(Re: Some 600 years after Jesus came, Islam came along and decimated two-thirds of the Christian world before Christians decided to fight back physically. If Christians had not fought back, would not Christianity have become almost extinct, and so would not Jesus have come and died in vain?)
No, for note that during the Middle Ages, the Islamic Caliphate allowed Christians and Jews to keep their religion, so long as they simply submitted politically, and paid a tax. The Jews even thrived in Islamic countries during the Middle Ages. It was not until a Church which believed in violence reconquered Spain, for example, that the Jews there began to be slaughtered in the name of religion (in the Spanish Inquisition perpetrated by Christians). Similarly, the ISIS-type Muslims of today believe that it is okay to murder people who do not convert to their religion. And the Crusades were no different than this type of Islamic "jihad" (a so-called "holy war"), which mistakenly thinks that it is okay to wage physical war to defend or expand one's religion, or to "take back" lands which were once under the political control of one's religion. As if that is what religion is supposed to be about (cf. James 1:27).
~
(Re: If you are trying to convince me that ISIS will behave itself if everyone else embraces pacifism, then you are wasting your time)
Note that if ISIS embraced pacifism, it would behave itself.
Also, ISIS is not behaving itself no matter how much warfare is directed against it. It is just metastasizing and spreading across the globe.
So military action is not a lasting solution, but can even make things worse in the long run.
Instead of spending billions of dollars on physical weapons and soldiers to fight ISIS, the world should spend that money on ideological warfare against ISIS (and its ilk), defeating its very ideology of violence in the minds of its Islamic leaders and recruits. For the pen is mightier than the sword.
And the Mother of all Ideological Bombs against ISIS (and its ilk) would be an all-out, worldwide promotion of Islamic Pacifism, supported and maintained by highly-respected Islamic scholars all around the world who are not terrorists.
But the U.S. will never go for any such campaign. For its government is utterly controlled by the Military-Industrial Complex, which makes hundreds of billions of dollars every year off of continual warfare, formerly against Communism, and now against Islamic terrorism. This Complex hates the whole idea of pacifism, but secretly loves ISIS (and its ilk), for the latter continually causes this Complex's bank accounts to be filled to overflowing with endless cash.
Just another proof that:
1 Timothy 6:10 . . . the love of money is the root of all evil . . .
~
(Re: Is not it hypocritical for you to sit here and practice freedom of speech and religion, while condemning the men and violent means by which these freedoms were provided, and kept? You are like someone enjoying a 52" TV which you know is stolen goods)
See "the U.S.'s Founding Fathers rebelled against YHWH" under Revelation 13:5 below...
So in your 52" TV analogy, the U.S. indeed bought stolen goods, when it could have just waited a little bit longer (like Canada and Australia did) for these goods (i.e. liberty) to be given away for free. And now the original owner (Britain) claims that it does not want these goods back, but says to go ahead and keep them.
Instead, now it is the U.S.'s own government (in its Deep State) which wants to restore George III's tyranny, by ignoring the Fourth Amendment, Constitutional right to privacy from unwarranted searches. That is, it wants to be able to spy continually on everyone without a warrant, just like George III wanted to do. The Deep State has even called its ability to spy on everyone its "Crown Jewels".
And now the U.S. government has gone even after the First Amendment's freedom of religion by requiring Christians to support abortions and same-sex marriages. For example, a Christian pharmacy has to sell the morning-after abortion pill, and a Christian calligrapher has to write invitations for a homosexual wedding.
(See section 2 of Numbers 12 above, and section 14 of Romans 1:26 below)
But the government's anti-Christian agenda will hopefully abate for a few years under Trump. Yet it will still eventually return, and possibly reach a crescendo under a future, Democratic President, such as a calm Kamala Harris or a warring Elizabeth Warren, and a Supreme Court which she will have packed with anti-Christian justices, after enough conservative justices have had "heart attacks", like poor Scalia too-conveniently did right before an important case which would have severely limited abortion access. That is, Scalia could have been murdered through a heart-attack-causing drug put in his morning coffee by pro-abortion activists who worked at the resort in west Texas where he died. For these are the same type of people as the women in Ireland who not long ago gathered together in huge numbers and cheered when abortion was legalized in Ireland. They cheered that they could now murder their children in their womb. For murder is in their hearts.
And such people in the U.S. could in the future covertly murder any conservative justices on the Supreme Court who make a stand against them, that is, who could be about to overturn Roe v. Wade, through a future, abortion-case ruling which will send the question back to the states. Trump needs to insist on a full investigation of Scalia's death, and protect conservative justices now with bodyguards and food-and-drink testers at all times, especially when the conservative justices are among strangers, such as while being served by staff at a resort. The excellent, Secret Service must be extended to the Supreme Court, if it is not already. For the Supreme Court is too powerful for its decisions to be left to the vagaries of murderous people.
Also, a future Supreme Court packed with anti-Christian justices by a future, Democratic President and Senate could eventually outlaw even speaking against abortion, or against homosexuality, for that matter, calling it "hate speech", thereby further negating the First Amendment. The way that this could be done would be by employing the principle of the past Supreme Court ruling in Employment Division v. Smith, which even Scalia mistakenly supported, which says that a law can in effect forbid a specific religious activity so long as the law does not specifically target religion, but is a neutral law of general applicability. That is, a future, anti-Christian Supreme Court ruling could claim that it is not targeting Biblical Christianity per se, but is generally forbidding "hate speech" by anyone, regardless of their religion, or lack thereof.
