media posts. But the church continued to advertise the event with a different Drag Queen.

Raising money to help teenagers cross-dress without parents' knowledge!

Besides pushing “Drag” culture on children, the purpose of the church’s “Drag Bingo” event was to raise money for "Transparent Closet," the church's in-house organization that helps teenagers to cross-dress without their parent's knowledge. For example, the group gives dresses and make-up to boys, and gives girls strappings to “bind” their breasts tight to appear masculine – a very unhealthy practice promoted by the LGBT movement.

One pro-family man managed to get an admission ticket to the church's Drag show. While inside, he also was given a tour of the "Transparent Closet" by a church member! But when they saw that he was videoing, they had a police officer remove him. Someone later posted his video on Twitter. Right after he left the church, Tracy Shannon interviewed him.

Pro-family activist talks to Tracy after getting ejected from the church 'Drag' event.

He told Tracy that the Drag show was just as bad as people imagined it would be:

It was a drag show. And there were kids and other adults giving the drag queen money during the performance. There were suggestive things said, all of that. There were adults, younger children, and teenaged kids.

He then described what he saw in the "Transparent Closet" area:

The closet is set up in a way that is designed to keep parents uninformed. Chest binders, underwear, and bras can be found.

They told me that they're trying to get more binders and things like that. They showed me jewelry, purses, makeup, bracelets, earrings, underwear, and scarves.

They said they give Home Goods bags to the kids to take it all home secretly, "because families aren't supporting."

 This clip from pro-family activist's video shows a rack of dresses for boys in the church's "Transparent Closet" area.

He also mentioned that these repulsive buttons were being given out at the church event.

Pro-family people gather to protest

On Saturday, Sept. 23, 0ver 200 people from several area pro-family groups – including Texas MassResistance – lined up across the street from the church to protest the event.

Many held signs. Some prayed and sang. A Catholic group prayed the Rosary. A contingent of “Proud Boys” (who are much maligned in the media) showed up in support. The peaceful protesters came because they were upset that this was targeting children in their city.

 The pro-family protest stretched for blocks.

 People weren't afraid to speak out!

 It was a diverse crowd! When they found out that Antifa was coming, they had messages for them!

 Tracy Shannon had a T-shirt for the event along with her sign.

Antifa hoodlums come to support “Drag” and terrorize pro-family people

A group of several dozen Antifa thugs clearly had been organized to disrupt the pro-family protest. They lined up on the sidewalk in front of the church, facing the pro-family people across the street.

Many of them were masked and dressed entirely in black or wearing other bizarre clothes. They brought signs promoting homosexual and transgender behaviors (and child grooming), and, as usual, labeling those who disagree with them as “fascists.” (This is ironic, of course, because they are acting exactly as the true fascists of the 1930s.)

 The Antifa crowd and their childish signs. Note the man on the truck wearing a kilt (or skirt?) and holding a rifle. (No one was intimidated by that.)

 In front of the church.

 More loser leftists with dumb signs: "Demand trans rights," "Pride not prejudice."

 Next to the church parking lot. Afraid to show their faces.

Word of Antifa’s plans had apparently become known to the police, who showed up in riot gear to attempt to act as a barrier between Antifa and the pro-family people.

 There appeared to be both local cops (above) and state police (below) on the scene.

The overwhelming opinion of the local people in Katy, TX was clearly against the Drag Queen event with children. Nearly all of the counter-protesters (supporting the event) seemed to be part of the Antifa group, and from outside of the community. All of the cars that passed by that honked or gestured supported the pro-family side. (A lot of thumbs-up!) The Antifa group appeared to be discouraged by that response, Tracy told us.

Antifa thugs attack pro-family people with Bear Mace

The Antifa thugs assaulted the pro-family people with Bear Mace – a powerful 20-foot spray meant to subdue aggressive, charging bears. Here’s what Tracy Shannon told us:

Antifa sprayed everyone with Bear Mace because they are idiots. They were intending to spray the Proud Boys but it was windy. The Mace blew down the street and affected most of the crowd.

