The Paganization of America, Part 2

Elevating the concept of liberty to the status of an absolute turns liberty into a god or goddess. Did you know that the French artist who designed and constructed the Statue of Liberty modeled it after a pagan goddess?

In the last two weeks we've witnessed drastic swings in the stock markets of China, Japan, Europe and the United States. This was brought about by the devaluation of China's currency, which threatened to bring on "currency wars" - other nations also devaluing their currencies in order to compete better in international trade. The final result of such actions, however, is rapid inflation and the plundering of the poor and the elderly whose limited finances are stretched to the breaking point.

When stock markets no longer serve the purpose of financing honest buyers and sellers of goods and services, but rather become the domain of mega-banks and giant investment funds near-instantaneously squeezing tiny slices of profits via electronic day-trading, the markets become subject to vast, rapid fluctuations. The honest small business owner loses his shirt in such a violently rapacious environment. When central banks create trillions of dollars out of thin air to bail out investment funds and private banks that went under by lending to totally unqualified home buyers, the common taxpayer is stuck with the bill in the form of higher taxes and inflation. Is that liberty, or debt slavery?

We also witnessed this week the celebration of New Orleans' recovery after Hurricane Katrina struck that city ten years ago. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were devastated and left homeless. The storm surge, as high as 15 to 30 feet above normal sea level, flooded 80% of New Orleans, had affected about 60 miles of Louisiana coast, much of the Mississippi coast, and came several miles inland. Large swathes of this area that are located under sea level were to be protected by seawalls against the flooding that comes with hurricanes.

Now the new higher, stronger seawalls, built at the expense of billions of tax dollars, are supposed to protect that sinful city against such a catastrophic event for the next 100 years. But the rise of temperatures causes melting of glaciers and polar ice and more violent weather, bringing sea levels ever higher and increasing the risk of other Katrina-size hurricanes much sooner than in 100 years, producing another failed bailout at taxpayer expense.

"The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. They didn't repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts." (Rev. 9:20-21)

What is the cause of all this?

Mankind is in rebellion against all authority, both divine and human. The goddess of "Liberty" promises total autonomy of each and every individual. Children are to be free, not obedient to their parents' authority. Adults must be free to do whatever they like, disobeying the law of God and man, and flouting traditional morality. St. Paul wrote -

"But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof." (2 Tim. 3:1-5)

Woven into the fabric of western society is this rejection of authority: university and even high school students consider themselves on a par with their professors and teachers, ordinary citizens see themselves just as competent as or even better than experienced government officials (perhaps due to revelations of moral lapses by the latter), and even church members often have little or no respect for pastors, priests, bishops and patriarchs. They reject the idea that a holy, godly and righteous person could be any more of a saint than they are.

The result is that morality is turned inside-out and upside-down with sexual perversion winning court cases against those who try to practice traditional Christian morality. They are so convinced of the rightness of their error that they are totally unable to repent and turn from their wickedness. St. John describes this sad condition of hardened hearts -

"The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn't repent and give him glory. The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. Yet they did not repent of their works." (Rev. 16:8-11)

It is a terrible thing to be incapable of recognizing one's own sins, and instead projecting the guilt on God and His saints, even persecuting and killing them. But in the end, as St. John writes - "I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ for the thousand years." (Rev. 20:4)

As Christians, we look forward to this glorious hope of resurrection when God the Father and Christ His Son will set things straight again. But until then we must hold firm, because only "he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Mat. 24:13)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 29 Aug. 2015.)

The Paganization of America

The open military conflicts around the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East, distract us from the very real if invisible spiritual-ideological struggle taking place in America and other western countries. The idea of freedom or liberty has become an absolute replacing God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The notion that every person including the smallest child should be free to choose one's own way of life has permeated our society so thoroughly that you are scorned and ridiculed if you dare to speak out and say there are objective standards of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood. Making liberty the absolute, the highest value in society, leads only to debauchery and bondage, as St. Peter wrote:

For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; promising them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a man is overcome, by the same is he also brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the last state has become worse with them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. (2 Peter 2 18-21)

As the Apostle Peter wrote, it would be better if those people had never lived in a culture permeated with Christian values where the Gospel has been openly preached for centuries, than after being exposed to it, to reject it and turn back to paganism. Their last state of these neopagans will be worse than the state of the old pre-Christian pagans. How did all this come about?

The Declaration of Independence clearly states - "All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," which in some of the earliest manuscripts ends with a comma, not with a period: it goes on to denounce the tyranny of an earthly ruler who trampled on their rights and exacted burdensome taxes from the colonists. So instead of making "the pursuit of happiness" an end it itself, it actually was contrasting tyranny with tranquility, the ability to live one's life in peace.

