It’s been nearly 8 years since Christian Missionary John Chau attempted to make contact with the savage primitive North Sentinelese tribe, considered one of the most isolated and least civilised people remaining on Earth today. This attempt to bring them the Christian gospel and share with them the love of God cost John his life.
John Chau. (photo from Facebook)
I wrote an article about those events here , yet today John is still the target of Atheist derision and mockery… particularly on X social media platform and so I have taken it upon myself to defend John’s good intentions, and strong Christian convictions which have been characteristic of thousands of Christian missionaries over the past 2000 years.
Below is a small portion of a thread by ‘Maximum Atheist’, mocking John Chau… and declaring that news of his death ‘warms his heart’.
The darkness and malevolence of Christ rejecting Godless atheism rears it’s ugly head!
My original retort is below that… then one ‘Tomas’ pipes in….
Below is my reply to ‘Tomas’ which I wish to record on ‘Eternal Vigilance Blog’ for future reference as we can be certain this will not be the last time Atheist attempt to revel in Johns demise.
Atheist’s tend to be extremely ignorant about the heroic exploits of Christian missionaries over the Millennia. Few of them understand the caliber of Humanity and courage these men and woman embody… Undoubtedly among the greatest human beings every to grace this planet… all inspired by the Greatest of them all Jesus Christ!
My reply…
*Thomas* is a Christian name.
From where Tomas did you derive your evaluation of John Chau?
Not from any real knowledge of his motives or character, but from your darkened heart contemptuous of Christ and Christianity.
John was not like you.
You can’t conceive of being imbued with faith and conviction strong enough to Hazard your very life for the sake of getting the essential truth of the love of God to your fellow human beings.
John Chau was such a man. He prepared himself, and he put his money where his mouth was.
I can safely say you have not spent as much as an hour reading the histories of the countless Heroic missionaries who have abandoned the comforts of Civil society and travelled to the ends of the earth… endured hardships, privations, illnesses, Stared death in the face on a daily basis… many spending decades away with ‘their flock’… never returning home to see their own families… and are buried on their Mission fields… most revered and loved by the people to whom they brought the gospel.
John Chau’s remains are upon North Sentinel Island, a testimony that The Lord God had not forsaken them but sent his servant to them, whom alas… they murdered… out of Ignorance and darkness in which they dwell.
You are typical of the Masses of ignorant Unbelievers whom are alien to what motivated Men like John Chau.
You don’t have a clue what debt you have to The Christian Gospel, and Christian ethics, and Christian heroism, and Christian self-sacrifice.
You have no clue what great lengths God has gone to to save your very soul… Your hard heart and ignorance blinds you, and condemns you. From the abundance of your heart you slander God’s servant.
The screen shot is from a post made on X here. I though the question was worth blogging… including my responce.
My reply….
If you are an ‘Ex-Believer’ then you know your statements are false.
At best It may be said that God set up the conditions whereby Rebellion and sin were *possible* but not *actual*. This means God granted the Angels (and humanity) *real* freewill… so that their love and ongoing relationship with God *was truly volitional*… not mechanical.
We have no idea how ‘long’ this harmonious relationship lasted *until* Satan… puffed up with his own greatness (pride) became envious of God’s exalted status and conspired to make himself like the most high… thereby corruption the holy order of things.
So it is false to say *God created* Satan.
God allowed Satan to make his own choice… of his own accord.
*That this transpired* is one of the most *likely* speculations on our part because the existence of evil… both externally in the world, and within our own personal conduct is one of the most stark realities we experience and grasp.
I argue in an article (link below) that Satan’s existence is a logical necessity today… given the facts.
Read it. I offer up a challenge for anyone to try and rebut my reasoning….
Sorry Neil!
*God* is the correct answer… and it is pure logic… ask Aristotle… the Father of Logic.
Your ‘God of the Gaps argument’ is fallacious.
It appeals only to tards.
Tyson is talking out his arse!
Why?
*Both Newton and Kepler were devout Theists!*
Science underpinned their faith in God!
