Anti-Anti's Modern Prosperendum

I recently read a blog post about signs of pride. Most of them were useful, but one was said in a way that blots out a gigantic part of Christian love while highlighting another useful sign of pride. Well, this thing has been pervasive in many Christian groups, and I've never in my life seen the biblical method in action - it's blotted out in our practice. The sign of pride in view here is fault finding. A prideful heart indeed nitpicks others while ignoring sin in self. A biblical solution for that among Christians is to confess your own sin to the others. That will heal the nitpicking form of fault finding that Jesus touched on with the metaphor of the mote and beam. Telling sin to the other is, of course, a tender action of personal closeness. You can't do it if you suspect the other has the same sin, and you can't do it with the biblically unsaved. But oh how it helps! Yet this point about fault finding is very often used to blot out another gift of the Christian co

Because the error is so pervasive, remember that we cannot put our sin to death. Christ does something like that at the moment of our salvation, but He puts us to death. Anyways, our Master Jesus is in the fundamental control of our sin concerning salvation, and we only need to wrestle to conquer the sin in our bodies even though it will technically still remain. We're not talking about sin at the fundamental level where it concerns salvation, but we still must wrestle with it to do what we've been taught about our minds. And because we who are saved all know that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day in accordance with all the prophecies and descriptions in the Bible, we know that we are also raised, and so we have the room to admit the sin, that we still willingly allow our dead bodies to dominate our minds, and we can perceive why those sins dominate us, especially as we search God's Word in prayer and in reading, because our Master is God's Word and the Ho

The World wants what Jesus gives those He justified, but they imagine that it comes from themselves, or their groups, or anything but God. Yet God is the only source of life. They desire, but their sin obscures this simple truth, and they mock. The name of the Lord Jesus is blessed, because He cares so very deeply that He gives everything to His own cherished blood-bought people, even Himself! The Worldlings are so very alone. Blessed be the name of the Lord, because we would be, too, without Him.

If you keep sensing something you don't like running through your mind over a period of time, don't think that you must extremely ignore what its details look like in order to resist it. The fact that it's been running through your mind over a period of time means you aren't resisting it as well as you'd like to, so look at it. Very prayerfully and with careful attention, allow yourself to perceive it totally. In that way, you can viscerally hate what it is, see what it's doing, understand it's nature more completely, not to accept it into yourself more completely, but to know how it's been undermining you in all its particular ways so you can undermine it, dominate that piece of your flesh, and directly pray for the Master to purge it from your mind. Looking at sin in order to purge it is not the same as looking at sin to wallow in it, so don't be afraid or stand still around the evil, hoping it won't notice you. It's in your body. Engaging

Society lauds petulant trouble with authority while society's laws (or is it only the customs?) are weirdly strict about verbal and non-verbal exactitudes of perceived respect. The mind becomes confused in the feel of its atmosphere. The soul's domination through entrapment of conflicting signals results in a self-limitation of communication and natural expression, which has been identified as common demonic fare (see Lester Sumrall's tiers of demonic involvement).

I heard a passage from a certain novel that promoted Christianity as self-acceptance and a lack of homophobia, but with overt reference to Jesus. This was strongly contrasted with a televangelist type working with a militia group and hanging pictures of himself in expensive places, but none of Jesus. The question was raised about how this preacher knew that the enemy of the giant church and the militia aligned with his rhetoric about being a satanic force that they should oppose. The preacher in the depths of mental trickery imposed by the novel's author said 3 things that defined his enemy's attributes with descriptions of satanic work, though they are mostly vague: they steal in a way that precludes being caught, they do harm with magic, and they play tricks and sow the seeds of chaos. In this setup of contrasting views of Christianity where, in fact, both have elements that Christianity opposes, but the first is the type the World likes, these 3 descriptions of alignment wit

Fairness that restricts properly multi-round discourse, such as equal time in debates and the more subtle trap of snappy comebacks which give the nominally required but hardly sufficient single moment to the victim to explain the entrapping false accusation of sarcastic hurts, and logical fallacies that are incompletely applied to find internal conflicts in a few moments are not strong enough to show what the truth is. Language can be messy and manipulated. Our cognition is broken, even when used over long periods of time and with previously developed structures. The starting-point for gaining wisdom is respectful subjugation to the greatest and only God Yahweh by way of His Messiah Jesus in accordance with God's Scriptures. Wisdom can be used to know how to properly use the tools of careful consideration which we thought we could control by ourselves so that they work as expected to give us knowledge. Believe God to be saved, then become clean in your mind, and then you'll be

Consider this misguiding quote: "How do you know when someone is a believer? It is obvious. With heart, soul, mind, and strength they love the Lord. They willingly lovingly obey His law. They fear Him in the sense of worship. This is what salvation does. It is a massive transformation." - John MacArthur ("What's Wrong with Everybody?", March 14, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhlIynBmj-Q, retrieved August 25, 2024.) There's a deep mistake in the church about salvation. Even though the saved have access to the outward transformation described by John MacArthur in this quote, the lack of such outward transformation doesn't indicate a lack of salvation, because salvation does not hinge on it! It's not always obvious who the Christians are. We need to get things straight about it for self and others. We know we are saved because we believe the facts about Jesus' great saving work as laid out in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-8 and we have done what Scrip