Also, the future forbidding of Biblical Christians from making any speech against homosexuality or abortion could be perpetrated by a future Supreme Court by claiming that any such speech presents a "clear and present danger" (Schenck v. U.S.) to homosexuals and abortion clinics, as such speech could lead to violent attacks against them, such as the mass shooting at the Pulse gay-nightclub in Orlando, or when a man not long ago attacked an abortion clinic in Colorado claiming to be "a warrior for the babies". Of course, from a pacifist's point of view, nothing about Romans 1:26-27, for example, contradicts Matthew 5:39. So simply saying that homosexuality is a sin in no way supports violence. But the connection could still be made by a future, anti-Christian Supreme Court as a means to squelch Biblical Christians' Constitutional rights to free speech and religion (thereby contradicting the Supreme Court's own "content" precedent in, for example, Reed v. Town of Gilbert).
Could then the war-makers among the U.S. populace (that is, as opposed to its pacifists) call for a "New American Revolution", this time a violent overthrowing of the federal government, especially a future, anti-Christian Supreme Court, in order to restore the Constitutional freedoms of religion, speech, and privacy?
Or, the war-makers could just be more patient, and wait a little bit longer (peacefully) for Jesus Christ to return from heaven and rule the world (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6).
For any violent rebellion against the U.S. government will simply be quashed. Compare the pathetic (and sad, i.e. Finicum) end of the Burns, Oregon standoff. For Obama's firing of hundreds of generals, and then the JADE HELM exercises, could all have been precisely to prepare for the day when the U.S.'s own federal military forces will be ordered to wipe out all armed militias throughout the United States. 1878's "posse comitatus" law is still on the books, and it bans any use of the federal military to enforce federal laws. But, ironically, while this law was passed by Democrats (to protect Southern planters), it will be Democrats (whether in Congress or the Supreme Court) who will repeal it in the future, to allow the federal military to enforce "political correctness" nationwide regarding gun ownership (thereby negating yet another Amendment, the Second). For all militias could be labeled "an imminent threat to national security", that is, an imminent threat to a future, anti-Christian federal government, which will want to help to prepare the way for the future Antichrist's (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's beast's) world takeover (Revelation 13:7-18).
But before the future Antichrist (who will not be from the U.S.) takes over the world and makes any armed rebellion against him impossible (Revelation 13:4b,7), and even before the U.S. government has wiped out all armed militias in the U.S., could such militias unite across the country, and all rise up together at the same time, declaring their all-out rebellion against a future federal government, because of its tyranny? And could they try to justify their rebellion in a document, which could have points laid out in a structure and wording similar to the Declaration of Independence, which they could call the:
"New Declaration of Independence
"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the People of a great nation to dissolve the political bands which have being placed upon them by a federal power, and to restore the freedoms which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God have entitled the People, it is reasonable to expect the People to declare the specific causes which have impelled them to violent rebellion.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Freedom and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government, and to provide new guards for their Freedom and Happiness.
"Such has been the patient suffering of the People of these United States, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to overthrow their present federal government. The recent history of this government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the People of these United States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
"The government has refused its assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. For the government has trampled upon even the highest laws of these United States, embodied in our Constitution. For the Fourth Amendment declares the right of the People to be free from all unreasonable searches, and no warrants shall be issued except upon probable cause. Yet the government now, with the help of computers and compliant corporations, continually spies upon all of the People, and without any probable cause. For it tracks everywhere that the People go, through their cell phones, via 'StingRay' devices and compliant cell phone corporations, and through license-plate reading cameras at major intersections and on patrolling police cruisers. And the government tracks every letter, magazine, catalog, or package that the People send or receive through the U.S. Mail, Federal Express, UPS, DHL, or any other courier, through the compliance of these companies. And the government tracks everything that the People buy with a credit or debit card, through compliant bank, credit card, and retail companies. And it tracks the People's Ad Choices and Catalog lists, and even sometimes makes insulting additions to them.
"And the government tracks everything that the People watch on cable TV or the internet, through compliant cable, telecom, ISP, and internet companies and forums. And it tracks everything that the People post on the internet. And it tracks every website and web page that they view. And it tracks every phone call, text message, and email that they send or receive, even recording and saving all of their contents. And it tracks every "like" that they give to anything on the internet. And it tracks everything that they do in public places, by employing facial recognition and "security" cameras in almost every store and restaurant, and while they are walking along public streets. And it has scores of bigger-than-Hubble spy satellites which can zoom in one anyone outside anywhere at anytime, and even make out the expression on someone's face as he is doing something as harmless as watering his backyard.
And the government also listens in on everything that the People say even in their homes, cars, or anywhere else, by remotely and secretly tapping into the microphones on their cell phones, landline phones, computers, televisions, smart speakers, children's web-connected toys, home-security devices, automobile-navigation devices; and through 'gunshot detecting' microphones (ShotSpotters) placed ubiquitously on public streets, which can pick up conversations of people on sidewalks or sitting on their front stoops. By all of these means, the Fourth Amendment right to Privacy for the People has been completely obliterated by the government. (The government thinks that it is protecting 'national security' by these means, but what it has actually done is set everything up for the future Antichrist's total surveillance and subjugation of everyone: Revelation 13:4-18.)
