Tag Christian

The Silence of the Lambs

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

  1. No I am not talking about the movie starring Jodi Foster and Anthony Hopkins but rather the reluctance of Christians to speak out on political issues. The silence of the lambs has allowed an ever-expanding government to grow even larger and more tyrannical with each subsequent administration.

In this article from Godfather Politics the author traces the silencing of the lambs historically to tyrannical regimes of the past including China and Nazi Germany. The article’s writer cites references to the government crackdown on religion and especially preachers who dared challenge the government aggression or speak out against government abuses of power.

“Over time, churches in Nazi German were “confined as far as possible to the performance of narrowly religious functions, and even within this narrow sphere were subjected to as many hindrances as the Nazis dared to impose.” This is the evaluation of a 1945 report published by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. It was called The Nazi Master Plan: The Persecution of the Christian Churches and was prepared for the War Crimes Staff. It offered the following summary: “This study describes, with illustrative factual evidence, Nazi purposes, policies and methods of persecuting the Christian Churches in Germany and occupied Europe.””

  1. “Where did the strategic plan begin? “Implementation of this objective
    started with the curtailment of religious instruction in the primary and
    secondary schools with the squeezing of the religious periods into
    inconvenient hours, with Nazi propaganda among the teachers in order to
    induce them to refuse the teaching of religion, with vetoing of . . .
    religious text books, and finally with substituting [a] Nazi Weltanschauung [worldview] and ‘German faith’ for Christian religious denominational instruction. . .”

  2. “The next step was to neutralize the impact that churches would have on
    politics. “Under the pretext that the Churches themselves were
    interfering in political and state matters, [the Nazis] would deprive
    the Churches, step by step, of all opportunity to affect German public
    life.” How often do we hear that the “separation between church and
    state” means that churches must remain silent on social and political
    issues?”

If any of this sounds familiar it is because the wiles of the devil have not changed. In order to gain access to destroy a family, a community, a city or a country the evil one must first be granted permission to do his dirty work. By getting God-fearing men and women to fear the created and not the Creator, the enemy of life and peace is able to gain the upper hand and sets himself up as god. This can be seen clearly in the garden of Eden where the serpent beguiled Eve to seduce Adam to disobey God and by so doing the serpent gains access to all that once belonged to Adam. The serpent gained power over all of life and began to bring about man’s destruction along with everything created by God.

  1. Adam did not heed the Lord’s command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and by his disobedience sin entered the world.

Sin came into the world through one person, and death came through sin. So death spread to everyone, because everyone sinned.Romans 5:12 (GW)

Jesus came to regain the authority that Adam lost through his disobedience. Jesus therefore defeated the power the enemy had to run amok in the world. Therefore Satan has to resort to his tried and true tactics to gain power and authority over a group of people. His main modus operandi is to twist the word of God to seduce people into believing that God hates them and is keeping something from them and thereby getting a person to distrust God which makes them an easy target.

Be well-balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour. Withstand him; be firm in faith [against his onset—rooted, established, strong, immovable, and determined], knowing that the same (identical) sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood (the whole body of Christians) throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the dominion (power, authority, rule) forever and ever. Amen (so be it). 1 Peter 5:8-11 (AMP)
God gives stern warnings to the church and church leaders who refuse to warn His people of impending doom and destruction. Since Satan operates in all areas of life that pertains to humanity why should Christians be limited to only being concerned about one area of life the spiritual? Shouldn’t Christian leaders be encouraging their flocks to be diligent in all areas of life especially since Satan is out to gain authority over them anyway that he can? I think that answer to that is obvious.
The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, “Son of man, speak to your people. Tell them, ‘Suppose I bring war on this country, and the people of this country choose one of their men and make him their watchman. If he sees the enemy coming to attack the country, he will blow his horn to warn the people. If the people hear the horn and ignore the warning and the enemy comes and takes them, they will be responsible for their own deaths. They heard the sound of the horn but ignored its warning. So they are responsible for their own deaths. If they had taken the warning, they would have saved themselves. “‘But if the watchman sees the enemy coming and doesn’t blow his horn to warn the people and the enemy comes and kills someone, that watchman must die because of his sin. I will hold him responsible for their deaths.‘ Ezekiel 33:1-6 (GW)

The trumpet has been sounded, you have been warned, take heed to yourself how you shall respond. As for me and this blog I will continue to speak forth the words of the Lord as the Lord gives me the utterance so help me God.

