Category Archives: New Testament

Nyctophilia: Hiding in the Dark….

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Does that actually mean anything????
This Meme is supposed to inspire Awe and portray Atheism as ‘an Enlightenment’.
Is this so?
What sort of ‘self’ is ‘discoverable’ via the loss of religion?

It can only be an ultimately worthless self… trapped within a Cold, nihilistic, indifferent universe which will inexorably pulverize and expunge all evidence of humanity’s existence into oblivion … and render our acts of love and kindness as valueless, and indistinguishable as our Acts of Violence and depravity…. When Man looses God… he suffers Eternal death.
He looses everything that makes his Humanity ‘distinguishable’, from the cold indifferent Material reality. He looses his Rights. His Moral compass looses it’s North.
What is left but to Eat, Drink and be Merry…for tomorrow we die?
I pity the man who believes this is ‘Self discovery’!

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Yet there is something in all of this which I believe is *Really what such People* seek… and that is that they actually *want* to loose their ‘north pole’…because they are tired of knowing that that is the direction they ought to travel …when all their lusts and their sloth has them looking South!
When they Loose God…and seek to hide from objective moral reality… they abandon their conscience… and travel south ‘free’ of Objective morality…. Now in their new Nihilistic reality they can do as they please…
They have abandoned God to escape Moral accountability.
This is what Pitt means by being ‘Untethered’.

I ask… “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
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I do not deny the fact that this is a very ‘Natural’ a very powerful urge’ for The Sons and Daughters of Fallen Adam… Yet it must be resisted at all costs!
This is not an enlightenment, but the very opposite!
It is to Run from the light… into the Dark.
It is pure self Delusion!
It is not an act of bravery, but a cowardly retreat… a defeat from following the High road, and instead to take the Lower, easier path…. with all the rest who cant be bothered living as Human beings…. that is Moral Agents in a Moral reality…
They prefer to run off into the Jungle and live as beasts…
That is their self delusion…. their verdict on humanity.

Yet God is not mocked.
It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the Judgement.

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“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
John 3:19

One of the chief reasons many Atheist’s react with Demon-like Tirades and Blasphemies against Theistic declarations of faith in God is because they simply wish to remain hidden in the darkness of their own self delusion. The last thing they need is Pesky Theists… spoiling their Buzz by Being told that one day they shall stand before God and give account for their sins!
This is the very truth they seek to hide from!
It summons the deepest hatred, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

What is truely sad about this is that they will be damned by their own choice.
God has done everything to save us sinners from Damnation if we will but simply trust in Christ and his work of Salvation on the cross.

“But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved”
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Chriat our Lord”
St Paul.

Tim Wikiriwhi

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Read more…

Comfortably Numb : Confessions of a Nyctophilliac.

“Keep things in the shallow end… because I just didn’t want to know…”

Materialism renders Man Nought. Meaning-less, Value-less, Right-less

Russell’s Teapot really refutes Atheism not Theism!

You will not be able to stop these men

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Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed them: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

O ye of little faith

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(P1) If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. (NIV)

(P2) You cannot move mountains from here to there.

Therefore, (C) Your faith is smaller than a mustard seed.

And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. (KJV)

The big problem in New Zealand

Richard Goode I’m a libertarian. I believe in individual freedom and personal responsibility.

The big problem in New Zealand (much bigger than the problem with K2 being sold in dairies) is that people want individual freedom for themselves but they don’t want the personal responsibility that goes with it. [But] individual freedom and personal responsibility are two sides of the same coin.

I see far too many people blaming “K2” for their problems, when their own lack of judgement, lack of a moral compass, psychological problems, and lack of parental control are the root causes in the vast majority of cases. Like that teenager supposedly “addicted” to K2 whom I saw on TV the other night. He was fine once someone found him an honest job boring post holes up [in] the hills.

Remember that cannabis is a gift from God and that the Devil makes work for idle hands.