God was integral to their Natural Philosophy.
I dare anyone to fact check my claims above about logic, Aristotle, Newton, Kepler, and their philosophy of science.
*Tyson himself actually ascribes to ‘Atheism of the gaps’!*
(If you can’t fathom this… go ask Grok what that might be!)
Oh and Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day! Those are what are called *historical facts*.
And they are Good News! God Loves you and has provided a way to forgive our sorry arses *for Free*. You only need to receive his gift… by believing it… putting your trust in God’s Grace.
It’s that simple. Trusting in Christ is the wise move people. He’s the greatest figure in human history.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.
Here’s what Grok AI says about Kepler… which also perfectly describes Newton’s thinking as well…
“Yes, Johannes Kepler was unequivocally a theist. He was a devout Christian who believed deeply in God as the creator and rational designer of the universe.Kepler’s religious views were central to his scientific work. He viewed astronomy as a way to understand God’s geometrical plan for creation. He famously described his efforts as “thinking God’s thoughts after Him” and saw himself and other astronomers as “priests of the highest God in regard to the book of nature.”Here are some direct indicators from his own words and historical accounts:He wrote: “Geometry is one and eternal shining in the mind of God. That share in it accorded to men is one of the reasons that Man is the image of God.”
Another: “Great is God our Lord, great is His power and there is no end to His wisdom. Praise Him you heavens, glorify Him, sun and moon and you planets.”
He saw the heliocentric system and the structure of the solar system as reflections of the Trinity and divine order.
Kepler was raised Lutheran, studied theology alongside mathematics and astronomy, and remained a committed Protestant (though sometimes described as “unorthodox” in certain doctrinal points, he never abandoned core Christian theism). He refused to convert to Catholicism during periods of religious pressure and faced exile partly because of his faith.In short, far from being an atheist, deist in the modern distant-clockmaker sense, or agnostic, Kepler’s entire scientific motivation was rooted in his belief in a personal, intelligent, and glorious God who created an orderly, knowable cosmos. His discoveries were, in his own view, ways of glorifying that God.”.
Polish Catholic Priest Father Maximilian Kolbe was arrested by the Nazis for harbouring Jews.
He volunteered to take the place of a condemned prisoner… giving his life for the sake of a younger Man with a family. This man survived the War and many years later was present when the Catholic Church made Kolbe a Saint.
I am no Catholic yet believe this man’s heroic sacrifice is worthy of remembrance.
We all know the shameful deal the Catholic church made with the Nazi Regime… yet Kolbe is a demonstration that it is wrong to judge *all Catholics* living through that time by the actions of their Church hierarchy.
Many German’s also gave their lives fighting the Nazis and refusing to surrender their values… Dietrich Bonhoeffer being another… and Hans and Sophie Scholl… proving there were Brave and Nobel Germans prepared to pay the ultimate price rather than bend the knee to The Satanic Adolf Hitler.
“When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again.
I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting.
Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… That pure chance could be so generous and so kind… That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time… That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful… The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday.
I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.”
― Ann Druyan
…………..
My commentary…
These words (above) very much remind me of my beloved Uncle who passed away in recent years.
He was a committed atheist who believed life was ultimately meaningless and that death was the end.
I can be certain he never entertained any hope or expectation of ever seeing his beloved wife (my fabulous Aunty) ever again.
How tragic and empty.
They did not *know* they would never see each other again… that was simply an article of their faith… and what a hollow faith it is… devoid of meaning… devoid of hope… foolish even… given so many of us know the truth of the Bible.
The time of Sagan was tragically dominated by the delusions of scientism and materialism… both have been overthrown… yet sadly so many millions still cling to them because they cannot fathom or bear the alternative paradigm. They are Aliens to God… Aliens to the truth… They prefer the darkness of Nihilism.
I know this because I was once one myself… a militant atheist trapped in the delusions of materialism… despite the fact that it’s foundations have been utterly overthrown.