"Also, the government has taken advantage of compliant intelligence and oversight committees in Congress, and a horrible FISA bill which created a secret, rubber-stamp, FISA court, a veritable Star Chamber, without any effective oversight by the People, to take away the People's Fourth Amendment rights under the guise of 'judicial warrants'. The FISA bill also allows for unlimited, unwarranted, 'backdoor' snooping on U.S. citizens through its Section 702 loophole. So the U.S. government (like the Stasi before it) has created and maintains extensive dossiers on 100,000 of its citizens who are completely innocent legally. (The Founders are turning in their graves.) Also, you can be put on a terrorist watch list just for having body odor and long hair. This is the point that we have reached. For the Deep State, also called the Security State, is given so many billions of dollars every year that it must find a way to 'spend its money', or it will get less money next year. And so it goes after people (even with invasive, in-person surveillance) for almost any reason that it can think of.
Also, its dossiers leave so many people open to blackmail, or to the public leaking of information regarding their private matters, by unscrupulous people in the government (even very high up), and by unscrupulous people in government contractors who are given access to these dossiers, and by foreign intelligence agents and their contractors who hack into these dossiers, just as they were able to hack into even the personnel files of all of the U.S. government's own agents with top secret clearances, and just as foreign hackers have been able to penetrate the servers of U.S. corporations with top secret military contracts.
"Also, the government has 'doxxed' innocent U.S. citizens by secretly handing over their names, addresses, and daily and weekly schedules to so-called 'friendly' foreign intelligence agencies who see these citizens as potential threats to their national security. In this way, the government has exposed these U.S. citizens to surveillance and possibly even murder by foreign intelligence agencies operating with the knowledge and consent of the government on U.S. soil. The government allows such a setup as this so that it can maintain a good relationship with these foreign intelligence agencies, so that they will continue to share their valuable human intelligence with the U.S., which is very weak in humint; and also so that the U.S. can, in turn, surveil, and even murder, citizens of foreign 'friendly' nations in their own countries if it deems these foreigners to be dangerously hostile to U.S. national security. Also, the U.S. government temporarily employs 'loaner' and 'trainee' intelligence agents from friendly foreign nations (e.g. Colombia, Mexico, Poland, Taiwan, etc.) to come to the U.S. and surveil U.S. citizens on behalf of the U.S. government. In exchange, these foreign nations are given intelligence on their own citizens which has been collected by, for example, the NSA, which spies globally and continually on everyone's electronic communications.
"Also, sometimes the CIA asks old (even very old), retired CIA agents to surveil U.S. citizens who live and shop near where the retired agents live in the U.S. This is done 'under the table', that is, without any payment or record, since the surveillance cannot be supported by any warrant. It is just 'a favor' done by the retired agents on behalf of their longtime, former employer, from whom they are now receiving a generous pension.
"Also, the government has trampled on the First Amendment, which declares that the government shall institute no law which prohibits the free exercise of religion. For the Christian religion requires that its followers not support any sinful activities (Ephesians 5:11), yet the government has nonetheless created and enforced laws, through the Supreme Court, with no assent from the People in Congress, requiring Christians to support the sins of abortion and same-sex marriage. For example, a Christian pharmacy has to sell the morning-after abortion pill, and a Christian calligrapher has to write invitations for a homosexual wedding.
"Also, the government [will] have trampled on the First Amendment's declaration that the government shall institute no law which abridges the freedom of speech. For the government [will] have created and enforced laws, through the Supreme Court, with no assent from the People in Congress, forbidding any speech which says that homosexuality or abortion is sinful, calling it 'hate speech', even though the Bible shows that homosexuality is sinful (Romans 1:26-27), and that unborn children have consciousness (Luke 1:41).
"Also, the government [will] have trampled on the Second Amendment, which declares that the government shall institute no law which infringes on the right of the People to keep and bear arms. For the government [will] have created and enforced laws, through the Supreme Court, with no assent from the People in Congress, forbidding any civilian to own or use any firearm at any time.
"In every stage of these Oppressions, we the People have petitioned for redress. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A government which is thus marked by every act which may define Tyranny is unfit to rule a free People.
"We, therefore, the People of these United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World, the Almighty God, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of God, and of the People, solemnly publish and declare the Freedom of the People, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the current federal government. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
At some point in our future, could millions of "patriots" in armed militias across the U.S. add their John Hancocks to such a document as this, not realizing that by doing so they will only be making themselves liable to being arrested, tortured, and executed by the federal government?
Better to leave politics alone, and be arrested, tortured, and executed not for being violent, or for promoting violence, but rather for being a pacifist, and for promoting the peace, love, and faith of Jesus Christ and His Biblical Gospel (Matthew 24:9, Mark 8:34-38).
Maranatha, Come, Lord Jesus Christ, and rule upon this earth (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Revelation 22:17a,20).
[1 Peter 1:24-25; 1 John 2:17]
--
*Matthew 5:43b / *Mt. 5:43b -
Under the Old Covenant Mosaic law, the Israelites were in effect commanded to hate their enemies (Matthew 5:43b). For Deuteronomy 23:6 is the opposite of love, which seeks the peace and prosperity of those toward whom it is directed.
