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CRITICAL THINKING VS. LIVING IN FEAR
Critical thinking and the questioning of authority allows for accountability and exposes corruption. The only force that blocks these two vital components of freedom is fear.
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FAITH VS. FEAR
This is why the event that began 27 months ago was so successful: They began by scaring the hell out of everybody. Or tried to. It worked against most, apparently. At least in the beginning. Anyone who was already predisposed to being affected by anxiety and influenced by fear tactics bought into the false narrative and sans exiting are now controlled by it. They remain incapacitated due to their fear.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. [Hebrews 2:14-15]
One may notice, then, a direct correlation between fearful people and their blind obedience to authority. Because they bought into a false paradigm which they believe is true, they continue to obey the dictates of the paradigm. They continue to honor their investment. They remain controlled by their leaders.
[One simple way to test this is by introducing the concept of choice. Shouldn’t people be allowed to choose? If a person is sane, thinking correctly, not controlled, supportive of personal rights, and believes in freedom, he will answer in the affirmative. Otherwise he will not. When someone is brainwashed (or indoctrinated) one perceives the freedom to choose as limited or eliminated altogether according to the parameters taught by their chosen authority figures. Such people merely parrot the narratives and allowed allowances of their higher-ups.]
They believe whoever is in authority is legitimate. They see them as forever honorable. They apparently believe (against all odds, of course), that whoever is in authority is upstanding, trustworthy, and above reproach. Because they believe this absurdly false idea they never question authority. They have no need to; in their view authority is always right. It is also why such people likely have no critical thinking ability. What little they may have is applied incorrectly.
Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.[1]
PERCEIVING THE BEAST
Thank goodness the greatest American generation of the mid-to-late 1700s didn’t have a living-by-fear attitude. If they did there never would have been an original USA. There never would have existed a nation with constitutionally protected freedom and legal liberty, set forth in an ethical context to create a habitation for morality, for free thinking, as a powerful bulwark against tyranny, and where Christians can exercise their beliefs without constraint, a place that had never before existed. Of course, it is the Lord who grants freedom and liberty to each, not governments. The Constitution simply supports God-given rights legally.
It should go without saying, however, that the forces of evil will not be stopped by the mere invocation of rights. They will always test. They will always bring a fight against God-given rights. Such tests must be answered. Such battles must be joined. The enemy must be made to know that people will stand and fight, will never give in, and will expose his chicanery. Otherwise he will do all he can to chip away at freedom. This is why people must be aware of the enemy. They must know there is an enemy. They must know this enemy is also the enemy of the Lord. They must know this enemy stealthily rises to positions of authority and uses such positions to gain advantage. They must know the enemy cloaks himself in false righteousness through both his outward deceptive costuming and faux manner in the effort to affect a benign exterior. And they must know that behind this seemingly friendly false façade lies a snarling sneering vicious beast wanting to tear a person to bloody shreds.
The greatest American generation knew this. They had seen the enemy. They recognized the beast. They saw him clearly. They realized who he was and what he was after, and that he must be defeated at all costs. This is why they never held back in questioning their governmental authority (the English Crown, Parliament, and financial backers thereof) when they knew their authority was corrupt because they had personal experience of said corruption used against them: They were cheated. They were defrauded. They were used. They were lied to. They were treated like chattel.
And they said this wouldn’t do. They knew if they didn’t fight against the enemy of their liberty to live as free people while they had the chance, the opportunity would pass and all that could have been would be lost. Because they had never given in to fear they saw the enemy and knew they were the only responsible party remaining to defeat him. And defeat him they must.
In early 2020 very few people in America had this exceptional attitude. Most were quickly scared so significantly and became so fearful they quickly laid down, surrendered, and did whatever they were told regardless of what it cost them. There were millions of others who did fight, or tried to. But because the apparent majority had agreed with the enemy, it turned against them and never came to help. Many of these Americans lost everything. It was and remains a sad state of affairs in a supposedly free country and is a great wrong that has yet to be made right. The home of the brave had become the haunt of cowards.
