An ex-girlfriend once sent me a card. She wrote on the envelope, “To my space cadet.” Naturally enough, she meant it in the nicest possible way!
I was talking to someone the other day, who was not a Christian as such, but who was well familiar with the Gospels, who described John as a “space cadet”. That struck me as very apt! Absolutely, the Gospel of John is “space cadet” material. It’s completely mind-blowing, in fact. And, naturally enough, my favourite Gospel!
Here are some very apt words from the Gospel of John the Space Cadet.
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you… If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you… because they do not know Him who sent Me.” (NKJV)
“These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” (NKJV)
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” (NKJV)
“Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (NKJV)
Apparently tomorrow is ‘World Press Freedom Day’.
Forgive me for not swooning with the reverence as might be assumed to be customary for Liberty lovers on such an occasion, yet please don’t mistake my lack of enthusiasm as an indication that I harbour a distaste for such an important vanguard of freedom and justice as a Free press is supposed to represent, because that’s not so. The Ideal of a Free Press is noble indeed.
The reason I’m about to rain on this parade is because like that other assumed vanguard of freedom which a free press is supposed to champion (Democracy), there are other vital factors at play which are pre-requisites upon which these ‘Vanguards’ are co-dependent if they are to function properly and without which they are rendered no vanguard at all, but become the tools of deception and oppression.
They become ‘Wolves in sheep’s clothing’ … merely feigning the roles of instruments of justice and liberty but are in reality no such thing.
Being a Gadfly, it is both my nature and my duty to now raise my pointy finger, and ask out loud …
“What Good is a free press if it *thinks and acts* like it’s attached to the Propaganda office of the Government?”
I raise this question because for the Free Press to actually be the vanguard of Justice, Liberty, and democracy requires it to be stationed by Independent thinkers whom are wise in the ways of Freedom, are zealous of the principles that underpin Individual rights and liberties, and have a good grasp of the Nature of Political power and its inclination to Grow at the expense of personal freedom, and to encroach into spheres that ought to be strictly kept free of political interventions. Only then can the ‘Free Press’ vigilantly keep watch, and be ready raise the alarm when Government crosses the line.
I ask “How are Journalists supposed to raise the alarm against Bad laws, corruption and abuse of power if they have been brainwashed by a corrupt government into thinking its activities are not corrupt or abuses of Power… because they have been trained to believe such evils are instead ‘Good’?
When tyranny goes on the war path, instead of raising the alarm, the politically compromised press applauds! … and busy themselves as an army of voluntary Spin doctors selling the tyranny to the gullible public, much to the Glee of the Demagogues who instead for facing the wrath of an informed public may continue to act the part of Piety, benevolence, and Patriotism, though in reality they are unscrupulous, malevolent traitors.
Let me now declare that this is the sorry state that currently prevails within our Nations Free Press!
Can you now understand why I’m not ‘excited’ about tomorrows ‘World Free Press Day’?
How, you may wonder, did the press of New Zealand, and other western countries contract this leprosy?
Let me declare that it is a Congenital disease the spawn of which was seeded 200 years ago with the growth of the ideology of Materialism which has slowly but steadily displaced the ideology which underpins the belief in God given Rights and Liberties, and a strictly limited state.
It has taken generations of decay… of creeping socialism…. Of incremental usurpations and encroachments by an ever expanding Leviathan… yet has reached its acute stage today because the Governments of the West have usurped control of the sphere of Education, and thus have the power to directly programme the minds of our nations children and young people, and thus socially engineer a childishly submissive society which now assumes there are no sphere of activity that ought to lie outside the realms of political intervention, and believes that all life’s problems have political solutions.
*And the Nations Journalists are trained and receive their credentials directly from such the state*
We Libertarians call it Nanny State.
There it is I said it! By controlling the education system the Government has been able to castrate the Free press, and directly program the masses into a herd of docile sheeple whom are so ‘institutionalised’, that like long term Jail birds facing the an end of their imprisonment …the idea that they may one day have to take care of themselves paralyzes them with dread!
The Social engineers have succeeded in creating a Nation of voluntary slaves, whom have surrendered all their rights, and their dignity, for the sake of being supplied stale bread, told what to do, believe, and think, and for the security of a Jail cell.