The Ultimate death nail being the fact that the Laws of physics have been proven to be contingent, temporal, and strictly limited… not absolute as was once believe as the foundation stone of Materialism. That has been Blown to pieces. I tell my Children that even though I shall die… I will see them again, as we have that Divine promise in the Gospel and the historic fact of the resurrection of Christ.
Christianity is a superior faith in every way over the paucity and delusions of Atheist materialism.
*******
Retort 1….
My reply…
Nihilism. Yes. For it follows from Godless materialism.
You don’t have to take my ‘whacky’ ‘crack pot’ theistic word for it.
No less than Nobel prize winner for Philosophy Atheist Bertrand Russell deems it so!
I myself had a wonderful and intelligent Atheist Uncle… I do not hesitate to say he was a good man. Kind, and charitable, yet he would be the first to admit that atheism has no foundation for morals.
I loved him very much and had many conversations attempting to sway him to realise his errors… He would no be moved.
He simply chose to be kind… displaying many atheists cannot bear to live consistently with their own professed world view, but instead mimic Christian values… as if morality really is objectively true. This evidences the inner conflict such atheists face… for intuitively we sense moral laws… yet they cannot be reconciled as objectively valid from Atheist premises. Instead they are often given ‘Darwinian Attributes’… ie that moral sentiments ’embed themselves’ biologically… not because they are *moral laws* in the Christian sense… but because they serve beneficial genetic survival properties…. so such rationalisms…
This is the tragedy of the delusions of Materialism… for such souls pass into eternity not accepting or admitting their own sinful fallen moral condition and need for Christ.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.
King James Bible believer.
Below this ‘introduction’ is Large portion/excerpt from the Wikipedia Website on what is being called ‘The Third Man Factor’.
It contains quite a few historical accounts of Explorers and other people who when in dire situations experienced ‘A guiding presence’ that helped them survive perilous trials.
This includes one of the Greatest explorers of all time Ernest Shackleton. His exploits were truly epic to the degree of defying human limits of endurance.
That this phenomena is *a real thing* is not in dispute as it has been reported many times.
The reason I’m posting this to Eternal Vigilance Blog is because I wish to discuss what you people (and myself) think this phenomena really is?
Is it (A) a real spiritual encounter with benevolent spirit beings?
Or (B) just a quirky psychological delusion brought on by stress… ie ‘a coping mechanism’ of the mind?
Or (C) something else?
Read the Wiki excerpt below… take in all the details… then ask yourself how this is best explained.
Why did you arrive at your conclusion?
My intention is to expose our *personal prejudices, and aversions* and how they affect our interpretation of facts.
Are we truly open minded and objective thinkers or are we twisted souls with blinders on… that prevent us from being able to perceive the truth?
My contention is most atheists go through life with blinders on… preventing them from seeing truth and severely limiting their understanding of realty.
I have experienced this myself. I have also experienced the scales falling from my eyes.
With few exceptions most *Atheists* will without hesitation jump towards the ‘Secular so-called scientific explanation’ of this phenomena… not because it best fits the facts presented, but on the basis of their own atheist preconceptions they bring with them on this investigation… their rock solid certainty that spirits don’t exist… therefore that explanation can’t be true.
So they assume this must be a psychological phenomena… because that’s the only naturalistic explanation.
Yet this is not ‘practicing science’. This is applying personal belief to the situation… that is all.
The only reason you (atheist) find that a satisfying explanation is because it saves you confronting the uncomfortable probability that these are in fact recorded human encounters with real spirit beings.
*That is too extreme a proposition for most Atheists to give any credence.*
Why?
Because to entertain that possibility challenges their entire world view!
It breaches their fundamental tenets… No Ghosts allowed!
This is why I’m presenting this recorded phenomena here today to expose how our preconceptions limit our ability to think objectively about the world about us.
Ghosts may indeed exist! Yet if you have a mental block against that possibility… no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise. You are impervious to it all.
Every account of people claiming to have seen Ghosts you must write off as delusional… without any evidence! That is your default setting.
Let me introduce a second very commonly recorded phenomena…. Nocturnal ‘Entity Attacks’.