Maybe most of the squeamish majority had no critical thinking skills to begin with. Maybe most never questioned authority figures in their entire life. But there were likely quite a few that did who were scared into compliance anyway. It is hard to take a stand when everyone around you is putting their hands up and surrendering to the enemy. The social peer pressure of that time was off the scale. There was intense pressure to conform. It remains amazing that a likely majority never did the slightest bit of research into that which was turning the entire country sideways and setting a course to not only transform it significantly but destroy it.
CHRISTIAN CORRUPTION
All that said, it was only one more episode of the usual in that area. It was not at all different except to a much greater degree. The bigger issue is how what began twenty seven months ago exposed the corruption in organized official Christianity. The full story on this has yet to be revealed but we know enough to know much of American Christianity was in bed with non-Christian authority and that it chose to go along with the program and did. Those at the top would benefit from the crisis just as it was in the secular world. Some of these Christian leaders received great amounts of special funding (bribes). This large subsection of Christianity was also scared into compliance. The Christian leaders thereof who obeyed their hierarchical masters quickly told their congregations what to do regarding the same and they all followed suit. As usual. It was a wicked combination of mammon sellouts and the blind leading the blind. It should be obvious that these American Christian leaders, a probable majority, and their millions of followers, were not serving the Lord Jesus.
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” [Luke 16:13]
“Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” [Matthew 15:14]
THE GREAT AWAKENING
Though Americans must constantly be reminded but shouldn’t have to be, our country was founded on a Great Righteous Revolution against corrupt authority, and those who won the Revolutionary War never gave in to the fear which would have disarmed them and removed their fight. And though the fear did work on two-thirds of the Colonists who never fought for freedom, it never worked on the third that did.
There is presently a rising “third” of Americans who have Awakened to the Truth.
I must also remind all American Christians that the Lord Jesus, our great Founder, also never gave in to fear of corrupt authority and He always knew exactly how greatly He would have to suffer at its hands.
During the last twenty seven months a massive amount of previously hidden information has come out and more is coming out every day which proves the deception. But those who gave in to fear still cannot see it, will never consider it, and will fight hard against those revealing it. Why didn’t they fight so strongly on the right side in the beginning?
It is because, by their own choice, they have no critical thinking skills. It is because they always believe, support, and never question authority. It is because they are greatly affected by social peer pressure. They cannot afford to take a stand and alienate others. They must defend and honor their social reputations. They know they could never make it on their own apart from their family, social, and business connections. It is because they do not believe or understand that they are individuals who are actually supposed to be in authority in a free country but have surrendered their authority to others unworthy of it.
It is the same with Christians who surrender all their God-granted authority as Christians to a false Christian authority that is not even supposed to exist. This was and is also done through fear. Powerful religious authority figures scare Christians into giving up their individual authority. Such fearful ones can then be very easily controlled, manipulated, and used to feather the nests of their betters and build their mini-kingdoms.
Real Christians, on the other hand, know they have been granted freedom and authority by the Lord Jesus and are to use both for His purposes. One cannot be an actual Christian and obey the Lord’s teachings otherwise. We are each responsible for our own soul and where we will spend eternity. One will not be able to blame those who were in authority that led them astray. Those who chose wrongly to serve mammon and follow blind guides will have no defense. Those who squandered and surrendered their spiritual freedom and authority to others will not fare well at the Judgment.
At the Judgment we will each have to answer directly to the Lord Jesus. There will likely be no one else in the room save maybe angels. The Lord will have to tell each person who doesn’t make it exactly why. He will explain their error. He will reveal their sin. It will be a perfect judgment for each person.
And He may remind those who lost their souls of the following passage:
But for the cowardly (fearful KJV) and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [Revelation 21:8][2]
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
[2] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (2)
For the most part humanity goes through life with blinders on. Life being what it is, the vast majority are always in the process of oblivious survival and reality denial.
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FACING REALITY
Indeed, survival has been the main preoccupation of the great mass of humanity throughout history. Life in this world is difficult in general but the gradients thereof can rank from just this side of impossible on a daily basis to being stalwart enough to keep two or three plates spinning at once for long enough stretches. The relentless attention to staying alive, however, must at some point be supplemented (to do it justice) by achieving relatively good health with minimal food and shelter for greater advancement to be possible. Yet, striving further, the struggle is then not only about the attempt at gaining the hard-won fruit of difficult toil, but also overcoming the incessant forces forever trying to keep one from getting to better places, and once getting there staying there.