The earliest British settlers that survived in America were the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower in 1620, among them my ancestor Edward Doty. The Pilgrims definitely believed in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood. They sought to establish a colony where they could freely practice their religious faith. But the following waves of settlers included more and more people who simply sought free land and economic opportunity.

About this same time the ideology of capitalism and the free market economy was coming into vogue. Adam Smith published his groundbreaking book, The Wealth of Nations, in 1776, the same year that the British colonies of North America declared their independence. In this book the author describes how an "invisible hand" guided all men's economic choices so that what each chose for his own "enlightened self-interest" turned out to be for the well-being of all. What most people are ignorant of, however, is that the author was not "Mr. Adam Smith" but rather "Rev. Adam Smith" - a clergyman and moral philosopher, that the "invisible hand" was the hand of God, and that "enlightened self-interest" came from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

Thus it did not take long for people to transform "the pursuit of happiness" into the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, and "enlightened self-interest" informed by the Holy Spirit into selfishness and greed. Rev. Adam Smith included in his book a great deal of concern for the betterment of the poor, but modern capitalists often have little or no concern for the poor or anything other than increasing their return on investment (ROI) and paying bigger dividends to stockholders.

So what began as a movement of religious dissidents seeking freedom to worship and live according to their faith gradually devolved into self-seeking adventurers pursuing pleasure and profit above all. Freedom and liberty have been transformed into the bondage of debauchery and lust. We are now at the point where those who strive to worship and live according to their faith are publicly ridiculed by the media, or even accused of discrimination and "hate crimes" by the state. We hear a greater outcry against the accidental killing of a collared lion than over the deliberate murder of sixty million unborn babies sacrificed on the altar of pleasure and lust, and the sale of their body parts for profit.

In conclusion, freedom and toleration of various beliefs must never become absolutes, ends in themselves. They are limited and relative to the true absolute: "Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed Him, 'If you remain in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.'" (John 8:31-32) And "Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we don't know where You are going. How can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me." (John 14:5-6)

(Linked to www.Hosken-News.info of 15 Aug. 2015.)

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...

When we look in the mirror, what do we really see? Do we see ourselves as a brave lion, as a scrappy tomcat, or as a road-kill pussycat? Do we see ourselves as we would prefer to think of ourselves, as others see us, or as God sees us? We can comb, brush, dye or perm our hair (if we have enough!), we can apply "touch-up paint" makeup to hide any blemishes, etc., but does all that change who we really are? The Apostle James, brother of our Lord Jesus Christ, wrote -

But be doers of the Word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the word, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:22-27)

People may view us by what they see, hear or read about us. We may think we are putting on a good show by talking the good talk... but God views us by our walking the good walk: God sees us by what we actually DO. Are you a DOER of the Word? The Word is The Good News of Jesus Christ - His miraculous birth, His life of DOING good deeds - feeding the hungry, healing the sick, even raising the dead - and His resurrection from death!

You may think that it's impossible for you to do all those miracles, so it's out of the question. But you can feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the orphans and widows in their affliction. This is what God sees, even if nobody else is watching. You can enroll in our four-week course Ministry to Handicapped and Poor that starts on Monday, Aug. 17. The Enrollment Deadline is Thursday, Aug. 13, so don't put it off or think someone else will do it... YOU DO IT!

In our Hosken-News of 01 Aug. 2015, you can read of the ongoing verbal dispute that accompanies the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Each side views itself as in the right, as the offended party. When an argument or a war starts up, it's very, very hard to say - "Stop! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!" It's our human nature to justify ourselves and project the blame on the other side.

Recently, as I was finishing up work on The Good News of Jesus Christ, I couldn't continue: I had to stop right there and apologize to someone for getting angry. It may have been a shared responsibility, but someone had to start the process of reconciling with the other. No excuses. No putting it off.

What happens when we refuse to say "I'm sorry"? Our self-image is distorted in the mirror: we may continue to rationalize and justify ourselves, but deep inside we know it isn't true. And others can see it too. We're only fooling ourselves! As the beloved Apostle John wrote -

If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we haven't sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. (1 John 1:6-10)

Are we saying that we haven't sinned, it's the other person's fault? If so, we're only deceiving ourselves. We're not fooling anybody else. Go ahead, face the facts and get it off your chest! You'll feel better and so will the other person, after normal relationships are restored we'll "have fellowship with one another" again!