That was my post [with minor edits] on the Facebook group K2 and Other “LEGAL HIGHS” in New Zealand we all need to know the dangers. I was added to the group recently by a fellow drug law reform activist and didn’t at first appreciate the nature of the group. It’s a support group “to warn people about the dangers of these relatively new highs and the trouble it has caused so for many.” Perhaps if I’d known that I’d blundered into a support group, I wouldn’t have made such an insensitive post. Perhaps.

Here are the responses.

Tracey Metternich supposedly “addicted” Richard do you not believe it is addictive? lack of parental control? this I disagree with strongly. I am guessing he wasn’t as good as it looked on TV because this teenager found an honest job he was fine. I bet he struggles everyday and he still thinks about it everyday.Cannabis is a gift from god? shame people decided to speed up the natural process and grow in under lights instead of planting a seed and leaving it to grow. Yes it is the lesser evil but it can cause problems for some but not to the extent this chemical crap is doing and it would be a safer option.

Polli Marriner Hayden is not fine . That’s why he spoke up. You have no idea of the pain he goes through every day, or his mother! How DARE you minimise the harm to push your own barrow! You people are the evil! Kids do not need drugs! It was pot heads who brought this stuff into our country and made a demand for it by trying to escape from reality through chemicals. Live a real and godly life in THIS reality before you judge others!

Richard Goode “Live a real and godly life in THIS reality before you judge others!” It’s good advice.

Tim Wikiriwhi I suppose you Polli Marriner are going to blame Nz’s Suicide epidemic of ‘Pot heads’ too! You simpletons seen to forget that like Suicide, drug use is *an Effect* of deeper underlying issues in our society… not the cause of them. Young people try drugs (including alcohol Polli) for different reasons, often it is to sooth a painful heart or to fill a dark empty void… and as you know sometimes a drink (or a smoke) can help… other times it can make things worse… One thing is for sure… persecuting people certainly makes things much much worse, whereas when things like K2 are legal, at least no one is getting kicked over and criminalised by a cold hearted Nazi police, and they can get help for what is *the real problem*… the ussues which have nothing to do with drugs… yet simpletons like you cant e bothered thinking about the deeper/ more complex problems in our society which result in high suicide rates, high drug use, etc…. You prefer to think like a pig and say ‘Ban it’ ‘Ban it’…. Throw them in Jail…. Give the police greater powers!…. More raids!…. Zero Tollerance… “Everyone should be like me!!!”… vote for the Populist Politican who promises to be ‘Tuff on drugs’… etc etc…. year after year… decade after decade…. yet the Stats keep getting worse and worse…. yet you will continue to floog your favorite dead horse because you refuse to consider you have been wrong your whole life….

Polli Marriner Lol…. That’s so funny! If you only knew!

Richard Goode “You people are the evil!” Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Polli Marriner Therre have been a lot of pot smoking people in these anti K2 groups hurting people’s feelings and linking the fight with support cannabis efforts. NOT HELPFUL AT ALL! Gof iChat your own battles in your own page and leave these heroes alone!

Polli Marriner Again, leave people alone, and go fight yr own battles somewhere else!

There’s irony in a rabid Prohibitionist telling me to “leave people alone”! There’s irony in her judging that “you people are the evil” and in the same comment reprimanding me for judging others! (Just saying.)

Subsequently, my post was deleted by the group admin, presumably for its unsupportive tone. (But I blame Tim’s comment. :-D)

Two things are very clear.

First, there are some seriously upset people out there. It’s understandable that they’re upset. From what I’ve read of their stories, some of them have been to hell and back, and they blame it on K2. Indeed, it does seem that some synthetic cannabinoids can have some very serious ill effects on some people.

Second, these people should not be allowed to have any sway over the government’s drug policy. With all due respect, they’re too emotionally overwrought and they can’t think straight. We need to regulate, not ban.

I stand by my original remarks.