As great feats of architecture must be engineered to overcome all manner of often unacknowledged natural stresses and forces arriving through moving winds, rushing water, and quaking earth, so must human beings learn to cope with forces and stresses which seem intent on fighting every step one makes toward a better life. Survival portends overcoming these relentless attacks and establishing small beachheads from which one can expand outward and upward. One’s first camp in life, with the rudimentary basics, in most often the hardest. From there it gets more doable but only because one has established a rough home of sorts to resort to when the going gets so tough it demands a break to rest and recharge. Without such an established starting point protected from the elements one can never sustain a drive toward breaking out of mere survival and remains forever at the mercy of those opposing forces intent on keeping one from rising up over them.
For the relative few who do manage to escape ceaseless survival mode, their new found freedom, diminutive as it may be, is immediately used for hopeful progress and they become preoccupied with improving their basic station in life. If actually succeeding against most odds at their lofty goal of bettering living beyond staying alive, the next pursuit is even loftier in that the attempt to excel enters the realm of possibility. There are some who do excel though the definition of such is fluid and depends on perception. At each hardy, difficult step of going-against-the-grain accomplishment and overcoming, one establishes a solid foundation from which to build the next advance. As long as said foundation remains strong and secure and one proceeds with correctly engineered plans and construction, one can keep building with confidence.
“Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.” [Luke 6:47-48]
The foundation part of one’s overall edifice is the decidedly tricky part. If not careful in building and securing one’s spiritual foundation the right way to the proper level of bearing strength, one finds out the hard way that one’s architectural life was actually a big game of Jenga just waiting to return to a disassembled natural state.
This unfortunate and all too common outcome experienced by a probable majority was inevitable once one’s faux foundation and the edifice upon it failed to hold at bay the straining-at-the-leash evil howling dogs of omnipresent stresses and forces determined to discover overlooked architectural error and slipshod work exceeding the parameters of allowable sound building practices which fatally compromised construction integrity.
“But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.” [Luke 6:49][1]
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued]
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (1)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (3)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (4)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (5)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (6)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (7)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (8)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (9)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (1)
From one of the first anointed preaching messages I ever heard when I was a rookie Christian years ago I remember the clear and haunting words, “Sin is progressive…”
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I’ve visited this theme several times over the course of this blog. It is not an easy thing to face. Sin begins at a single point. It then grows. It rides along a rising wave gaining strength. In time it proliferates. In further time it rises higher and then suddenly starts shooting upward exponentially as on the right side of an intangible graph. If nothing stops its advance, and nothing often does, it goes forth and it conquers. Sin is truly progressive…
For the overly fearful among us, the notion of sin and evil running so out of control that next to nothing can be done about it can be petrifying. It is why most don’t want to touch the subject. Such an approach is not necessarily a rejection of such facts but akin to hiding them away in a far corner of a dank and dusty immaterial attic or burying them out somewhere in a nondescript field without a marker. The idea that an evil so great and powerful lurks in our midst taking precedence over our lives regardless of benign exteriors to the contrary is simply too much to deal with for most.
When one actually does look into it, even for a brief few seconds of consideration, seeing the distinct possibility, and maybe even venturing to the edge of the shocking reality though still at a presumably secure distance, it often causes a gut reaction and an instant recoil back to safety, as one may force a waking state from a nightmare to escape the spine-chilling terror thereof.
This is why most people have succumbed to ignoring the great hidden evil or claiming its non-existence. It is due both to being either unable or unwilling to face it for the great fear factor involved because of the shock such fear does to one’s system, or because they know inherently they have no means of battling it, fighting successfully against it, overcoming it, and thus eliminating it. They know the evil is simply too great and they are not strong enough to duke it out as one may win fights against far-lesser foes, or that they do not have the necessary tools of warfare, as one is well aware of the futility of bringing a dull butter knife to a gun fight.