Millions of people throughout history have experienced being attacked in bed at night by malevolent spirit beings.
I was once an atheist teenager who experienced this myself… it was terrifying… I have recorded my experience here… yet when I talked with people about it I was told “Oh that’s when you wake up at night but your body is still asleep’.
‘Scientists’ have even given it a secular name ‘Sleep paralysis’.
When I herd this explanation… being an atheist… I accepted it because it seemed to me that ‘Science had investigated this and knew what it was…. besides… It can’t have been a real spirit attack… because spirits don’t exist!
Relieved by this knowledge… Science has an explanation… I went on with my life. (though I never forgot the experience! Too Freaky!)
Several years later…. after (much to my own surprise) I had become a Christian I contemplated my experiences (x2) and realised just how easily fooled I was into thinking that Entity attack was *not a real spiritual experience, but some sort of psychological delusion.
When I thought about the experience itself… and having put aside my Atheist spectacles I realised that by far the most compelling explanation was that what I experienced was real… esp when you read the many many accounts of others who have experienced it too.
It is then that you realise the so-called ‘scientific explanation’ was a load of bollocks!
Not science at all… just atheist presuppositions dressed up as ‘science’… ie the Blinders that keep fools believing there are no Spirits, No Ghosts, Not Miracles…. and no God.
In truth recorded history is cram packed with accounts of spiritual experiences!
The greatest of these being the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That really happened, yet you can’t see any of these facts if you have your atheist blinders on.
You will swallow any ‘rationalist drivel’… any so-called ‘secularisation of events’… rather than believe supernatural or spiritual realities exist and happen and have been recorded in history proper.
What is patently obvious to me now is how hollow and vacuous and absurd 99% of the Atheist rationalizations are about Reality!
They profess to know everything when in fact they know nothing.
They are lost and confounded by their own follies.
IMO one of the greatest… most sophisticated of pseudo-scientific myths believed by atheists today is the Theory of Evolution.
Let’s leave that for another time.
It is difficult to break the strong delusion that ‘science has answered the question about what Entity attacks really are’ as the rationales provided are powerful… yet I can assert with certainty that the arguments presented by so-called ‘sleep experts’… are not valid science.
One way to do this however is to ask these experts… or atheists… what circumstances… or proofs would they accept would invalidate, or disprove their belief these phenomena are just psychological but are in fact real?
Philosopher of Science Karl Popper said one of the essential attributes that distinguishes true science from pseudo-science is the principle of falsifiability.
For an idea/proposition to have scientific validity you must be able to define mechanisms that should they be proven… *falsifies the proposition*`.
This is a safety mechanism to guard against ‘Scientism’ and pseudo-science.
This being so… under what conditions would an atheist accept ‘these visitations’ are not mere hallucinations?
One might say… what about bite marks? Or Claw marks? Does not an absence of any physical evidence prove these things are hallucinations?
No… for 2 reasons.
1. For if these things are spiritual/ incorporeal entities… expecting them to leave ‘physical evidence’ has no basis. It’s just a whim.
And secondly… and more importantly… *reports of physical evidence has been reported!* These would indicate that whatever these beings are… they are capable of physical harm!
A recent account like this was from no one less than the Famous TV presenter Tucker Clarlson… who experienced a physical spiritual attack that left marks on his Body.
Yet what did sceptics say? They said he had injured himself while he was asleep! Or he had been attacked by one of his dogs!
So you see… Atheists will *always* come up with some *rationalisation* why they reject the possibility these entities are real.
Not even physical evidence will convince them.
This shows that the atheist premise that these entity attacks are mere psychological events… is not True science… but pseudo-science because there are no conditions by which their assumptions and rationisations can be falsified. They continue to rationalise away all evidence… they simply refuse to believe these attacks can be real.
I myself suspect what Sleep experts call ‘Sleep paralysis’ and what History describes as ‘Entity attacks’ are actually two completely different phenomena, yet they share some common attributes… If so-called ‘sleep paralysis’ is a thing at all.