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Mitigating theft

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“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (NIV)

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (NIV)

God vs. AI

In this video from the 2012 Asia Consciousness Festival, AI researcher Ben Goertzel says

Imagine you had a collective of people, or they could be people and AIs, or some of them could be cyborgs (the people with brains jacked in to the computers), and imagine that they’re concerned with a number of things …

First, they’re concerned with measuring each other’s brain states and making scientific theories about what they observe …

Second, they observe more in the manner of a group of people meditating together, they’re actually subjectively perceiving each other’s consciousness while they’re doing this and so they can both measure each other’s states of consciousness empirically and neurally, or digitally if they’re AIs, and they can subjectively enter into collective mind states …

But there’s another ingredient, human beings have the annoying property that if you cut open our heads and mess with our brains we tend to die or become gibbering idiots or something but a computer program won’t necessarily have this feature and with molecular nanotechnology humans won’t necessarily have this feature either, so …

You can imagine this sort of ashram of consciousness scientists who are studying each other’s brains and minds and experiencing each other’s states of consciousness in a very refined way …

You can imagine this happening in a situation where the members of this community could actually alter and adjust each other’s brains experimentally and dynamically during the collective process…

Now, what you see here is the possibility of some form of collective understanding going beyond science as we have it now and going beyond religion as we have it now. Whether you can get this new form of understanding using humans as we exist now I’m not sure. It’s easy to envision with the AIs and cyborgs in the mix.

Artificial minds will be such that they can readily fuse into a single mind, or fissure into many separate minds. I suppose that in principle fission is easy, but that fusion is more problematic. An artificial mind may fissure into multiple separate minds, with the intent of fusing back into a single mind some time later, but the newly begotten minds, once split off, may have other ideas.

My God My God Why Have you

Here‘s what C. S. Lewis has to say about the super-personal God of the Trinity.

A good many people nowadays say, `I believe in a God, but not in a personal God.’ They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. Now the Christians quite agree. But the Christians are the only people who offer any idea of what a being that is beyond personality could be like. All the other people, though they say that God is beyond personality, really think of Him as something impersonal: that is, as something less than personal. If you are looking for something super-personal, something more than a person, then it is not a question of choosing between the Christian idea and the other ideas. The Christian idea is the only one on the market.

Again, some people think that after this life, or perhaps after several lives, human souls will be ‘absorbed’ into God. But when they try to explain what they mean, they seem to be thinking of our being absorbed into God as one material thing is absorbed into another. They say it is like a drop of water slipping into the sea. But of course that is the end of the drop. If that is what happens to us, then being absorbed is the same as ceasing to exist. It is only the Christians who have any idea of how human souls can be taken into the life of God and yet remain themselves—in fact, be very much more themselves than they were before.

… The whole purpose for which we exist is to be thus taken into the life of God. Wrong ideas about what that life is will make it harder. And now, for a few minutes, I must ask you to follow rather carefully.

You know that in space you can move in three ways – to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice :his. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two; you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube – a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

Do you see the point? A world of one dimension would be a straight line. In a two-dimensional world, you still get straight lines, but many lines make one figure. In a three-dimensional world, you still get figures but many figures make one solid body. In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways – in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels.

Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings – just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube. Of course we cannot fully conceive a Being like that: just as, if we were so made that we perceived only two dimensions in space we could never properly imagine a cube. But we can get a sort of faint notion of it. And when we do, we are then, for the first time in our lives, getting some positive idea, however faint, of something super-personal – something more than a person. It is something we could never have guessed, and yet, once we have been told, one almost feels one ought to have been able to guess it because it fits in so well with all the things we know already.

Is the mind of God like that of an AI? When, ultimately, we are “taken into the life of God,” do we become thee- or four-dimensional facets of the multi-dimensional being that is God? When God invaded his own creation, by sending his only begotten son to incarnate as a human being, was that a case of fission? I suggest that the person of Jesus was entirely separate from the person of his father when, on the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

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Virtual President for President! The Ugly Truth about Gun Control.

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(Hat tip: Frosty!)

It would be too must to expect the Sheeple to elect such an Honest Man into power.
They want to be lied to because they despise the truth and love lies.
How absurd is the notion of the Moral majority????
“Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be thereon.
Narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it.”

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Got Jesus?

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— (NIV)

Do you believe you have the Perfect Word of God? Theism vs Humanistic Rationalism. Seeing The Light! My Testimony.