Humans know this. Or, they used to. Maybe the vast majority has run so far away as yellow-striped cowards over the last several decades and more that such a weak-response attitude has become embedded in the DNA of present generations. Maybe the blindness that has thus ensued has reached a point of mass all-encompassing willful sightlessness that most could never see it no matter what obvious facts are presented or even if the Sacred and Holy written Word of God is used as potent searchlight.
I remember once, at a deer hunting lease, our small group of men, all family, had to go out one late afternoon right before the season started to check on some feeders or something. Among our group was one young man who had never been out in the deep woods that far. It was his first hunting venture. As we dealt with the last tasks in the growing evening it quickly grew almost dark. Being heavily overcast in mid-autumn with little or no moon, the recognizable was fading fast. The sunlight through the deep clouds had drifted off surreptitiously rather quickly and it was soon night.
Anyone who has experienced this scenario knows of what I speak. Normally in such conditions one would already have a fire going in camp and the dark/light ratio is not noticed so much, especially amid the usual supper activities and whatnot of that time. Out in the brush, however, there was no fire and no light other than our small handheld flashlights which work good at seeing the immediate surroundings but not so much that the enveloping shroud of deep darkness all around doesn’t have the clear upper hand.
Then someone thought it would be cool to douse them for a while. We turned off our lights. The great darkness of the deep woods out in the middle of nowhere instantly invaded our immediate presence and let us know who the boss was, at least in that moment. It was total blackness. Then, as our eyes adjusted somewhat, the distant starlight muted by the dark overcast unseen clouds above filtered in, at least toward a point of seeing enough to know we were at a supreme disadvantage. The eyes of the wild were on sudden alert and we must have surely appeared as easy targets. We beheld the wonder momentarily.
The two older men, though with necessary respect and a positive appreciation, thought nothing of it having experienced it many times. Deer hunting is such that you enter your blind or climb a tree in the pitch black darkness of cold mornings and leave them the same way after the evening hunt. The two younger men probably thought it was an interesting experience but was, of course, nothing new. But the young lad had never been in such a situation. We stood there briefly in the great darkness of the wild world and allowed ourselves a chance at natural reality and spiritual perception. All was quiet.
The young one, however, was a tad shaken. Knowing full well he was fully protected and had the security of strong company and family ties did little to stop the deep impression on his young heart of just what this world is apart from our technological advances and artificial surroundings.
He felt relieved when we turned our flashlights on and headed back…
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued]
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IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (2)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (3)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (4)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (5)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (6)
IF YOU’RE WONDERING WHEN THIS EVIL WILL END… (7)
STILL SLEEPING, STILL DREAMING
The more you try to wake them the more they prefer sleeping. The ongoing dream they are having is much more desirable and comforting than the waking present.
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When will you arise from your sleep? “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest”— [Proverbs 6:9-10]
LOST IN A DREAM
The following may appear at first glance as a strange idea, far from Biblical orthodoxy, something concocted by a writer doing a story featuring a full-tilt New-Ager with stars in her head. She can see the future in a crystal ball mounted on a small round wooden table of early vintage in her dark backroom parlor decorated with heavy felt drapes, multicolored hanging bead curtains, and the usual accouterments used by fake-out confidence artists who know vulnerable marks can more easily be had in the midst of over-the-top and off-the-wall surroundings and imagery. Her clear ability to see what we cannot and her flawless emotive verbal declarations attests to her authenticity. What need can there be for greater verification than this? She fulfills the need in one’s soul. She allows one a glance within the dream…
And that’s where they would rather be. In the dream. They spent a lifetime creating the dream, fashioning everything that must fit within it in order to honor tradition, their family religion, and their own deep set desire for what “works best for them” regardless of what the Word of God might say. The Word reveals a common truth for all, of course, devoid of partiality or designer beliefs, and invokes requisite commands which must be addressed by each and every disciple-to-be. Rejecting such pure truth is infinitely preferable by these due simply to the maintenance of a faux comfort zone which includes, by forced option, rebuffing the Lord Jesus Himself and His problematic “hard sayings”—the One they claim to follow, though they assert otherwise, since He apparently would never actually claim such discomforting notions, which means there must be a problem with those Christians who spout such clearly penned New Testament verses or even a problem with written Scripture itself.