There was also a drive-by by Macing of the Catholics who were praying Rosary. My son was Maced. The Mace got in all our throats. One woman had a panic attack, another had to administer an EpiPen because of allergic reaction to the Mace.

 The group of Catholics reacts after being sprayed with Bear Mace.

The police saw what was happening but made no arrest of the thugs. They did not seem to want to get involved beyond keeping people apart. It was outrageous, and very frustrating.

Were there actual Nazis among pro-family groups?

There were some strange people on the pro-family side that the Antifa people insisted were “Nazis.” But this was likely a false-flag stunt similar to what we’ve seen the Left do many times before. As Tracy told us:

They kept pointing out that “Nazis” were on our side. So, I yelled at them that “we didn't invite Nazis, but you invited drag queens for children.” Not sure if the weird men standing here were real Nazis or not, but they have shown up before, but only when Antifa is there. So they are either plants (most likely) or they are more interested in Antifa than protecting children.

Final thoughts

Although the church event itself could not be stopped, the fact that over 200 pro-family people came and stood up to the intimidation tactics of Antifa is significant. People working to sexualize children should never get a free ride. And prominent conservative media across the country reported and commented on this action.

Besides being violent, Antifa is more degenerate than many people realize. Like the Nazis of the 1930s and the Leninists before that, they recruit dysfunctional people from the dregs of society and form them into a nationwide terror group. They are clearly well funded and well organized. In this case, much of their funding (as we know) comes from US corporations that give hundreds of millions through a variety of disgusting leftist “social justice” front groups.

But good people must continue to stand up – and we will eventually bring back decency and a healthy society!

   

Please help us continue to do our uncompromising work!

Our successes depend on people like you.

Donate to MassResistance

Your support will make the difference!

Pastor Scott Lively Corrects Andrew Torba re: "Christian Nationalism"

 

Scott Lively's Mission Dispatch, September 22, 2022, Observations and Action on Current Events, History and Theology. Photo above is at Tel Gezer archaeological site looking west toward Jaffa, Israel. Subscribe HERE. Contact/Comment HERE.  DONATE HERE.