IMO It’s more likely a complete pseudo-scientific fabrication whose only purpose is to discredit ‘Entity attacks’ as valid spiritual experiences… after all so-called ‘sleep experts’ have to have *some explanation* for what is going on… because something is definitely going on!
With this in mind please now read the Wikipedia excerpt I have posted below.
Make up your own minds about it… yet just remember there are two perspectives presented below.
1. is the so-called scientists and psychologists who have deemed these experiences to be nothing more that a ‘ psychological coping mechanism’
And 2. The perspective of the people who experienced the phenomena themselves… and are convinced they encountered benevolent spirit beings that helped them in their hour of need.
When I read their accounts… I fall into Camp 2 because I think it’s absurd to think Adults invent ‘imaginary friends’ and that these delusions know what to do… which direction they should take, etc etc. IMO those are definitive traits of an entity who knows the way.
What a mind-popping experience it is for any atheist to realise Spirit beings possibly do exist!
That is the beginning of the scales falling from your eyes…
In a society where belief in God and Ghosts is frowned upon as ‘delusional’, it takes great courage to swim against the current of popular materialism.
Some people simply don’t have the moral courage to follow their own convictions choosing instead to sheepishly go along with the crowd.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian.
Please read the Wiki Excerpt below…
Third man factor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The third man factor or third man syndrome refers to the reported situations where an unseen presence, such as a spirit, provides comfort or support during traumatic experiences.
History
Sir Ernest Shackleton, in his 1919 book South, described his belief that an incorporeal companion joined him and his men during the final leg of his 1914–1917 Antarctic expedition, which became stranded in pack ice for more than two years and endured immense hardships in the attempt to reach safety. Shackleton wrote, “during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia, it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.”[1] His admission resulted in other survivors of extreme hardship coming forward and sharing similar experiences.
Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
— But who is that on the other side of you?
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land Wikisource has information on “The Waste Land”
Lines 359 through 365 of T. S. Eliot’s 1922 modernist poem The Waste Land were inspired by Shackleton’s experience, as stated by the author in the notes included with the work. It is the reference to “the third” in this poem that has given this phenomenon its name (when it could occur to even a single person in danger).
In recent years, well-known adventurers like climber Reinhold Messner and polar explorers Peter Hillary and Ann Bancroft have reported experiencing the phenomenon. One study of cases involving adventurers reported that the largest group involved climbers, with solo sailors and shipwreck survivors being the second most common group, followed by polar explorers.[2] A similar experience was documented by mountain climber Joe Simpson in his 1988 book Touching the Void, which recounts his near-death experience in the Peruvian Andes. Simpson describes “a voice” which encouraged him and directed him as he crawled back to base camp after suffering a horrible leg injury high on Siula Grande and falling off a cliff and into a crevasse. Some journalists have related this to the concept of a guardian angel or imaginary friend.
Scientific explanations consider the phenomenon a coping mechanism or an example of bicameral mentality.
[3] The concept was popularized by a 2009 book by John G. Geiger, The Third Man Factor, which documents scores of examples.
The idea that there are aliens out there is pure Atheist Evolutionary Myth. The reality is *Life cannot spontaneously generate* Mic Drop. We know this because There is no such thing as a ‘simple cell’… Cells are super-complex… that is why blind nature cannot make life…. Mic Drop. Which is also why The Firmi paradox is a death blow to Atheist evolution and why Brian is bothered by this truth.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian.
Dispensationalist.
Transcript:
“There’s a thing called the Fermi- Paradox… and the paradox is… if we hadn’t seen anything… lets assume we haven’t seen any evidence of anything… That’s a paradox. We now know.
We didn’t when Firmi first posed it. by the way.
We now know there’s so many planets out there… so let’s say trillions of planets in the Milky way. The Milky ways been there for over 13 billion years. Pretty much the age of the Universe. So If there’s no one else out there, then the question is why?
Because there’s been so much Time and so many places for civilisations to become Space faring civilisations. We are very close to becoming a multi planetary civilisation. And once you have become a Multi planetary and multi Stellar civilisation, and you become that you’re immortal basically.