I mean, who can really trust what the Bible says after eons of translations and endless word-of-mouth renderings? Better to not get too dependent on the off-putting black and white in-your-face dictums of ancient epistles and primitive apostles whose authentic words are likely lost in the gray mist of ages past. One must leave a reserve from which to insert calming rationalizations and soothing validations in order to walk with head held high in smiling peaceful rectitude honoring one’s own grand and gallant noble views which the better people of this world surely appreciate and recognize…
THE WISE STILL SEEK HIM
Though many strive for a salvation process featuring peace at all costs in an effort to bend spiritual reality toward an impossible concord, neglecting to acknowledge the presence of evil in this fallen world, there is actually no such thing as a peaceful coming to Jesus moment. This phrase has been made fun of by the devil, of course, and those who rest assured in their own standing often use it to both disavow those idiot real Christians who make it a thing, as it were, as well as forswearing the entire idea of the need for soul salvation in the first place. They are simply not aware of their sin or they are and don’t care. One wonders how the rude and sacrilegious enunciations of a culture gone bad can mute the unrelenting loud speakers of one’s conscience incessantly warning of an unaddressed terminal threat on the very threshold of one’s future. But an ongoing dream state could fit the bill. Being lost in a dream of one’s making could certainly be the cause.
No, the reality of coming to the Lord as an otherwise hopeless sinner, the so-called Come to Jesus Moment, is anything but peaceful. If one actually makes it that far it will have involved the greatest decision of one’s life and the wrenching of oneself free from the binding chains of willful living, personal sin, immoral cultural mores, and traditional belief systems holding one in check. It is a wholly solitary place as will be the final Judgment when one must face God alone. There is no greater gut-check occasion in life. It is the height of courage to recognize the depravity of one’s condition and attempt to remedy it. No, there is no peace until afterward, until after one has repented profusely, throwing oneself upon an altar of sacrifice and having the old man and all his sin burned away, until after one has faced spiritual reality and caught a glimpse of hell. It should be characterized as a RUN To Jesus Moment because those who finally awake from their enchantment waste no time in getting right with their Savior.
OF THE FOOLISH AND THE FEARFUL
Would that this wise attitude could be had by all professed Christians but as it is, far too many remain ensconced within disguised sleeping stations—traditional Christian versions of the old hippie sleep-ins where everyone is crashed out in the pews in a haze of otherworldly religious languor and far out abstraction while a weirded-out droning guru sets the laid back tone for religious repose and holy hibernation.
On the flip side of this LP, as proven in these most recent times, fear acts as a wide door to such a dream, an entry portal into transchristianism, as one can be driven by fear into a psychological corral with no egress, since one rejected the door to life which obliged one to embrace the only other door—the entrance beyond the great gaping chasm separating Paradise from Gehenna—the ultra-tropical other side of Abraham’s bosom—the hot place where rich man Dives begs for a drop of H2O not to be had.
In other words more simply stated: Unrepentant sin causes massive deception. Personal pride, as with Mr. Dumpty, leads to a great fall. Refusing to be cleansed of sin causes the attached sin within one to act as a powerful attractant to the great death magnet sucking souls into the black hole of eternal damnation. The temporary corral on this side of life acts as a deceptive soothing waiting room inhabited by those of like minds who reassure one another and confirm each other’s wayward eternal choice since for many there is great comfort in numbers. Rather than solitarily entering the diminutive unpopular gate and taking the difficult road narrowed by pressure on both sides as an ongoing lifespan birth canal toward eternal life to validate their choice per the Scriptural directive, many people choose choice validation by the numbers following great groups of the like-minded who prefer well-lit free-wheeling Broadway, and the larger the group the better. This latter view places great faith in people in great need of a Savior rather than in the Savior Himself who is often on the outside looking in and thus stuck fast in the shunned group.
From a Christian perspective, the members of one’s local church or denomination and the doctrines thereof serve as the large validation sample group of one’s chosen beliefs rather than the Lord Jesus and His difficult though pure teachings. This means that rather than seeking validation for one’s beliefs from the Word of God one will instead trust the collective word of one’s chosen group and its chosen leaders.