Open Letter to Andrew Torba re “Christian Nationalism” Dear Brother Andrew. I am a Hebraic-oriented Evangelical Christian attorney, pastor and historian who has devoted my entire adult life in Christ to Christian social, cultural and political activism. I bought your book “Christian Nationalism” to support the mission of Gab Social, and want to offer you some constructive criticism.  At the outset, I want to commend you for your courage and vision in taking on the powers and principalities of the present age by working to break the chains of censorship and suppression of free speech, particularly of the biblically-informed views that so powerfully contradict the secular humanist dogma of our Marxist would-be masters. They are the true enemies of “Judeo-Christian” civilization, and of course I choose that phrase intentionally to respectfully contradict your well-intentioned but misguided representation of its meaning and purpose relative to our national identity and heritage.  I will also add that I am both a member of Gab and a vehement defender of your right to address the distinctions between Judaism and Christianity. I do not consider you an anti-Semite, and in fact believe that the secularized ethnic Jews working to destroy your work are actually far more anti-Semitic than they claim you are in that they deny and/or defy the Torah, whereas you worship and revere its Author.  What defines a “Semite” (Shemite) if not Yahweh-worship? It certainly can’t be an ethnic connection to Shem (or Abraham or even Jacob) which virtually all humanity now shares because of genetic diffusion over millennia. No, it must be the practice of true Judaism, whose terms are defined by the Torah and Tanach (Old Testament Scripture), NOT the Talmud (commentaries on the Scripture by various Hebrew scholars with widely divergent views, values and validity).  Indeed, Judaism itself is as factional as Christianity but on a smaller scale, only because it’s so much smaller in numbers. Jews are not just doctrinally divided, but notoriously so! As the famous old joke goes “Ask two Jews, get three opinions.” Thus, to cite the view of any Talmudic “sage” as representative of all Jews or Judaism itself (as you did on page 56) is as intellectually dishonest as an anti-Christian Jew or Secular Humanist cherry-picking from the collective works of Christian scholars to define all Christianity.   You begin Chapter 4 “This is Not a ‘Judeo-Christian’ Movement” asserting that “Christianity and Judaism are totally distinct, incompatible, and irreconcilable religions.” In one essential sense that is true because, as you emphasize, Judaism denies that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. BUT, unlike all the other people groups of the world that also deny Christ (including all the secular factions in our diverse MAGA and populist/conservative movements whom you rightfully seem very comfortable collaborating with), true Torah-faithful Jews believe in A Messiah who will do all the things that Christians anticipate Jesus Christ will do on His second coming. Most Jews simply “missed the bus” on Jesus/Yeshua during His first advent (by God’s own plan), but remain standing in line for the next one, which Romans 11 tells us they WILL catch, when (as God adds in Zechariah 12:10) “I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced [and] mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”  You and I presumably share all or most of that would be considered the most fundamental tenets of the Christian faith, and many non-essential doctrines too. But we differ strongly on “supersessionism” (replacement theology) which you defend as the justification for your personal theology. Importantly, what you have laid out in “Christian Nationalism” is your personal theology, which does not represent Christianity as a whole, but only one slate of views among the constellation of denominations. That’s not a problem insofar as you admit it, and don’t attempt to impose your interpretations on non-essentials as dogma on the rest of Christendom. The flaw in your analysis of supersessionism (page 57) is the appeal to tradition (one of the classic fallacies of formal logic)  Whenever we justify ourselves by church tradition instead of the Bible itself, we depart from sound Holy Spirit guidance to tenuous worldly humanism – the common error behind Roman Catholicism’s self-authorizing “Magisterium” theory and Talmudic Judaism’s self-authorizing “Revered Sages” club. Correcting that error in Christendom was the implicit premise of the Reformation, but unfortunately, the reformers failed to reform numerous extra-biblical human-created doctrines in Protestantism, including the RCC’s dramatic changes to the God’s holiday calendar, the presumed right of the church to enforce dogma through murder (i.e. Calvin’s execution of Michael Servetus), and a severe Greco-Roman cultural bias in interpreting Scripture that differs markedly from the Hebraic cultural perspective of the Apostles and the Prophets. Many of those human-created doctrines were quickly jettisoned as Protestantism splintered into numerous factions, such as Presbyterianism that made the world-changing quantum shift from the top-down ecclesiastical power-pyramid exemplified by the papacy (and Anglicanism) to bottom-up self governance authorized by the “priesthood of all believers” and organized like the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. THAT is the deepest foundation-stone of America and of the modern movement for constitutionalism (foreshadowed by the Magna Carta in 1215, also heavily influenced by Jews).  The process of getting from Scottish Presbyterianism to the Pilgrim Separatism of the Plymouth Colony was heavily influenced by Christian-Jewish cross-pollination. Indeed, I know from my studies of this, that there would never have been a US Constitution or the populist overthrow of the western monarchies if not for the 16th and 17th Century Hebraic Movement in Holland and Great Britain. And that is why America is and has always been “Judeo-Christian.” It has nothing to do with how many Jews were active in the physical founding of America, or how Christian-centric the first state constitutions were, it is simply an honest acknowledgment of the Jews’ role in nudging Christians back to their First Century heritage that made America possible: a shared intellectual property right, if you will, like co-authors of a book or a scientific theory.  Lastly, you asserted on page 61 “It is impossible to overstate the importance of the historic cataclysm that was the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.” Sorry, but it not only IS possible, you have done it. If that post-millennial doctrine were true, the real proof would have been unmistakable over the next thousand years, especially the end, but of course, it didn’t look at all like the Millennial Kingdom of prophecy – because Christ’s earthly kingdom, while very near, has not yet begun. You would know that if you studied the Bible from the literal Hebraic perspective, but you don’t and I respect that as your right within the bounds of Christian liberty.  My point with the prior paragraph is to illustrate that factionalism will be the death-knell to any attempt to build unity on a theological foundation, which is why the Founders and subsequent Christian generations chose the broadest possible platform – Bible-based Yahweh-honoring monotheism (exemplified in our national motto, “In God we trust”) – and not any flavor of Christian sectarianism (which led to many serious conflicts among the denominations in our early days as a nation and thus the ban on establishing state “religions” – meaning “denominations” -- in the “Establishment Clause” of our constitution.)   I don’t expect you to change your theology based on one letter from me, but I do hope you will reconsider your gratuitous exclusionary rhetoric regarding our spiritual cousins in the House of Judah, treating at least the many who share our cultural values (and the all-important Creationist paradigm) with the same basic respect and comradery you show to Atheists in the MAGA and conservative movements. And I offer my assistance in making this necessary course-correction if you care to accept it.  Pastor Scott Lively, J.D., Th.D.