Few reading these words will concur with them. Many will laugh and assert that I am delusional… ‘an extremist’, not knowing their conclusion is a symptom of the disease. Those whom reject my remedy… that the state ought to be removed from control of the education system, as a matter of Principle, and urgency (thereby cutting off this means of social manipulation) prove themselves to be incapable of conceiving the benefits of living in a society in which education has been liberated from Political control. My detractors harbour all sorts of wild ‘nightmare’ scenarios of Chaos and disorder should Education be removed from the clutches of Government… all pure fantasy… all figments of twisted imaginations generated in the minds of institutionalised inmates.
This terror of Removing the State from Education is today shared by most of the Journalists and editors whom populate the nations so-called ‘Free Press’.
This is why they voluntarily work uphold the status quo *as if they were on the government Payroll*, churning out Pro-Government Press by the kilometre.
Thus when Independent outsiders (Like myself and other Libertarians) try to enter the Democratic Ring and present challenges to the way things are being done we are ignored. Thus the so-called Free-press fails in the moral duty of their profession to inform the public of these alternative views and arguments so that they can make an informed choice at election time… and so democracy is again perverted… to the benefit of the powers that be.
The ‘Free Press act in cahoots with the corrupt powers mongers of the status Quo… and being completely left out of the political dialogues that attend elections and the important issues of the day… Challengers to the Status quo don’t stand a hope in hell of getting elected … any press they manage to swing usually belittles them as ‘whacos’, etc.
I speak from first hand experience in these matters having stood for a dozen or more Elections, both at National Level and for City Council.
I have presented the best arguments and principles, which in a ‘better’society that actually had a Press corp that actually did its Job properly would in themselves have attracted the attention of savvy professional Journalists with the capacity to analyze the political debate, and understand their value in respect to the democratic process.
Time has proven my arguments to be true, and had Hamilton city actually elected me I would have saved the ratepayers hundreds of millions of Dollars.
Had I been elected to Parliament, among other things I would have been in a position to help Don Brash put an end to Treaty separatism, and the apartheid electoral system.
Yet the Press ( Waikato Times) treated me like I was ‘a nobody’… and because of this ‘black out’, the people of Hamilton didn’t even know what I represented on their ballots. ( I exclude the small independent weekly ‘Hamilton News’ from my condemnations as they served Hamilton well by printing many articles I penned, and I salute them.)
There are countless other Evils caused directly by our Nanny states control over the education of our Nation, including the broad acceptance currently enjoyed by the doctrines and institutions of Waitangi Racism and apartheid, yet they are separate issues. In the Late 1800 Herbert Spencer wrote a Book called ‘The Man vs The State’ in which he addressed the evils that would befall nations which were foolish enough to allow their Governments to usurp control of the Education system… and it has all come to pass!
I have hereby achieved what I set out to do tonight… which was not simply to bleat about me personally being ignored by the press, but to expose the moral corruption of New Zealand’s socalled ‘Free Press’ and highlight one of the chief reasons The labour and National Parties are so entrenched. I want to throw down the challenge to any Jurnos or Editors reading this post to start fulfilling the Moral obligations of their Profession. Start Publishing *Real* Criticisms of the status Quo. Start including ‘Outsiders’ in the Political issues and debates. That is what a ‘Free Press’ ought to be.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Update: Here is a link to another piece I wrote on this same subject
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” (NIV)
This complaint is made under principle 3 (No advertisement should be misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive the consumer).
It has come to my attention that the Advertising Standards Authority is not an authority in any meaningful sense and that the “Advertising Standards Authority” is actually a Society. The name of this Society is misleading. The name would cause members of the public to believe that the Advertising Standards Authority is a government empowered agency.
The Advertising Standards Society also misleadingly issues members of the public with “rulings” (definition: an authoritative decision or pronouncement, esp. one made by a judge).
It is reasonable to expect that many people have complied with the Society’s “rulings” because they were misled by the name of the society and thought there was an obligation to comply with “rulings”. It is also reasonable to expect that many members of the public have incurred costs in compliance as a result of the misleading language.
Can you please investigate?
When I get a response from them I will post it here.
Blair Mulholland has the background to this story. Yesterday, New Zealand’s “freedom of expression”, a right supposedly protected by our Bill of Rights Act, was involuntarily euthanased after a long battle with the big C.
A church billboard proclaiming that “Jesus Heals Cancer” has breached advertising standards by suggesting the church can offer something other churches cannot, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled.
Tributes pour in from around the blogosphere. Here is New Zealand’s #1 libertarian, Lindsay Perigo, true to form.
Jeezy doesn’t cure cancer … I suppose it would be an affront if he were to. Cancer is presumably Gobby’s work? To heal it would be an act of rebellion against one’s father.