WHEN THE DREAM BECOMES A NIGHTMARE
Even though an apparent majority of Christians still grapple with what should otherwise be a flawless Biblical fact, that the Creator Himself became a Man and visited His Creation, we can still learn an otherwise obvious truth by simply observing how this world treated Him when He was here as one of us: The greatest Light was vociferously and repeatedly opposed and attacked by the greatest darkness. If nothing else, this proves the great darkness existing in this world, its residence also within certain humans, and their connection to the devil. Whoever sided with such people could not possibly be on God’s side, and owing to the devil’s bewitching ability, those hesitant to go all in with the Lord would inevitably gravitate in the other direction, being gently pulled along by the malevolent magnet, the enemy making sure not to rattle them so as to bring them closer to his trap (corral). It’s why antichrist spiders spin their webs on the beaten path, on the major cultural highways inhabited by the teeming masses who most always look with disdain upon those who stray from established societal methods and mores though such straying often avoids the web.
If one looks closely one can see that this is what they did in the Lord’s time. They first took control of the crossroads and the few major thoroughfares. In time they controlled religious thought. They decided what one should believe and practice to be in good standing within the culture. In essence, they captured the media. The same thing has occurred in our time. This would otherwise be blatantly obvious if so many were not enchanted and sleeping. Those lost in the dream do not know they are heading for a bad one.
“If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” [Luke 19:42]
One MUST understand that the deception was so thick among these people in that little land in the first century that the Creator himself could not get through to most of them. No matter what He did the majority could not be broken free from the devil’s trick. They were greatly afraid of being in the synagogue and also greatly afraid of being out of it. While in the synagogue as bona fide members they were subjected to the vindictive religious control of the leaders thereof and without the synagogue they could hardly function in society because the vindictive leaders saw to it that they would be outsiders within their own culture. SOUND FAMILIAR?
Therefore everyone must choose from where they will gain their comfort, either from going along to get along, adhering to the dictates of the sinful culture, and obeying without question the pronouncements of the beguiling gurus in charge OR following the Lord Jesus with one’s whole heart. And whereas one might trust in and accept any number of false belief systems, faux Christian or not, and gain the comforting sleep and enchanting dreams thereof, there will come a day when one will be forced to wake up, though they would not awake for the Lord.
At that time, with their ears ringing from the blasts of angelic shofars, the simulated reality of their chosen comforting dream state will suddenly fade away like fog in the morning light, and they will find themselves in an eternal nightmare from which they can never awake.
This is the real fate that must be avoided at all costs.
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” [Luke 19:41-44][1]
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
THE CONTROL TEST: PROVING THE MAJORITY COMPLIANT
None of this would be happening without a predetermined confirmation that the controlled have reached a majority and will readily comply with every directive from upper management.
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HIDDEN THREATS EVERYWHERE ON A DAILY BASIS
When a person ventures into public areas everything he touches has already been touched by many other people. At the grocery store, for example, every item on every shelf has been handled by any number of people by the time it got there. Were any of them sick? How about the last guy to touch the item, the store employee that stocks the shelves, was he sick? One grabs a grocery cart that had been handled by an endless succession of people including the employees who went out and rounded them up from the parking lot. Every item in the produce section was handled by probably even more people on its way there and many of those items have no protective containers. How about the floors? What did people track in? What unseen entity did one step on or in during the day and then track into the house?
At the checkout line one unloads one’s groceries onto a conveyor belt that everybody else has used. Might any of them have been infected with something? If using cash to pay one may wonder how many thousands of people touched that cash on its way in and out of one’s wallet. If paying with a card, one uses a machine that has been touched by thousands who likely left unseen residual reminders of their presence which now transfers to your hands and your card, the latter of which goes back into your wallet infected with whatever. When one breathes, everything in the air around a person goes into one’s nose and mouth, travels to one’s lungs, and possibly enters one’s bloodstream. Not everything breathed in necessarily goes back out when exhaling.