No Such Thing as Christian Anti-Semitism

Dr. Michael Brown is a good friend of mine. He has been a long-time supporter of MassResistance, the pro-family organization I worked for for a number of a years. I have enjoyed joining his radio program from time-to-time as well. I really appreciate his outreach to Christians on all matters political, and I respect his support for the state of Israel as well as his Christian missionary outreach to Jews in the United States and around the world.

I must take exception, however, to the title of his latest article, in which he denounces “Christian Anti-Semitism.” With all due respect, there is no such thing. That’s like talking about Satanists for Christ, or Jews for Hitler. It makes no sense. There is religious anti-Semitism, certainly, but there is nothing Christian about Christians hating Jews or (justifiably) hating Israel. To his credit, Dr. Brown in his article was clearly denouncing the so-called “progressive” Christians of the so-called Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Still, the joining of “Christian” and “Anti-Semitism” is wrong.

This discussion is timely, for sure. Anti-Semitism is a catch-all smear used all too often against conservatives, when the Democratic Party has a long history of anti-Semitism (one that has barely abated, I might add). Furthermore, even some so-called nationalists and populists are embracing a total hatred of Israel and of Jews, as though support for Israel is anti-America First. It’s about time that we confronted this matter.

Again, I take exception with the title and the notion “Christian Anti-Semitism,” not with Brown’s criticism of the regressive church in South Africa that he was calling out. I must add that an estimable missionary movement, One For Israel Ministries, also talks about Christian Anti-Semitism, and I think that their use of that moniker is wrong, too.

For starters, what does the Bible say about Christians and their calling in relationship to the Jews? Paul the Apostle writes to the Romans: “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:3) He then writes: “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” (Romans 10:1)

Wanting Jewish people to be saved does not quite square with “The Jews should get the hell out of Palestine” or “Jews are going to hell, and I don’t care” or “Jews control everything, and we must stop them.” You cannot be a Christian and hate Jews. It makes no sense, just as someone who lives under the grace of God would have no compunction to go out and live in sin (cf. Romans 6:11-14).

Of course, the common retort from some critics is “The Jews killed Christ.”

Was it just “the Jews”? True, the Israelite religious leaders during Jesus’ earthly ministry plotted to destroy Him, and they corrupted the legal process to rush through an immediate execution of our Lord and Savior. There are numerous passages testifying to this throughout the Gospels. But let’s not forget that it was Roman leaders and soldiers along with a crowd of Jews and Gentiles which rejected Jesus before He was crucified. At this point, it’s necessary for us to embrace a humbling spiritual truth. If everyone of us had been in that crowd that day, standing before Pilate and the beaten, bleeding Christ, we all would have shouted “Away with this man! Crucify Him!” And why? Isaiah declares it so: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:3)

Biblical Hebrew uses a number of words for “man”: adam, ish, enosh, gibbor, etc. In the Messianic verse above, “ish” is used in the passage “rejected of men.” There is no difference there among the different groups of men in the world. The verse does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile. Abandon this notion “Well, if I had been there, I would have called for His release!” No, you would not.