--
*Matthew 5:44-48 / *Mt. 5:44 -
This does not mean that God loves all of His enemies, for He hates His nonelect enemies (Romans 9:11-13).
Also, it is not hypocritical for God to tell us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) while He hates His nonelect enemies (Romans 9:11-13). For just as God as the Creator has the right to create some people to be nonelect vessels of His wrath (Romans 9:20-22) and other people to be elect vessels of His mercy (Romans 9:23), so God as the Creator has the right to hate nonelect people and love elect people (Romans 9:11-13). But as mere creatures, Christians have no right to hate anyone, especially in light of God's love for Christians even while they were yet His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).
Also, God does not necessarily hate our enemies. For our enemies could be His beloved elect (Romans 11:28). Even the elect start out as God's enemies (Colossians 1:21).
~
(Re: Does not *perfection mean to *love everyone?)
God's perfection is different than human perfection, insofar as God's perfection (1 John 1:5, Deuteronomy 32:4) includes not only His love for His elect enemies (Romans 5:10), but also His hatred for His nonelect enemies (Romans 9:11-13). For His hatred for nonelect people, and His future, eternal punishment of them (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Mark 9:46) will forever show that aspect of His perfection called His righteous judgment and wrath against evil (Romans 2:5, Revelation 14:10-11, Romans 9:22).
~
(Re: Why are Christians asked to love everyone?)
Christians are asked to love everyone (Matthew 5:44) so that Christians can model to everyone the love which God has shown Christians (John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:10-11, Ephesians 4:32 to 5:2), and so that Christians can avoid the sin of human hatred, which is spiritually equivalent to murder (1 John 3:15).
~
(Re: So not because love is objectively and eternally good?)
Love is objectively and eternally good because God is love (1 John 4:8), and God is objectively and eternally good (1 John 1:5, Deuteronomy 32:4). Without God, nothing requires that love is objectively and eternally good. For example, an atheist could say that what humans call "love", as in doing good to other humans and not doing them harm, is merely something which arose by chance mutations in the DNA for human brain development. And this atheist could say that these mutations were retained by natural selection not because they had some innate moral "goodness", but simply because they helped humans to cooperate with each other more, and so produce material provisions for themselves more successfully, thereby causing humans to survive and reproduce more successfully, survival and reproduction being the only "good" in natural selection. And this atheist could say that this love "mutation" in the human brain is no longer a good thing. For it is now putting millions of other species, not to mention humans themselves, in peril of extinction due to human overpopulation of the planet.
--
*Matthew 5:48 / *Mt. 5:48 -
(*Perfection)
Regarding Matthew 5:48, it is possible for Christians to be perfect (2 Timothy 3:17; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Corinthians 13:11, Luke 6:40, John 17:23; 1 Corinthians 2:6, Philippians 3:15, Colossians 4:12, James 1:4).
(See also 1 John 5:3 below)
--
*Matthew 6:15 / *Mt. 6:15 -
(*Forgive)
If we do not forgive other people, then God will not forgive us for our own sins (Matthew 6:15).
(See also paragraphs 6-7 of the "NOSAS" section of Hebrews 3:6 below)
--
*Matthew 6:23 / *Mt. 6:23 -
(If thine eye be evil)
See Matthew 20:15 below.
--
*Matthew 6:24b / *Mt. 6:24b -
Here the specific statement: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" does not mean that the general statement: "No man can serve two masters" applies only to God and mammon. For it is possible for people to serve other masters besides mammon (wealth), such as Lucifer ("the god of this world": 2 Corinthians 4:4), or food ("whose God is their belly": Philippians 3:19), or sex (Romans 6:19), or alcohol (Ephesians 5:18), or drugs, or entertainment, or sleep, or fame, or power, etc.
Matthew 6:24b specifically says only: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon", that is, wealth stored up on the earth out of fear (Matthew 6:31) or greed (Luke 12:15), because that is the only thing that the context is specifically talking about: laying up "treasures" on earth (Matthew 6:19), such as, out of fear or greed, storing up grain in barns (Matthew 6:26); or clothes in closets, where moths end up eating them (Matthew 6:20); or jewelry, gold, or silver in houses, where thieves end up breaking in and stealing them (Matthew 6:20).
Such mammon, such wealth stored up on the earth out of fear or greed, existed long before money was even invented, and it still exists today in myriad forms besides money, such as in huge land holdings, and in the ownership of rental homes and office and apartment buildings, large mansions, fleets of Rolls Royces, private jets, huge yachts; private vaults filled with gold bars, diamond jewelry, fur coats, and Picasso paintings; private cellars filled with quality aged wines; etc.
Also, all of these forms of wealth stored up on the earth out of fear or greed can be bequeathed/inherited, gifted, or bartered without having to involve money. So money itself is not the problem. It never has been. For money has always been able to be employed virtuously (Proverbs 31:10,16,24, Luke 22:36, Matthew 19:21, Matthew 13:44), just as emergency survival supplies for people can be stored up virtuously (Genesis 41:48,36, Genesis 45:7).
~
(Re: So do you hate God, or mammon?)
That question would apply only to people for whom mammon is one of their "masters" (Matthew 6:24), not to all people. For people can buy and sell virtuously (Proverbs 31:10,16,24, Luke 22:36, Matthew 19:21, Matthew 13:44).