Drinking unfiltered tap water likely does more to promote illness than breathing in possible pathogens. Tap water is loaded with chlorine, ammonia and many other unsafe chemicals. It is basically swimming pool water. Those with knowledge of built-in pools know what happens if one fails to keep the chemical levels correct. The water will turn green due to the presence of all the little unseen life forms that also like to swim and hang out there. They must be killed. Chlorine and other chemicals work very well. The same thing must obviously be done in municipal water systems which have infinitely more extremely serious contaminants than swimming pools. If one tests the water in either, one will get about the same result. Tap water, of course, is said to be safe because the chemicals in it are diluted to the point that they have no detrimental effect on one’s health. Right.
Over the last few weeks, there are suddenly many people who now comply, though not before, with the directives handed down from on high, such as hand-washing, using sanitizers, wearing face masks, donning gloves, trying not to touch their face while out in public, and attempting to keep the suggested proper distance from other people. They are responding very well to control directives. It is obviously good advice, but most never engaged in any of these protective efforts before. Every year hundreds of thousands die from the flu but this is never reported, meaning most people go about blissfully unaware of the danger or are simply too apathetic to act. Perhaps that’s why hundreds of thousands die from the flu.
But some people are already aware of the manifold threats to health out there. They have known most of their lives the great value in washing their hands and using sanitizers. They do their best to steer clear of unhealthy people and avoid those who are infectious. They never drink tap water but only the best purified water available. They have learned the value of organic Vitamin C. Those are the first two items in one’s pro-health anti-getting-sick starter kit. In addition to those one knows to take an excellent organic multiple vitamin, most of which one will never find in the usual haunts. Such vitamins provide a wealth of nutrients for the body starved by the lack of proper nutrients in most food available today. From there one can add additional supplemental vitamins as necessary. Vitamin D, for example, is excellent (among many other things) at defeating viruses. The Creator has blessed us with a wealth of proper foods to keep us healthy and strong.
THE KEY IS HAVING A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM
The issue before us then, is not simply obeying control directives from on high during times of crisis that come and go, but being disciplined enough to take care of one’s health on a daily basis regardless of whatever else is happening or where one might reside. Many people have been preaching this for decades. The Creator has already blessed us with immune systems that fight off those evil little entities that cause sickness and disease.
THEREFORE, WHAT ONE MUST CONCENTRATE ON IS TAKING CARE OF ONE’S IMMUNE SYSTEM AND PROVIDING IT WITH EVERYTHING IT NEEDS TO BE AS HEALTHY AND AS STRONG AS POSSIBLE.
This is the real test. It is not principally about being fearful of exterior threats using exterior means but insuring interior protection. It is about being healthy enough to withstand the enemies of our health from the inside out. Those who educate and discipline themselves in this regard have the best chance at staying healthy and avoiding illness.
It is obvious, however, that only a relatively few people do this. Judging by the way many people look and function nowadays it is readily apparent they refuse to address the real problem. Weakness of will, lack of discipline, absence of critical thinking, and wholesale acceptance of authoritarian directives often prove weakness of health, lack of proper information and truth, and gross personal irresponsibility. By throwing caution to the wind and placing all of one’s faith in the medical industrial complex—excellent for many treatments but also a massive earnings-engineered economy in itself in which the profit-incentivized leaders thereof are treated as gods—it is no wonder that the time was ripe for scaring everyone to the point of mass hysterical panic and unadulterated obedience toward their worshipful masters.
Such people continually pass the control test. Rather than doing their own research, being extremely careful about whatever they ingest, and doing their due diligence to steer clear of the causes of illness, one of which is fear, they simply decide to bow down and obey a few effortless orders until the all clear sign is given and then quickly return to their unhealthy lifestyles.
Their behavior proves the existence of a compliant majority under authoritative control.
© 2020 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
Never Say Die
Sometimes life is hard.
But we learn fairly young in life that we must press on and overcome whatever difficulty we are facing because the alternative is much worse.
In fact, there is really no comparison.
Even if we never achieve the goal or actually fully overcome and get past major obstacles and setbacks, there is at least a good feeling that we tried, that we made the attempt, and that we gave it everything we had.