Furthermore, there were many Jews who believed on Jesus, before, during, and after His Crucifixtion! (John 11:45, John 12:11; Acts 17:12, 21:20). No, it was not “The Jews” who killed Christ.

Some scholars distort Scriptures show that we should fear and oppose Jews. Here’s one example: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.” (John 20:19).

When you read the Bible, don’t discard your reason. The disciples in the upper room were Jews themselves! Were they afraid of themselves, too? The context alone bears out that the disciples were afraid of the Jewish leaders, since they were the ones trying to suppress the Gospel.

Even in the Catholic Church, if one follows the old-school Latin rite of the traditional Good Friday liturgy, there is a recitation in which the congregants pray for the conversion of the Jews: “Oremus et pro perfidies Judaeis,” i.e. “Let us pray for the unbelieving Jews.” That is not anti-Semitism. Why would anyone pray for anyone else to believe if they have a hatred towards them?!

Consider once again that prayer in the traditional Latin Mass: “Let us pray for the Jews who don’t believe,” which implies that there are Jews who DO believe! Of course there were, and there are (Michael Brown, among hundreds of thousands, if not millions around the world)!  Christianity would not exist but for those believing Jews, starting with the apostles and their adherents, who spread the Good News.

The Bible does not support anti-Semitism. True Christian faith is incommensurate with anti-Semitism, as well. Christian faith, revelation of God’s Word, Christ and Him Crucified does not teach let alone justify anti-Semitism. In fact, it outright rejects it (cf. Romans 11:18-21). Religious anti-Semitism, yes, but let’s stop calling it “Christian Anti-Semitism.”

Why I Loathe Alcoholics Anonymous

 

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11)

For years, I was stepped in this terrible cult called Alcoholics Anonymous.

My mother was a recovering alcoholic, according to her statements, testimony, blah. She worked "the steps" every day of her life, so she claimed. She got sober in 1978, having had a spiritual revelation after drinking a morning mimosa. Something in her spirit told her "You don't have to do this anymore."

And that was the last time she drank alcohol. For the record, I feel compelled to point out that she received a spiritual revelation from God, not help or support from working Twelve Steps. However, the evil genius of Alcoholics Anonymous is to teach people that "It works if you work it" and the Big Book offers this guarantee that people who follow the Twelve Steps rarely fail.

The truth is, my Mom got sober without AA, but she still believed that she had to work the Twelve Steps every day of her life just to get through the day.

On another note, my mother quit smoking when she prayed, when she asked the LORD for help and stopped relying on her own efforts to quit. "I have no faith in me, and I have very little faith in you."

But God can use our little faith to do great things, and my mother was set free from smoking.

Sadly, she was still addicted to AA, and she worked that awful program, until it worked her to death.

Why do I loathe AA? It's not just that that legalistic, self-loathing cult damaged my mother, it's not just that that awful cult turned my mother into an abusive therapy who put her own "recovery" ahead of the needs of her children, her family, and anyone else--even Christ Himself!

I loathe AA because it teaches people to identify with a lie.

At every meeting, every member of the club in the "rewms" will say: "Hi, my name is ... , and I am an alcoholic."

Now, tell me ... how can we really expect anyone to break free of a damaging perversion if we teach people to identify with it? If you are "born" an alcoholic, then you should just drink and drink until you pass out or die.