-
Next entry / Prior / Table of Contents
Nov 28, 2018
No, for note that during the Middle Ages, the Islamic Caliphate allowed Christians and Jews to keep their religion, so long as they simply submitted politically, and paid a tax. The Jews even thrived in Islamic countries during the Middle Ages. It was not until a Church which believed in violence reconquered Spain, for example, that the Jews there began to be slaughtered in the name of religion (in the Spanish Inquisition perpetrated by Christians). Similarly, the ISIS-type Muslims of today believe that it is okay to murder people who do not convert to their religion. And the Crusades were no different than this type of Islamic "jihad" (a so-called "holy war"), which mistakenly thinks that it is okay to wage physical war to defend or expand one's religion, or to "take back" lands which were once under the political control of one's religion. As if that is what religion is supposed to be about (cf. James 1:27).
~
(Re: If you are trying to convince me that ISIS will behave itself if everyone else embraces pacifism, then you are wasting your time)
Note that if ISIS embraced pacifism, it would behave itself.
Also, ISIS is not behaving itself no matter how much warfare is directed against it. It is just metastasizing and spreading across the globe.
So military action is not a lasting solution, but can even make things worse in the long run.
Instead of spending billions of dollars on physical weapons and soldiers to fight ISIS, the world should spend that money on ideological warfare against ISIS (and its ilk), defeating its very ideology of violence in the minds of its Islamic leaders and recruits. For the pen is mightier than the sword.
And the Mother of all Ideological Bombs against ISIS (and its ilk) would be an all-out, worldwide promotion of Islamic Pacifism, supported and maintained by highly-respected Islamic scholars all around the world who are not terrorists.
But the U.S. will never go for any such campaign. For its government is utterly controlled by the Military-Industrial Complex, which makes hundreds of billions of dollars every year off of continual warfare, formerly against Communism, and now against Islamic terrorism. This Complex hates the whole idea of pacifism, but secretly loves ISIS (and its ilk), for the latter continually causes this Complex's bank accounts to be filled to overflowing with endless cash.
Just another proof that:
1 Timothy 6:10 . . . the love of money is the root of all evil . . .
~
(Re: Is not it hypocritical for you to sit here and practice freedom of speech and religion, while condemning the men and violent means by which these freedoms were provided, and kept? You are like someone enjoying a 52" TV which you know is stolen goods)
See "the U.S.'s Founding Fathers rebelled against YHWH" under Revelation 13:5 below...
So in your 52" TV analogy, the U.S. indeed bought stolen goods, when it could have just waited a little bit longer (like Canada and Australia did) for these goods (i.e. liberty) to be given away for free. And now the original owner (Britain) claims that it does not want these goods back, but says to go ahead and keep them.
Instead, now it is the U.S.'s own government (in its Deep State) which wants to restore George III's tyranny, by ignoring the Fourth Amendment, Constitutional right to privacy from unwarranted searches. That is, it wants to be able to spy continually on everyone without a warrant, just like George III wanted to do. The Deep State has even called its ability to spy on everyone its "Crown Jewels".
And now the U.S. government has gone even after the First Amendment's freedom of religion by requiring Christians to support abortions and same-sex marriages. For example, a Christian pharmacy has to sell the morning-after abortion pill, and a Christian calligrapher has to write invitations for a homosexual wedding.
(See section 2 of Numbers 12 above, and section 14 of Romans 1:26 below)
But the government's anti-Christian agenda will hopefully abate for a few years under Trump. Yet it will still eventually return, and possibly reach a crescendo under a future, Democratic President, such as a calm Kamala Harris or a warring Elizabeth Warren, and a Supreme Court which she will have packed with anti-Christian justices, after enough conservative justices have had "heart attacks", like poor Scalia too-conveniently did right before an important case which would have severely limited abortion access. That is, Scalia could have been murdered through a heart-attack-causing drug put in his morning coffee by pro-abortion activists who worked at the resort in west Texas where he died. For these are the same type of people as the women in Ireland who not long ago gathered together in huge numbers and cheered when abortion was legalized in Ireland. They cheered that they could now murder their children in their womb. For murder is in their hearts.
And such people in the U.S. could in the future covertly murder any conservative justices on the Supreme Court who make a stand against them, that is, who could be about to overturn Roe v. Wade, through a future, abortion-case ruling which will send the question back to the states. Trump needs to insist on a full investigation of Scalia's death, and protect conservative justices now with bodyguards and food-and-drink testers at all times, especially when the conservative justices are among strangers, such as while being served by staff at a resort. The excellent, Secret Service must be extended to the Supreme Court, if it is not already. For the Supreme Court is too powerful for its decisions to be left to the vagaries of murderous people.
Also, a future Supreme Court packed with anti-Christian justices by a future, Democratic President and Senate could eventually outlaw even speaking against abortion, or against homosexuality, for that matter, calling it "hate speech", thereby further negating the First Amendment. The way that this could be done would be by employing the principle of the past Supreme Court ruling in Employment Division v. Smith, which even Scalia mistakenly supported, which says that a law can in effect forbid a specific religious activity so long as the law does not specifically target religion, but is a neutral law of general applicability. That is, a future, anti-Christian Supreme Court ruling could claim that it is not targeting Biblical Christianity per se, but is generally forbidding "hate speech" by anyone, regardless of their religion, or lack thereof.