So the question is… the paradox is why does it appear nobody has done that.
So the first thing to say is…. I would not be surprised if a UFO landed here now in the parking lot. I’d actually not only would I not be surprised, I’d be relieved.
This is good. It would be a weight off my shoulders. because I’m worried [Joe Rogan: that we are the only ones… that’s a terrifying scenario] … and we are going to make a mess of it.
Brian Cox on Joe Rogan.
**********
There is a God.
He Created this Universe and Us.
We fell into evil and that is why he separated himself from us.
Yet he loves us and has provided a way for us to be forgiven and cleansed from Sin.
By believing the Gospel and receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Christ died on the cross for our sins.
He was buried, and rose from the dead on the third day in victory over sin and death.
Whosoever believes the gospel and calls upon the name of Christ… shall be saved from eternal damnation and instead will live forevermore in God’s loving presence.
My answer… off the cuff…
There are several levels of ‘Sovereignty’.
The most essential one’s being God’s Divine Sovereignty and from this Individual sovereignty.
Individual sovereignty is a vital concept for Human Freedom which is only possible from a theistic foundation in which the Human Individual is imbued with Inalienable rights to life and Liberty.
The fundamental argument being we are given our lives and Freedom directly from God Almighty and it is Theft for governments, or anyone to rob us of our God given life and freedom.
We Free Men then can form a National government which derives it’s *National sovereignty* from a collective of our individual sovereignty and right to form a government. The Government in this way is *Not sovereign*… but the servant of the Sovereign people.
Yet still the people cannot imbue their government with any greater rights or authority than they posses *as individuals*…. therefore no collective of people have the right to create a government that tramples upon the God given rights of Individuals or minorities. No such legitimate power exists.
Therefore the Government must be strictly limited in it’s power, scope, and function leaving the Individuals with their Liberty to follow their own consciences… practice their own faith…. exercise their own values… the only condition being they respect the rights of others to do the same thing… and that their actions do not transgress the rights of others. This is where such things as Private property and free speech are essential rights. Private property is where we may practice our faith. Free speech being distinguished from violence means we can speak out minds and openly evangelise our faith and political opinions… which even if others do not like them or causes them offence… do not constitute violence and so do not violate others rights… and as such are lawful.
Atheism has no foundation for the sovereignty of individuals… no foundation for individual rights in fact no foundation for objective morality at all.
Famously The atheist Jeremy Bentham called rights ‘Nonsense on stilts’.
Atheist Hobbes said their is no higher power than *Might*…. The Leviathan state.
This is why under the atheist materialist paradigm there is no defense against *The sovereign State* which then can treat individuals in any way they see fit.
This is the Atheist Marxist conception whereby Individuals can be sacrificed for the sake of the Collective… The State. There are no Higher Moral Principles by which The All powerful State can be deemed to be Evil. In The Marxist consception… whatever serves the benefit of the Party State is moral* …. That’s Lenin.
so you have a choice… God and Human Rights vs Atheist Nihilism and the subordination of human beings to absolute power.
Some may recognise my comment reply (above) is based on dialogue from a Hollywood movie about Men who went to Mars.
Now If the Earth looked *like Mars*… just a bleak desert with rocks strewn all over … a world like that I could believe could be explicable by the blind forces of Physics and the process of Time… *Yet Look at our Earth!!!* You have to be ideologically brainwashed to think *Our Earth* is explicable in those terms!
There’s a glaring fundamental difference between Earth and all the other bodies we see in Space!
Earth in fact is proof enough of the existence of God Almighty. It stands as a refutation of Atheist Materialism.
There are no Values on Mars… no meaning… no purpose… no truth… no love…. how different is Earth!
Yet Atheists try to sterilize Earth of all these and render our lives as empty and meaningless as Mars.
Like the miracle of life Atheists have to say Truth, Love and Justice are just illusory constructs that have no objective validity… because that is what is at the heart of atheism… a black emptiness… a void.