BUT ... people are NOT born alcoholic. Just as there is no evidence that people are born gay, there is no gene for alcoholic. Granted, patterns of alcoholism do ensue in families, but it has to do with the abuse and trauma which children suffer from their parents, and there is this uncanny tendency for children to replicate the bad behaviors of their parents based on the imprinting and the wrong believing that comes with identifying with one's parents--no matter how bad they may be,

To sum up: no, people are not born "alcoholic." What's more, many people get over alcoholism without taking those ridiculous Twelve Steps.

The AA cult teaches lies to its members. It purports to not be a religious program, and yet members are instructed to turn their will and their life over to a "Higher Power" as they understand Him. Going beyond that, however, this Higher Power is still subject to the Twelve Steps--which have no pattern or value in the Old or New Testaments. In effect, the higher power for everyone in AA is not the Lord God as revealed in the Scriptures.

It's the creepy God of Bill W.'s insidious creation. (For those who don't know, Bill Wilson--or Bill W.--founded Alcoholics Anonymous.) Bill W. is treated with almost divine reverence in the meeting rewms of AA. It's really sickening. Let's state this fact plaintly once more: this "Higher Power" is an invention of Bill W.

It is total idolatry. Christians, Muslims, Jews, anyone who belongs to any faith community should reject AA out of hand. 

But for those who believe in Jesus, who recognize the Bible as God's Word, AA is all the more fully incompatible.

This terrible cult teaches people to identify with a sin, with an addiction, a moral failing.

What does the Bible say about our new identity in Christ?

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

We receive a new standing before our Loving Father. God is no more some distant deity, but our Loving Father!

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

and

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:17)

Yes, AA's Big Book makes one reference that "He is our Father. We are His children," but then goes back to leveling adherents with religious demands. The truth is, the AA program does not reveal anything about the Higher Power, aside from what is in the book. This notion of "God as I understand Him" is absolutely ludicrous. If I could understand God, He would not be God anymore, now, would He?

But I digress.

The biggest fraud about the AA cult is that it teaches people to identify with their sins, with their failures, with their faults.

At the top of this post, I quote Romans 6:11, in which Paul clearly declares to the Christian believers in Roman: "Reckon yourself dead indeed to sin, and alive to God through Jesus Christ."

When you are born again, you are no longer a sinner. You are a saint. You are a child of God. Yes, there is training, there is the process of sanctification, which the Holy Spirit works on and in us as we see more of Jesus in the Word (cf 2 Corinthians 3:18)

You don't need to take steps to be one with your Heavenly Father.

In fact, even in the Old Testament, taking steps to God's altar was expressly forbidden:

"Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon." (Exodus 20:26)

If we try in our own efforts to get right with God, we merely expose our nakedness, our sin, our shame:

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

But in Christ, we have the fullness of His work. He declared "It is Finished" (John 19:30)

But you are no longer a sinner, and you are called to no longer identify with sin or any sins in your life.

Alcoholics Anonymous urges people to keep identifying with their sins, to keep rehashing their failures, to keep going to the joyless AA meeting, to keep repeating the empty mantras, to fall in line with the mob mentality, the mob identity.

My mother worked the program all right ... until she ended up taking her own life in 2012. This is the first time I have made this revelation public, but it needs to be said. Anyone who learns that he has to keep looking at his own sins and failures, that he must keep "taking his inventory" to stay one step ahead of an alcohol relapse, is looking at an empty life full of shame, hurt, and loss.

The number of people who have committed suicide while going to the AA "rewms" is pretty staggering, as well. But is anyone really surprised? A relentless program of self-loathing and self-abnegation is not going to produce happiness, joy, or freedom. 

Did I forget to mention that AA members often tout that their program is a "selfish" program, as if that is something to be proud of ...?

At any rate, I hope I have explained fully why I loathe Alcoholics Anonymous. The blood of Jesus cleanses everyone of us from all sins (1 John 1:9), and Jesus rests as the propitiation (full payment) for our sins and the sins of the entire world. If He has paid for all the sins of all the world, then there is no reason for people to rehash their sins or rest in their failures. It's time to stop focusing on ourselves and start focusing on Christ Jesus! Forget the false god of Alcoholics Anonymous and believe in Christ and Him Crucified:

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8)

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" (Ephesians 2:8)

If you find that you are still struggling with certain behaviors or bad habits, you just need to receive more favor, a greater revelation of Christ Jesus, and who you are in Christ:

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

and

"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. 