Also, the future forbidding of Biblical Christians from making any speech against homosexuality or abortion could be perpetrated by a future Supreme Court by claiming that any such speech presents a "clear and present danger" (Schenck v. U.S.) to homosexuals and abortion clinics, as such speech could lead to violent attacks against them, such as the mass shooting at the Pulse gay-nightclub in Orlando, or when a man not long ago attacked an abortion clinic in Colorado claiming to be "a warrior for the babies". Of course, from a pacifist's point of view, nothing about Romans 1:26-27, for example, contradicts Matthew 5:39. So simply saying that homosexuality is a sin in no way supports violence. But the connection could still be made by a future, anti-Christian Supreme Court as a means to squelch Biblical Christians' Constitutional rights to free speech and religion (thereby contradicting the Supreme Court's own "content" precedent in, for example, Reed v. Town of Gilbert).
Could then the war-makers among the U.S. populace (that is, as opposed to its pacifists) call for a "New American Revolution", this time a violent overthrowing of the federal government, especially a future, anti-Christian Supreme Court, in order to restore the Constitutional freedoms of religion, speech, and privacy?
Or, the war-makers could just be more patient, and wait a little bit longer (peacefully) for Jesus Christ to return from heaven and rule the world (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6).
For any violent rebellion against the U.S. government will simply be quashed. Compare the pathetic (and sad, i.e. Finicum) end of the Burns, Oregon standoff. For Obama's firing of hundreds of generals, and then the JADE HELM exercises, could all have been precisely to prepare for the day when the U.S.'s own federal military forces will be ordered to wipe out all armed militias throughout the United States. 1878's "posse comitatus" law is still on the books, and it bans any use of the federal military to enforce federal laws. But, ironically, while this law was passed by Democrats (to protect Southern planters), it will be Democrats (whether in Congress or the Supreme Court) who will repeal it in the future, to allow the federal military to enforce "political correctness" nationwide regarding gun ownership (thereby negating yet another Amendment, the Second). For all militias could be labeled "an imminent threat to national security", that is, an imminent threat to a future, anti-Christian federal government, which will want to help to prepare the way for the future Antichrist's (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's beast's) world takeover (Revelation 13:7-18).
But before the future Antichrist (who will not be from the U.S.) takes over the world and makes any armed rebellion against him impossible (Revelation 13:4b,7), and even before the U.S. government has wiped out all armed militias in the U.S., could such militias unite across the country, and all rise up together at the same time, declaring their all-out rebellion against a future federal government, because of its tyranny? And could they try to justify their rebellion in a document, which could have points laid out in a structure and wording similar to the Declaration of Independence, which they could call the:
"New Declaration of Independence
"When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the People of a great nation to dissolve the political bands which have being placed upon them by a federal power, and to restore the freedoms which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God have entitled the People, it is reasonable to expect the People to declare the specific causes which have impelled them to violent rebellion.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Freedom and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown that mankind is more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a Government, and to provide new guards for their Freedom and Happiness.
"Such has been the patient suffering of the People of these United States, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to overthrow their present federal government. The recent history of this government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over the People of these United States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
"The government has refused its assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. For the government has trampled upon even the highest laws of these United States, embodied in our Constitution. For the Fourth Amendment declares the right of the People to be free from all unreasonable searches, and no warrants shall be issued except upon probable cause. Yet the government now, with the help of computers and compliant corporations, continually spies upon all of the People, and without any probable cause. For it tracks everywhere that the People go, through their cell phones, via 'StingRay' devices and compliant cell phone corporations, and through license-plate reading cameras at major intersections and on patrolling police cruisers. And the government tracks every letter, magazine, catalog, or package that the People send or receive through the U.S. Mail, Federal Express, UPS, DHL, or any other courier, through the compliance of these companies. And the government tracks everything that the People buy with a credit or debit card, through compliant bank, credit card, and retail companies. And it tracks the People's Ad Choices and Catalog lists, and even sometimes makes insulting additions to them.
"And the government tracks everything that the People watch on cable TV or the internet, through compliant cable, telecom, ISP, and internet companies and forums. And it tracks everything that the People post on the internet. And it tracks every website and web page that they view. And it tracks every phone call, text message, and email that they send or receive, even recording and saving all of their contents. And it tracks every "like" that they give to anything on the internet. And it tracks everything that they do in public places, by employing facial recognition and "security" cameras in almost every store and restaurant, and while they are walking along public streets. And it has scores of bigger-than-Hubble spy satellites which can zoom in one anyone outside anywhere at anytime, and even make out the expression on someone's face as he is doing something as harmless as watering his backyard.
And the government also listens in on everything that the People say even in their homes, cars, or anywhere else, by remotely and secretly tapping into the microphones on their cell phones, landline phones, computers, televisions, smart speakers, children's web-connected toys, home-security devices, automobile-navigation devices; and through 'gunshot detecting' microphones (ShotSpotters) placed ubiquitously on public streets, which can pick up conversations of people on sidewalks or sitting on their front stoops. By all of these means, the Fourth Amendment right to Privacy for the People has been completely obliterated by the government. (The government thinks that it is protecting 'national security' by these means, but what it has actually done is set everything up for the future Antichrist's total surveillance and subjugation of everyone: Revelation 13:4-18.)