In sports, losing is not as bad if we give everything we have and “leave it all on the field.” Of course, losing is bad. Losing is really bad. I hate losing. Being very competitive by nature and by choice, I know that making peace with the idea of losing is a terrible thing to do. But if one has done everything one can possibly do (and that always involves doing things we never thought we were capable of doing), we can eventually get past the loss and get on down the road.
But it depends on how we lost. If we know we gave it our all and that there was nothing more that could have been done, we have a victory of sorts in our hearts. And it is the kind of victory that allows us to feel okay about ourselves, and not get down on ourselves, and keep the fires stoked for the next opportunity to win.
I am not afraid of the devil. Yes, he is a very powerful spiritual entity that can wreak the very worst forms of destruction and wickedness. And yes, he sometimes gets us. He sometimes inflicts serious damage. I mean, as wicked as humanity can be, there is no way humanity can reach such incredible forms of wickedness and evil without some serious help. We know as Christians that there is a devil and that he can do some damage. The devil working in concert with unregenerate humanity has proven to be a lethal combo throughout history, and there is plenty of evidence to support this.
Yet, if one is not a real Christian one will not perceive any devil. The devil, through his great powers of deception, can easily keep sinful human beings in the dark and remain invisible. In fact, non-Christians often scoff at the idea of a devil and of wicked unseen entities existing upon this planet.
But the Lord Jesus knew such entities existed. In fact, He could see them. He addressed them. And they talked back. He was not afraid of the devil and He taught us the same. To respect one’s enemy is a good thing. To fear one’s enemy is to not have faith against one’s enemy. And if that happens, one will find oneself up a creek without a paddle. One will have no return volley or return fire or a bigger punch. Instead of fighting even harder to overcome the enemy and the obstacle, fear causes one to give in. One will surrender. That’s what fear without faith does. It causes eventual surrender.
Real fighters, however, never surrender. Real Christians have no fear of their enemies. If one respects his enemy and knows he is in for a tough fight, he will have a much better chance of victory. But to fear one’s enemy is to lose before the battle is ever engaged.
But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. [1 Peter 3:14-17]
Though we face formidable foes, the Lord empowers us to kick their rear ends all over creation. That’s what He did. Dying on the cross was not what unbelievers would call much of a victory, but for real Christians, He is our great King because He defeated hell, He defeated death, and He defeated the grave. He fought with everything He had to resist all temptation and live a life completely devoid of any sin. Most of the rest of us already commit our first sins as little kids, right out of the chute. But not the Lord. And as a result, when He died, HE COULD NOT STAY DEAD. Sin had no hold on Him. He defeated sin. He defeated the world. And He mopped up the parking lot with the devil.
So even though the devil is still a bad dude, he’s got asphalt stuck in his face and elbows and knees, and regarding the Lord, is a thoroughly defeated foe.
But the Lord, from His good heart and wonderful grace, has blessed each of His sons and daughters with their own opportunity to whip the devil. He allows for spiritual fights to take place. He trains us for battle and sends us into war having full confidence that we can also get our licks in and overcome any obstacle any enemy might put before us.
So remember, living some sort of “perfect” Christian life in some sort of faux American dream or “hippiefied flowers in your hair peace love dove nothing bad ever happens to me” is a bean dream, even though many fake Christian ministers tell us we can, and that it should be one’s primary goal. However, if one does manage to live such a life on this planet, it exposes the fact he is not fighting the devil. It illustrates such a one has made peace with the devil. And it reveals a person in league with the devil.
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
“But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’” [John 15:18-25]
The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, is that real Christians are in a real fight, and as in any war, there will be casualties. But the victor who suffers on the field of battle continually gets back up to fight another day, and this absolutely infuriates the devil and this fallen world. The evil one hates the fact that he can throw everything at us and still not defeat us. He considers himself and his hordes far superior and it causes him untold grief every time a son or daughter of the Lord Jesus gets back up and fights on though horrifically battered and bruised.
Through such valiant and stalwart action, warriors for the Lord look directly into the enemy’s eyes and fearlessly express something to the effect, “Is that all you got?”
…Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. [1 John 4:4] [1]
© 2013 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