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Today is Saint Patrick’s Day

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Oh I know today is not really Saint Patrick’s day but indulge me for a wee bit and you will see why I say today really is Saint Patrick’s day.

Patrick was one of Christianity’s first outspoken opponents of slavery. 1

Patrick lived after Christianity became mainstream in the Roman Empire. He was born sometime around AD 386 in Britain and died around 460 in Ireland.2 His grandfather was a priest, and his father was a Roman official who was also a deacon in the Roman church. Patrick left two documents: his Confession and Letter to Coroticus.

Patrick’s Letter to Coroticus described converts taken into slavery, with the sign of the cross still fresh on their foreheads. Patrick pleaded for their safe return. He begged Britain’s Christian leadership for help, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Patrick’s decision to identify himself with the Irish, a culture outside of Roman Christianity, diminished his ability to influence the church in Britain.3

Patrick was especially concerned about how Christian women suffered in slavery. Cahill quotes Patrick as saying:

“But it is the women kept in slavery who suffer the most — and who keep their spirits up despite the menacing and terrorizing they must endure. The Lord gives grace to his handmaids; and though they are forbidden to do so, they follow him with backbone.” 4

His outcries against slavery were eventually successful. During Patrick’s lifetime (or shortly after), the slave trade in Ireland stopped.

Human trafficking is today’s equivalent to slavery. Women and children are held against their will and forced to work for their masters. Some sources suggest that 100,000 minors suffer as sex-slaves within the U.S. borders alone, and even more shocking, 100 million people in India are sex-slaves. Of India’s prostitute population, 40% are children. 5

St. Patrick’s Letter pleaded for such as these:

“Hence the Church mourns and laments her sons and daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who were removed and carried off to faraway lands, where sin abounds openly, grossly, impudently. There people who were freeborn have, been sold, Christians made slaves, and that, too, in the service of the abominable, wicked, and apostate [unbelievers].” 6

WHERE IS ST. PATRICK TODAY?

Today’s Saint Patrick are people who (a) love God deeply and are able to discern His calling, (b) are able to teach deep truths by illustrations from common experience, (c) prove their faith through a genuine love for people, advocating the cause of those who cannot defend themselves; often this advocacy is motivated by personal experience, and (d) have a deep and personal prayer life.

Patrick’s life was full of obstacles for those who would want to become leaders in a local church much like today: he lacked education and experienced a terrifying adolescence. Those experiences prepared him to be able to reach out to those who are also outcast by the established church. Patrick’s lack of formal education made him a practical theologian, but a theologian none-the-less. Imagine if God only used the seminary trained to reach the lost? Perhaps that is why the populations of the lost continues to grow rapidly while the population of the church continues to decline?

Today is Saint Patrick’s day, a day for all those who have dedicated their lives to God, who may be overlooked by the church, and perhaps considered by some to be uneducated, to arise and go forth like Saint Patrick of Ireland. There is still much work to be done in the world. Make today and everyday Saint Patrick’s day.

Just a view from the nest

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31Open Link in New Window (BBE)

Along for the journey


1 Dates taken from the Dictionary of Christian Biography. Ed. Michael Walsh. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001.

2 As claimed by Thomas Cahill, and evidenced in both Patrick’s Confession and Letter to Coroticus. Also mentioned in Jonathan Hills What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? How It Shaped the Modern World. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

3 Both his identification with the Irish and a sin he confessed before entering the priesthood hindered his influence with the British. His confessed sin somehow become a scandal among church leadership, and prompted him to write his Confession.

4 From Patrick’s Confession, and quoted in Cahill, 109.


6 “Letter to Coroticus.” http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1166.htm
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Yes America, There is a Jesus Christ

Allen Frederick 6 Comments

Be ready to spread the word whether or not the time is right. Point out errors, warn people, and encourage them. Be very patient when you teach. A time will come when people will not listen to accurate teachings. Instead, they will follow their own desires and surround themselves with teachers who tell them what they want to hear. People will refuse to listen to the truth and turn to myths. 2 Timothy 4:2-4

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglica...
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In Germany, as in most of Western Europe, there is a continuing debate about the emerging Muslim population. Their traditions and customs are constantly being called into question, especially those related to women wearing the burqa.