“In all seriousness,” said Perigo on an earlier occasion, “who doesn’t value freedom of speech will lose it.” Are we to suppose, then, that denying a church’s right to express the view that Jesus heals cancer is no great loss?
It’s hardly news that New Zealand’s #1 Objectivist thinks that Christians are scoundrels. Has he forgotten that it was such that H. L. Mencken had in mind?
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Freedom of speech is foremost among the “rights and privileges of British subjects” bestowed on all New Zealanders by the Treaty of Waitangi. In the nineteenth century, the British prided themselves on valuing eccentricity over conformity, on untrameled freedom of speech. Thousands of New Zealanders went on to give their lives for this freedom. We should rage, rage and rage again against anything which threatens its demise.
I know. I’m being premature and uncharitable. In fact, I’m confident that Perigo’s imminent press release will blow the Advertising Standards Authority to kingdom come. And, really, I suppose, I should practise what I preach.
“For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”
Psalm 91vs11
One of the most amazing wonders of our world is The Van Allen belt… like a Guardian Angel the Earths Magnetic field shields us from Deadly rays and particles jettisoned from the Sun. Without this Providential defense no life would be possible on Earth.
It is one of the many amazing Phenomena that Atheists simply take for granted as being a ‘happy coincidence’… just like life itself.
It is a coincidence of preposterous odds!
Atheism relies upon litereally thousands of such rediculous wagers.
It is not possible to convince such blind and hard hearted fools that there is a God.
No Proof is sufficient.
One can only marvel at their fanaticism, and be disgusted by their claims of rationality and science!
Tim Wikiriwhi.
This is not an Image of Dante’s Inferno but a photo of Our Sun.
Yet….
‘Lake of Fire’… What a brilliant description for a Star.
What better description of a ‘bottomless pit’ is there than being suspended in the centre of a star… unable to ‘fall’ anywhere?
Oh and I wonder if there are enough stars in the universe to accommodate all the lost souls that have ever been born, and all the Fallen angels… one star per Damned soul?… I’m thinking there are plenty!
Can there be any reasonable doubt of the fact that God Almighty has made Countless Lakes of fire and bottomless pits?
Hell is real people!
That is why God sent Christ!
He takes the judgement of Sin very seriously!
“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28vs 28
“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 3vs19.
“God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” Rom 5vs 8
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”
Footnote: I am not saying the “Sun is the biblical lake of fire!”… im saying its ‘a type’…an interesting ‘Parallel in nature’. Tim Wikiriwhi.
This is the last in a 13-part series wherein I give you Hell, a little booklet by the inimitable Dr. Jeff Obadiah Simmonds.
We humans know instinctively that needless suffering is bad. When we have a sick or injured animal, we have it put down, because we do not want to see them suffer. We feel grieved when we hear of people dying slowly of cancer, and are upset by images of starving people on television. We know that the boy who pulls the wings off flies is cruel—recognising that even flies should not have to suffer needlessly.
If we, as seriously flawed humans, know that we must alleviate suffering, how much more will God, who is all-good and all-perfect, prevent the suffering of His creatures? If we shoot a horse with a broken leg, or put a wounded cat to sleep, how could God tolerate the eternal torment of humans?
We know that a person dying of cancer should be given pain relief—to withhold morphine would be inhuman. Suffering in this situation may only continue for weeks or months—but even this would be intolerable for us. How could God, then, withhold “pain relief” for those in hell, whose suffering does not last for months, but for trillions and trillions of years, and on into eternity?
We may, conceivably, tolerate the eternal suffering of what me might call “truly wicked men” like Hitler and Pol Pot—but Evangelicals imagine that all those who have not made a personal, conscious decision to “accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour” will be thrown into hell forever. This means that otherwise moral people, who are non-Christians, will be eternally tortured.
If I were to burn my daughter with cigarettes or poke out my son’s eyes with a pencil, I would be arrested and sent to prison. Even the most irreligious of people would find my behaviour to be obscene. Yet this is precisely what many Evangelicals believe about God, who is portrayed as One who inflicts torture on a truly massive scale—eternally afflicting His children. If, as a defence, I said that I burned my daughter and blinded my son because I was holy, and my righteousness demanded that I punish sin, people would be repulsed. An act of brutality would not be a manifestation of righteousness, but of unrighteousness—not of holiness, but of terrible evil. Yet Christians say that hell exists because God is holy, and His righteousness demands that He must punish sin.