5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:" (Colossians 3:1-5)

and

"Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord," (2 Peter 1:2)

We don't need AA. Let us have grace, which we receive through Christ Jesus!

Discussing the Scofield Bible, The Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and Israel

I have been conversing with a Christian friend of mine, one who does not support Israel, who believes that the current state should not exist. He also adheres to "replacement theology," which suggests that God has abandoned the Jews and now only works with Christians.

Here was the first question that I posed to him:

Hey -----!

The Scofield Bible is getting some massive excoriation at this time [on social media].

I have never read that version, since I am not interested in any version of the Bible which has someone else's comments or ideas embedded into it.

Your reasons for being vocally opposed to the Scofield, and what are the errors which it teaches? -- Please share when you have time.

Here are the responses that I received:

It altered who all Christians believed - for nearly 2,000 years - that NT Israel was. His Bible was bankrolled by the biggest Zionists in America....to swing millions of Christians into their political camp. Palestinian Christians and non-violent Muslims have paid a huge price. World peace has been altered. And due to this poor theology we treat Israel different then all other nations, in desperate need of the Gospel of the Messiah. Send me your personal email address again Arthur. I will send you a two-page short Bible study and a theological reading list that has impacted a lot of other dispensationalists.

Here is the second message I received:

Arthur:

 I fear your hermeneutical view of Scripture starts with your support of a political entity lost, apart from Jesus Christ.  The Zionist Jews of Israel are not being threatened from others.  Their hatred of the Triune God makes themselves their greatest enemy.  They have the highest tax-payer funded abortion rate in the world.  Tel Aviv is the homosexual capital of the world.  (Ask the Jewish psychologist who used to practice in San Francisco until they ran him out….and who called to thank me for burning those transgender library books.)  And they just vaccinated 61% of their population with the deadly mNRA full of spike proteins.  And they are brutally cruel to their neighbors, whom the Zionists in charge see as goyim or cattle.  God is dealing with Israel for rejecting the Messiah.  May we one day see them return to Christ, via Romans 11.  But not through more nuclear bombs and American aid.

 See my attached piece I use to ‘lit-drop’ dispensational churches in the region and my reading list.  Those who adhere to the erroneous ‘end times’ doctrine have done such harm to take Christians off the battle field.  Such harm!

And see the Meme, I produced.  The best Reformed Covenantal (we never use the word ‘Replacement’….that was made up by dispensationalists) theologians came from former pro-Israel dispensational backgrounds.  They stopped reading the Scofield margin notes and started reading the Bible.  Some of the best people sounding the warning against Zionists are Karaite Jewish Rabbis.  I appreciate them and think they could be good neighbors.

 BTW, does ‘Schaper’ have any Jewish roots to it?

Here is my first response, and extensive set of remarks to contrast with what he had shared with me:

Hey P-----!

You've made a number of great responses to me regarding this issue.

I want to make it very clear that I recognize that there is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ. I do not suggest that people can be saved apart from believing in his perfect sacrifice of the cross. Amen!

The notion however that God has cut off Jews from his loving power is just not true. He wants them to believe, and he continues to reach out to them just as he reaches out to us. He does have a special covenant with them, as he established not just in Genesis chapter 12, but has been affirmed in other passages as well throughout the old and new testaments.

Consider these passages:

"19And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, 20Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; 21Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. 22As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me." (Jeremiah 33:19-22)

And

"Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." Hosea 1:10

 I did not accept this replacement theology. The fact is that we are blessed with believing Abraham, every person who believes in Jesus Christ. This is available to everyone, including the Jewish people. God has not cut off his covenant with them. However, because they insist on staying under the old covenant, they endure the old covenant curses. That is why, for example, they were dispersed throughout the world in AD 70.