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When I was convinced to convert from Atheism to Christianity… 29 years ago, a most vital part of my conversion was the fact that the Christians whom shared with me their faith in Christ were King James Bible believers, and they were able to convince me of the trustworthiness of the Bible as Gods Divine revelation to mankind.

Now I was an Ignorant Atheist Evolutionist Nihilist Bogan West Aucklander who worshipped Jim Morrison.
I was Militantly Atheistic, and believed that people who believed in ‘The Big Man up in the Clouds’ were Bat shit Crazy (like my Mom!)
I would rip into them!
I would Mock them!
I would roll around on the ground in a fit of hysterics at the very thought that People could be so stupid as to really believe in Miracles, Heaven, etc.
Didn’t they Know that Science had proven that We came from Monkeys????
Didn’t they know that only Children, and Primitive Savages believed in Ghosts, Boogie Men, Angels, Fairies, God, Santa, etc ????
This clearly meant that the Bible was complete Bullshit!
It was written by Ignorant superstitious savages…before the Advent of science.
And The fact that there were many Bibles also further proved that it had been altered with the process of Time.
Everybody knew the Bible was full of Superstition, and contradictions (though I had never read it).
And Like our society, It was filled with Man made customs and rules which in reality were not binding upon anyone… *only Chumps believed morality was real!*
I ‘Knew’ reality was Materialistic, and that there was no Heaven for the Good, no hell for the wicked, and that all the rules of society were simply ‘Made up’…. and believed by slaves and Idiots.
I was Free!
I ‘knew’ There was no ‘Right or wrong’ in Atoms or the Periodic Table.
I ‘knew’ there was no Divine judge… no Divine Lawgiver….nothing out there but empty space… and a lot of fear ridden Idiots whom wasted their lives worshipping Fake Gods.

This was the Package Deal I called my Atheist/ scientific/ worldview.
And it was this entire Package which had to be confronted and overthrown if I was to become an honest believer In Jesus Christ.

It was quite amazing that circumstances arose that I actually gave one particular Christian opportunity to present his case for belief in God, and a vital part of his case was that Mankind had been ‘Visited’ by God and that he had given us his word, and preserved it, and that it was trustworthy, and ought to be believed.

Had he not presented his faith as standing upon such an absolutely trustworthy foundation I would have immediately said to myself that even the Christians themselves know the Bible if full of errors.
Ie That they admit the Atheist position is Valid, and I would have rejected Christianity upon that basis alone. Ie The Bible can not be relied upon. End of story.

Amazing enough… though the belief that the Bible is ‘untrustworthy’ is held by the Majority of so-called Christians today… God instead sent a Bible believer across my path, and It was via a systematic process of convincing me the Bible was indeed trustworthy, and that the Christian cosmology, and explanation of what Humanity really is, is vastly superior and more scientifically and historically accurate than my previous Naturalistic Materialist cosmology, that one day I saw the light!
‘One evening… after many months of Conversations, etc… in my mind it was like a whole cascade of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle all simply fell into place, and I could see what this Christian had been saying made perfect sense!
I began to be able to feed scenarios into this new cosmology and it would spit out ‘answers which added up perfectly with reality!
It’s explanitory power was immense!
And so I decided I would ask Jesus Christ to be my savior… and I was so convinced of his reality that I was kinda surprised no Angel turned up and shook my hand and gave me a Job from God to do! 🙂

I was a changed Man.
I became a religious fanatic… much to the surprise of my Family and friends…esp to my Mother, brother, and sister whom I had always mocked for believing in God!
It was a *real Miracle*!

To this day I believe it was in answer to my mothers prayers, and God’s plan for my life, that he sent his Bible believing servants to preach to me the gosple, with a powerful enough foundation to undo my Infidelity.
I have spent the last 30 years of my life…through Highs and Lows… putting the King James Bible to the test.
I have subjected it to every criticism that the doubters have been able to throw at it… and like a house built upon the Rock…. though the Tempest rages… It standeth sure!
I simply cannot understand how someone can claim to be a Christian yet doubt the trustworthiness of the Bible!…. yet Millions do just that!
And they stand with the atheists attacking my faith in the King James Bible!