Recently German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to enter into the debate and make very explicit her feelings on the issues that are dividing a country, fostering hostility and discrimination. In a speech to her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, she said the problem is “We don’t have too much Islam, we have too little Christianity.” She informed the delegates that multiculturalism in Germany had utterly failed.

And here in America apparently the same thing can be said of us. We too have too little Christianity. A great deal of religion perhaps, but very little true Christianity.

Last year (October 2009) the Pew Forum on Religion in America showed us to be a nation that is, more and more, spiritual but not very religious. Asked to describe their beliefs, many Americans describe a theology that is a mulligan stew of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Native American spirituality, and New Age mumbo-jumbo. http://pewforum.org/

In the mainline denominations, church attendance has replaced church membership as the measure of a church‘s success because American Christians prefer to attend churches that don’t require a commitment.

An Insight Express survey conducted for Parade magazine shows that nearly 60% of Americans believe that all religions have validity. A quarter of Americans say that while religion is part of their lives, it isn’t a big part. While 69% of Americans claim to believe in God, only 27% attend religious services weekly, and a third confess to attending only rarely.

According to the latest data, those Christians for whom religion is important don’t really know all that much about it.

Last year the Barna Group discovered that half of all Christians don’t believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit are real, living entities. A third agreed that the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon taught the same basic truths — and simultaneously believed that the Bible, which says some radically different things from the other two books, is “totally accurate” in its principles. Forty percent don’t know what they think or how they feel about Wicca, even after they’ve been told that it is an “organized form of witchcraft.”

And this year the Pew Forum on Religion in America has just informed us that Christians know less about their own religion than atheists and agnostics do. In fact, compared to Jews, Muslims, Mormons, atheists, and agnostics, Christians know the least about religion in general and their own religion in particular.

What do you suppose is the reason for these statistics. Every town has at least one church, some have several within a 4 block radius of one another. It would appear that America loves to go to church with the number of church buildings in every town and hamlet across the country. But look inside and you will see empty pews . Church attendance is seen as unimportant to many in our society. And society shows the signs of this apathetic behavior.

Promotion of the Gospel of Christ has been eliminated from most public debate and instruction. Businesses, governments, schools and the public square have all but eliminated any mention of God or God’s ways. The teachings of Christ have not only been eliminated from the public forum, it has also all but disappeared in our homes as well.

Yes Virginia, we are told there is a Santa Clause, but I ask you is there a Jesus Christ in your Christmas plans? At this time of Advent it would do us all well to evaluate our walks and commitment to the Lord. Have we made God an afterthought, or is He first and foremost in our hearts and minds? According to the statistics quoted above I fear the former is our reality. Yes America there is too little Christianity.

And that is this weeks tail feather. Think about it.

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31Open Link in New Window (BBE)

Along for the journey
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Never Give Up

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

As a Christian we have a higher power from which we can draw our strength from. Although there are many who rise up against you never forget that greater is He who is with you then he who is with them. We serve the greater good, the highest authority, and the final arbitrator of all things. He is the King of kings and the Lord of all lords. And you my child are a King’s kid.
 

 

What We Spend Our Time Talking About

Allen Frederick 2 Comments

 

Here is a pictorial representation of the topics discussed here at Journey Across the Sky. You can get a pictorial image of your blog by going to wordle.com. As you can see there is a large number of topics discussed here at this blog but one of the biggest entries is God. My aim is to talk about current events in light of scripture and see how we are to respond to these events. As a Christian I think it is important that we filter everything through the scriptures to see how God views these issues. There is nothing new under the sun as Solomon stated so well. And therefore every issue we face in life there are scriptures to help us sort through them and find out how God instructed Israel to deal with these same issues.

Regardless how hard I try to maintain purity in my posts I am sure from time to time I may err in my speech. The bible tells us:

 

When words are many, sin is not lacking; so he who controls his speech is wise. The tongue of the righteous is like pure silver, but the mind of the wicked is worth little. The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.
Proverbs 10:19-21

Idle talk can pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise can heal. Truthful words will stand forever, lying speech but a moment.
Proverbs 12:18-19

The wise man’s heart teaches his mouth, and to his lips it adds learning. Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the taste and healing for the body.
Proverbs 16:23-24

He who belittles another lacks good sense, whereas a person of discernment stays silent.
Proverbs 11:12

It is not my intention to offend anyone nor is it my heart’s desire to share untruths with the world, my aim is to be a blessing and encouragement to others. May God bless you as you travel with me as we Journey Across the Sky.

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