"Also, the government has taken advantage of compliant intelligence and oversight committees in Congress, and a horrible FISA bill which created a secret, rubber-stamp, FISA court, a veritable Star Chamber, without any effective oversight by the People, to take away the People's Fourth Amendment rights under the guise of 'judicial warrants'. The FISA bill also allows for unlimited, unwarranted, 'backdoor' snooping on U.S. citizens through its Section 702 loophole. So the U.S. government (like the Stasi before it) has created and maintains extensive dossiers on 100,000 of its citizens who are completely innocent legally. (The Founders are turning in their graves.) Also, you can be put on a terrorist watch list just for having body odor and long hair. This is the point that we have reached. For the Deep State, also called the Security State, is given so many billions of dollars every year that it must find a way to 'spend its money', or it will get less money next year. And so it goes after people (even with invasive, in-person surveillance) for almost any reason that it can think of.
Also, its dossiers leave so many people open to blackmail, or to the public leaking of information regarding their private matters, by unscrupulous people in the government (even very high up), and by unscrupulous people in government contractors who are given access to these dossiers, and by foreign intelligence agents and their contractors who hack into these dossiers, just as they were able to hack into even the personnel files of all of the U.S. government's own agents with top secret clearances, and just as foreign hackers have been able to penetrate the servers of U.S. corporations with top secret military contracts.
"Also, the government has 'doxxed' innocent U.S. citizens by secretly handing over their names, addresses, and daily and weekly schedules to so-called 'friendly' foreign intelligence agencies who see these citizens as potential threats to their national security. In this way, the government has exposed these U.S. citizens to surveillance and possibly even murder by foreign intelligence agencies operating with the knowledge and consent of the government on U.S. soil. The government allows such a setup as this so that it can maintain a good relationship with these foreign intelligence agencies, so that they will continue to share their valuable human intelligence with the U.S., which is very weak in humint; and also so that the U.S. can, in turn, surveil, and even murder, citizens of foreign 'friendly' nations in their own countries if it deems these foreigners to be dangerously hostile to U.S. national security. Also, the U.S. government temporarily employs 'loaner' and 'trainee' intelligence agents from friendly foreign nations (e.g. Colombia, Mexico, Poland, Taiwan, etc.) to come to the U.S. and surveil U.S. citizens on behalf of the U.S. government. In exchange, these foreign nations are given intelligence on their own citizens which has been collected by, for example, the NSA, which spies globally and continually on everyone's electronic communications.
"Also, sometimes the CIA asks old (even very old), retired CIA agents to surveil U.S. citizens who live and shop near where the retired agents live in the U.S. This is done 'under the table', that is, without any payment or record, since the surveillance cannot be supported by any warrant. It is just 'a favor' done by the retired agents on behalf of their longtime, former employer, from whom they are now receiving a generous pension.
"Also, the government has trampled on the First Amendment, which declares that the government shall institute no law which prohibits the free exercise of religion. For the Christian religion requires that its followers not support any sinful activities (Ephesians 5:11), yet the government has nonetheless created and enforced laws, through the Supreme Court, with no assent from the People in Congress, requiring Christians to support the sins of abortion and same-sex marriage. For example, a Christian pharmacy has to sell the morning-after abortion pill, and a Christian calligrapher has to write invitations for a homosexual wedding.
"Also, the government [will] have trampled on the First Amendment's declaration that the government shall institute no law which abridges the freedom of speech. For the government [will] have created and enforced laws, through the Supreme Court, with no assent from the People in Congress, forbidding any speech which says that homosexuality or abortion is sinful, calling it 'hate speech', even though the Bible shows that homosexuality is sinful (Romans 1:26-27), and that unborn children have consciousness (Luke 1:41).
"Also, the government [will] have trampled on the Second Amendment, which declares that the government shall institute no law which infringes on the right of the People to keep and bear arms. For the government [will] have created and enforced laws, through the Supreme Court, with no assent from the People in Congress, forbidding any civilian to own or use any firearm at any time.
"In every stage of these Oppressions, we the People have petitioned for redress. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A government which is thus marked by every act which may define Tyranny is unfit to rule a free People.
"We, therefore, the People of these United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World, the Almighty God, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of God, and of the People, solemnly publish and declare the Freedom of the People, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the current federal government. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."
At some point in our future, could millions of "patriots" in armed militias across the U.S. add their John Hancocks to such a document as this, not realizing that by doing so they will only be making themselves liable to being arrested, tortured, and executed by the federal government?
Better to leave politics alone, and be arrested, tortured, and executed not for being violent, or for promoting violence, but rather for being a pacifist, and for promoting the peace, love, and faith of Jesus Christ and His Biblical Gospel (Matthew 24:9, Mark 8:34-38).
Maranatha, Come, Lord Jesus Christ, and rule upon this earth (Revelation 19:7 to 20:6, Revelation 22:17a,20).
[1 Peter 1:24-25; 1 John 2:17]
--
*Matthew 5:43b / *Mt. 5:43b -
Under the Old Covenant Mosaic law, the Israelites were in effect commanded to hate their enemies (Matthew 5:43b). For Deuteronomy 23:6 is the opposite of love, which seeks the peace and prosperity of those toward whom it is directed.