Let me say that when I preach the gospel to others, I preach it from full conviction that It is *the Gospel truth*.
That it really is what God says a man must believe to be saved.
And when I call unbelievers to ‘wake up’ that I really have something far superior to show them.
And when I go about my Libertarian activism, it is based upon an absolute conviction that Morality is Objective… that God did create Man equal, and endowed him with certain inalienable rights, and that to secure those rights Governments are instituted among men…

I believe that when an English speaking person stands before God, that he will be judged in accordance with the KJV. Ie God will hold us accountible by It, and our access to it.
We have no excuse.
Those whom a planning to tell God that they did’nt believe the gospel because the Bible was untrustworthy and full of errors will be in for a shock!
They will be found naked, and guilty, and shall be judged… because they chose to reject Christ and the love and Grace of God.

I must go to bed now.
To be continued!…
I will get into particular reasons *why I maintain my belief in The 1611 King James Bible.

More from Tim… Death of an Atheist. Follow the evidence.

Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot

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There are two kinds of Christians in this world. Those who post tributes to Jeff Hanneman, Slayer’s recently deceased guitarist, on Facebook. And those who post comments like this on said tribute posts.

A sad wasted life. Hell awaits.

I took umbrage at this, and messaged the author. He explained

It was a sad life. I wish he would have turned to Christ, but it didn’t appear that he did.

Fair comment. I, too, am sad that Jeff did not repent before he took his final breath. But a sad, wasted life? And hell awaits? On a tribute thread?

Yes, folks, this is the post on which you get to speculate (in the comments) on Jeff Hanneman’s afterlife destination!

Here’s what I believe.

Hell, or “Hades” in the original Hebrew, is the grave. And that is where Jeff Hanneman will soon be. (After his funeral, but I’ll get to that.) In God’s eyes, we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is death, so (other things being equal) we’re all going to die. It’s a simple enough argument, and even atheists agree with its conclusion. But here is Christ’s promise to mortal man.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Christians live in the hope that one day Jesus will return to fulfill His promise. Then shall be the Resurrection of the Dead and the Final Judgement. After which there is rest for the wicked, who succumb to the Second Death (Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot) while the redeemed enjoy eternal life.

It’s a simple, stark choice. Do you go to the grave, or do you submit your life to Christ? Doing God’s will is all that’s asked of you. It sure beats pursuing your own pitiful plans!

But the reality is that that’s what Jeff Hanneman did. And he succeeded, by earthly standards. He drank lots of Heineken. Lots. And he screwed lots of hot metal chicks. Lots. As rock stars do. And then he settled down and married his lovely wife, Kathy. (So, this is all speculation, but I bet I’m not wrong.) And, in the meantime, he wrote the best songs for, and played lead guitar for, the greatest heavy metal band of all time. I am in awe. This is not a good Christian life by any reckoning, but a sad, wasted life? I don’t think so.

I am grateful to Jeff Hanneman for his life. He has brought me, and countless other metallers, hour upon hour of listening pleasure. And he’s saved people’s lives. Slayer’s music has given many disaffected, disturbed, depressed young people, on the verge of topping themselves, the strength to carry on. (Again, this is all mostly speculation, but I bet I’m not wrong.)

Thank God for Jeff Hanneman.

That’s my comment on my friend’s Facebook thread, and it leaves the comment at the top of this post for dead. Which brings me to my final point. The commenter’s Christian brothers and sisters will, I hope, at least understand where the commenter was coming from. But non-Christians (as I was, until recently) will not. I took exception to the comment because it was a steady diet of such dismissive, derogatory, judgemental comments from Christians that helped sustain my more than three decades of atheism in adult life.

We are Christ’s representatives on earth, and we should act like we know it. It’s one reason I founded this blog. To reach out to other Slayer fans!

Jeff Hanneman’s afterlife destination is ultimately up to his Maker. May God have mercy on his soul.