While I certainly believe God to be both righteous and holy, if hell is an eternal torment of all non-Christians, then God would be neither. He would not deserve our worship but our scorn.
The theory of annihilationism has certain implications, especially for evangelism. Interestingly, the response of many Christians when they hear an annihilationist position is: “What is the point of being a Christian then?” The prospect of an eternal torment in hell is a motivating force for many people to remain believers—if no such punishment exists, surely we are free to eat, drink and be merry, for the worst that will happen is that we cease to be!
But the question must be, what are we saved from and what are we saved to? Jesus offers life, in all its fullness and abundance. We cannot say that if there is no endless torture for unbelievers that “there is no point” in believing. We are believers not because we want to avoid hell, but because we want to have unending fellowship with God, and because we desire the life He offers us. The fact that unbelievers miss out on his fellowship and life is not a reason for us to turn to “wine, women and song”!
Our desire should be to present this offer of eternal bliss to others, so that they too may know God and have fellowship with Him. Evangelism should not be to save people from the torment of hell, but to save people to life. Too often our presentation of the Gospel has been negative—hell has been a big stick with which God will (eternally!) hit people who do not accept Him. Our evangelism is therefore undermined by an inherent contradiction: on the one hand, God loves you; on the other, if you do not believe that He loves you He will torture you forever!
However, from an annihilationist perspective, we may present the love and mercy of God to others, and His offer of eternal life, in a way that does not do violence to the character and nature of God.
The idea of annihilation seems to fit more with what we know of God, as revealed in the Bible: the God who is loving and merciful, and whose holiness compels Him to destroy the evil which He cannot co-exist with. The theory of annihilationism also fits better with what we know of the Jewish context in which Jesus spoke. At the same time, annihilationism remains just a theory (although the traditional view is also just a theory).
Which view most accurately represents what the destiny of the unrepentant will be revealed in due course. In the meantime, we should, at the very least, recognise that annihilationism is, increasingly, a valid evangelical option. In the words of John Stott, annihilationism should “be accepted as a legitimate, biblically sound alternative to [the doctrine of] eternal conscious torment” (Stott 319-32).
The title of this post has been lodged in my head since 1983. It’s the start of the lyrics to the Pink Floyd song The Hero’s Return. The question is essentially the same as one(s) which my co-blogger Tim raised in a comment on another thread.
I would like to know with what urgency do you go about preaching the Gospel of Grace? Is the Gospel the most important truth to you as a Christian? or is being a Christ[ian] merely like being a member of the ‘Rightest’ philosophy/book club?
What[‘s] more….according to your teaching of annihilation… the atheists are right. ie when you die…you die! *That is what they expect* thus what you call Gods judgement is nothing more than what the atheists already expect. Ie it equates to *no judgement* at all.
Me I expect to be judged by the very words of the King James Bible.
For me I can barely sleep at night with concern for the Importance of evangelizing the lost for Christ.
Question: Would you Die for the sake of the Gospel?
is the message of Jesus, the Christ or Messiah—God’s ruler promised by the Scriptures—specifically, the coming Kingdom of God, his death on the cross and resurrection to restore people’s relationship with God, the descent of the Holy Spirit on believers as the helper, the resulting promise and hope of being saved for any who believe and follow Jesus, and through this, a healing of the brokenness of the entire created universe.
But the Gospel is not just a message, it’s a call to action. For me, what’s most important in the Gospel are not its truths but its imperatives.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (NIV)
There’s a war going on between the forces of good and the forces of evil. (Hadn’t you heard?) Life is the battleground. To become a Christian is to enlist and become a soldier in God’s army.
The first commandment is a call to pledge your allegiance to God.
The second commandment is the battle plan. The details are sometimes a bit sketchy. Which is why it helps to pray
Tim is right that atheists expect to die. After decades of atheism I’ve grown used to the idea of personal annihilation. The hope and promise of eternal life played no part in my conversion to Christianity. Partly for this reason, saving souls seems somehow of secondary significance to me. Of course, an army needs recruits, but it also needs specialists. Some will specialise in recruitment, but we all have different callings.
That’s what I think it’s all about. I’ll add that my views on the matter are subject to change. Of course, the question which is the title of this post wasn’t addressed to me, it was addressed to Jesus. He has the answers (here, here, here and here), and we should defer to Him accordingly.
Would I die for the sake of the Gospel? It’s a bit late to ask that now, I already enlisted!