--
*Matthew 5:44-48 / *Mt. 5:44 -
This does not mean that God loves all of His enemies, for He hates His nonelect enemies (Romans 9:11-13).
Also, it is not hypocritical for God to tell us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44) while He hates His nonelect enemies (Romans 9:11-13). For just as God as the Creator has the right to create some people to be nonelect vessels of His wrath (Romans 9:20-22) and other people to be elect vessels of His mercy (Romans 9:23), so God as the Creator has the right to hate nonelect people and love elect people (Romans 9:11-13). But as mere creatures, Christians have no right to hate anyone, especially in light of God's love for Christians even while they were yet His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).
Also, God does not necessarily hate our enemies. For our enemies could be His beloved elect (Romans 11:28). Even the elect start out as God's enemies (Colossians 1:21).
~
(Re: Does not *perfection mean to *love everyone?)
God's perfection is different than human perfection, insofar as God's perfection (1 John 1:5, Deuteronomy 32:4) includes not only His love for His elect enemies (Romans 5:10), but also His hatred for His nonelect enemies (Romans 9:11-13). For His hatred for nonelect people, and His future, eternal punishment of them (Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Mark 9:46) will forever show that aspect of His perfection called His righteous judgment and wrath against evil (Romans 2:5, Revelation 14:10-11, Romans 9:22).
~
(Re: Why are Christians asked to love everyone?)
Christians are asked to love everyone (Matthew 5:44) so that Christians can model to everyone the love which God has shown Christians (John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:10-11, Ephesians 4:32 to 5:2), and so that Christians can avoid the sin of human hatred, which is spiritually equivalent to murder (1 John 3:15).
~
(Re: So not because love is objectively and eternally good?)
Love is objectively and eternally good because God is love (1 John 4:8), and God is objectively and eternally good (1 John 1:5, Deuteronomy 32:4). Without God, nothing requires that love is objectively and eternally good. For example, an atheist could say that what humans call "love", as in doing good to other humans and not doing them harm, is merely something which arose by chance mutations in the DNA for human brain development. And this atheist could say that these mutations were retained by natural selection not because they had some innate moral "goodness", but simply because they helped humans to cooperate with each other more, and so produce material provisions for themselves more successfully, thereby causing humans to survive and reproduce more successfully, survival and reproduction being the only "good" in natural selection. And this atheist could say that this love "mutation" in the human brain is no longer a good thing. For it is now putting millions of other species, not to mention humans themselves, in peril of extinction due to human overpopulation of the planet.
--
*Matthew 5:48 / *Mt. 5:48 -
(*Perfection)
Regarding Matthew 5:48, it is possible for Christians to be perfect (2 Timothy 3:17; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Corinthians 13:11, Luke 6:40, John 17:23; 1 Corinthians 2:6, Philippians 3:15, Colossians 4:12, James 1:4).
(See also 1 John 5:3 below)
--
*Matthew 6:15 / *Mt. 6:15 -
(*Forgive)
If we do not forgive other people, then God will not forgive us for our own sins (Matthew 6:15).
(See also paragraphs 6-7 of the "NOSAS" section of Hebrews 3:6 below)
--
*Matthew 6:23 / *Mt. 6:23 -
(If thine eye be evil)
See Matthew 20:15 below.
--
*Matthew 6:24b / *Mt. 6:24b -
Here the specific statement: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" does not mean that the general statement: "No man can serve two masters" applies only to God and mammon. For it is possible for people to serve other masters besides mammon (wealth), such as Lucifer ("the god of this world": 2 Corinthians 4:4), or food ("whose God is their belly": Philippians 3:19), or sex (Romans 6:19), or alcohol (Ephesians 5:18), or drugs, or entertainment, or sleep, or fame, or power, etc.
Matthew 6:24b specifically says only: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon", that is, wealth stored up on the earth out of fear (Matthew 6:31) or greed (Luke 12:15), because that is the only thing that the context is specifically talking about: laying up "treasures" on earth (Matthew 6:19), such as, out of fear or greed, storing up grain in barns (Matthew 6:26); or clothes in closets, where moths end up eating them (Matthew 6:20); or jewelry, gold, or silver in houses, where thieves end up breaking in and stealing them (Matthew 6:20).
Such mammon, such wealth stored up on the earth out of fear or greed, existed long before money was even invented, and it still exists today in myriad forms besides money, such as in huge land holdings, and in the ownership of rental homes and office and apartment buildings, large mansions, fleets of Rolls Royces, private jets, huge yachts; private vaults filled with gold bars, diamond jewelry, fur coats, and Picasso paintings; private cellars filled with quality aged wines; etc.
Also, all of these forms of wealth stored up on the earth out of fear or greed can be bequeathed/inherited, gifted, or bartered without having to involve money. So money itself is not the problem. It never has been. For money has always been able to be employed virtuously (Proverbs 31:10,16,24, Luke 22:36, Matthew 19:21, Matthew 13:44), just as emergency survival supplies for people can be stored up virtuously (Genesis 41:48,36, Genesis 45:7).
~
(Re: So do you hate God, or mammon?)
That question would apply only to people for whom mammon is one of their "masters" (Matthew 6:24), not to all people. For people can buy and sell virtuously (Proverbs 31:10,16,24, Luke 22:36, Matthew 19:21, Matthew 13:44).
-
Next entry / Prior / Table of Contents
Nov 28, 2018