Consider these passages, too:

"Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus."( John 12:11)

 During Jesus earthly ministry, many Jews ended up believing in him! If he had cut them off, they would have never believed in him.

Ask for today, or in our current times, Many Jews don't even believe in God, right now, because of a great blindness due to seeing Moses and not Jesus:

"13And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (2  Corinthians 3, versus 13 through 16)

 Regarding the rebirth of Israel as a nation:

"Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." (Isaiah 66:8)

And

"But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jeremiah 23:8)

And

"Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither." (Jeremiah 31:8)

 I wish to affirm that everything that I've shared with you is from The Bible, specifically the King James version. I have not drawn any inspiration or insight from the so-called Scofield bible. In fact I've never even read that version. I agree that nobody should settle for a version of The Bible that is replete with passages, messages and notes from someone else. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us in the scriptures. We don't need to keep running to Other people to do that for us.

 My starting point is not a nation state. My starting point is Jesus Christ! My starting point is that Jesus will fufill the old covenant, and enacted a new covenant.

My last name is not a Jewish last name. I find it interesting that you're bringing up ethnic backgrounds. That's very strange. Truth has nothing to do with one's ethnic status or ancestry.

My second response:

Believe me, I am well aware of the hostility that rabbis and secular Jews have towards Christianity. That hostility is quite rampant among Muslims and other secular groups as well, so it doesn't make a lot of sense just to target Jews regarding this issue.

As we speak, especially in spite of covid 19, an incredible Christian messianic Jewish ministry has been sharing the gospel with Jews throughout Israel, and more of them are believing in Jesus!

https://www.oneforisrael.org/

I then followed up with this question:

Another question, P---:

Do you believe that christians today are still bound to try to keep the 10 commandments?

Here were the final responses that I wrote to him:

Hey P---:

I am responding now to your points about Under Law vs. Under Grace.

That is two different things.

Being under law (as to justification) where the answer is No; 

AGREED!

 opposed to we are expected to keep them (as to sanctification), where the answer is Yes.

If that is the case, then how do you respond to Paul's own words in these Epistles (these are not comments from Paul Scofield)?

"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." (Romans 7:4)

And

"But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:6)

And also:

13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

The passage about "handwriting of ordinances" is the Law, and it has been rendered inoperative against us because Jesus fulfilled the Law.

I agree that the WORLD needs to the Ten Commandments. We need to post the Ten Commandments in every courthouse. But for us who are believers in Christ, who have received the adoption of children. We are taught by His GRACE!

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:11-14)

Again, Jesus fulfilled the Law. He declared as much in the Sermon on the Mount:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." (Matthew 5:17)

Since He fulfilled the law, why would we try to keep it?

How do you respond to these statements from Paul, after receiving incredible revelation from The Lord?

"Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." (Romans 3:19)

and

"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" (Romans 5:20)

and

"23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:23-25)

Based on the revelation which Paul shares in the Epistle to the Romans, for example, the law is not a standard to live by, but rather a standard which condemns us and shows us our need for a Savior. Do you agree with what Paul writes, or do you read this differently?

Your point about holiness, sanctification is well noted. How do we become holy?

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:" (1 Corinthians 1:30)

and

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Christ is our sanctification, not the Law, as Paul declares to the Corinthian Church. The more that we see Him in the Word, the more that His Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory. AMEN.

I wanted to share these remarks with you, as well, following your statement about Old Covenant v. New Covenant. You have helped me to understand why there is such a harsh opposition to Israel and Jews. If Christians do not enter fully in the Grace of God, but attempt to go with mixture (grace and law), then inevitably they will persecute those who recognize that we no longer keep the law (Christians like me) or Jews, who do not (yet) believe in Jesus.

Thanks for your time, P---.

Take care!