I heard recently that President Trump said he believes in God. Did he say that he believes that Jesus died for our sins like the Bible says, was buried, resurrected the third day like the Bible says, and we seen by Peter, the Disciples, over 500 brothers at once, James, the Apostles, and Paul the Apostle, and, because of believing those things, call on Jesus' name to save him by admitting out loud that Jesus is Master? Well, it *is* with the mouth that confession that Jesus is Master is made to gain salvation (but nobody can call on His name if they don't first believe who *that* particular Jesus is who completed the only possible saving work for us). According to 1 Corinthians 15:1-3a and Romans 10:14a, due to believing the four things listed in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-8, do the single thing mentioned three times in Romans 10:9-13 to be saved. Now, I didn't listen, but if you heard President Trump (or anyone else..) talk about God, did He bear witness to *this* particular Jesu

Being dominated is a terrible thing. Some cultures impose ties like those in families in order to bind people to the wills of their dominators. In the sad experiences of those caught in their traps, there's a feeling of inability to resist which is cultivated with known techniques, and the resistance flairs into weak eddies of self-recrimination or enfeebled sadness about some trivial thing. Being dominated is a terrible thing. It warps a human being into the image of an animal that follows unwillingly outside of any right bonds of authority by freely acquiescing that will to its abuser. If demons are in a hierarchy, domination might be higher than murder and its arrogant peer, lust. Domination uses intelligence to twist personal bonds meant for more loving connections into the horror of unspeakable sorrow which has a threat of almost indescribable shape, and so I describe it and I speak of it here, because some might know, deep down, that they are being dominated even though they

I've sometimes wondered about Jesus' conversation with his mother at that wedding. The interaction seems interesting, but what does it mean? "It's not my time yet", he said, "Do what he says", she said. Why did she know that she got her request from him when he said that? Though I can't be certain, I can think of a reason that fits, and it's deeply kind as it speaks of the close, concerned, and the tenderly reconciling long-term conversation of mother and son. She knew he had to die for a good reason. But what mother would be able to stand enduring that knowledge for decades? They must have spoken about it enough for it to become an inside joke. He joked with his mother about his death enough times that she knew he was saying yes to her request of him that day. "Will you do something about this wine? It's running out too fast!". "Mother, you're embarrassing me to death, but it's not my time yet!" "Haha. Servan

I know it's posed a difficulty for Christians, but there's a wall of separation. Not between an abstract idea and the state, such as that famous part of American law, but between the Church and the whole World. You can't be friends with the World, because that's being God's enemy. And so salvation doctrine makes a wall of separation between the Church and the World. That's what holiness means. He makes us holy. Don't try to resist Him. You'll be just like the axe-murdering Christian who has to harden his heart against God in order to continue in his sin, knowing that he's unrepentant as he willfully and continuously works against his Master as an axe murderer. He's still a Christian, so long as he believes those four facts about what Christ did and ha verbally confessed that Jesus is The Master (1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Romans 10:9-14a), and so long as he believes that what Christ did is effective to justify him in the face of God's judgement. B

How Our Determined Freewill Invites God to Control Us by Faith 1) Faith causes us to automatically choose to do the works that spring from it. 2) That's how God controls us with the levers of our belief. 3) We have to try hard to gain the faith, moving from one level of faith to another level of faith. THEREFORE, 4) We agree with God's control of us, because we work hard to ask Him for the thing that directly controls our actions.

When we see God's actions in events in the Bible, do we pin down the group it applied to and say those actions were only *promised* to that group, or do we box in the action and say that it must be that precise sequence and those specific actions? Both might be true or false! We make errors by picking one interpretation as the strategy for all. We make other errors by failing to apply the lessons of the interpretive strategies that we have seen applied successfully to different passages throughout the Bible. Consider when God told some that they would face government officials for their association with Him. He told them not to worry about what to say then, because The Holy Spirit would tell them what to say at the time. Doesn't that reveal God's method, and can't we apply the lesson to generally trust that He has our backs? Or do we say that it was a mere description of a specific miracle for those people? Or do we say that any Christian can expect that exact thing but

Repentance is to change. Repentance for salvation is to change your stance toward Christ, which is to believe 4 things (listed in 1 Corinthians 15:3b-8; see 1-3a for the setup, especially verse 2 which makes that list both the necessary and sufficient set of beliefs to be saved) and to do 1 thing (emphasized 3 times in Romans 10:9-13) to be saved (Romans 10:14a ties the belief to the action). Repentance for sin (sin-nature, not each individual sin as they happen - this is for salvation, remember!) - that repentance is to turn toward Christ by believing and doing what God has told everyone to believe and do to be saved. Paul said it (from the very beginning of his ministry and throughout) and Peter said it (in Acts 2, before the conversation was changed by verse 38; except Peter left out the fact that Jesus was buried in that passage). It's THE gospel. And it has NOTHING to do with us being good, dominating our sins, or not living in unrepentant sin! Shunning Christians has to do wi

Should we boycott the Olympics due to its open mockery of Christ? Consider this: Everyone in the World is openly against our Master Jesus Christ.. Your friends in the World (which is enmity against God), your co-workers, children, etc., who are against Christ by not believing His great saving work to be saved from the deadly consequences of their sin - they are ALL as evil as open Satanists, Buddhists, Atheists, etc.. AND what are we supposed to do about the World? Love your enemy. Wake up to the fact that these are not benign people, regardless of their demeanor or how they talk to you; they are our enemies. And we do loving things to them anyways. We also don't accept their evil, because we continually clean our minds of every evil thought (taking it into captivity to make it obey Christ). Also, Paul told the Corinthians that he wasn't talking about the World when he told them to stay away from sinners, but he was talking about staying away from Christians living

 The concept that the king can do no wrong is false. The whole community does not hinge on it if we all know that all of humanity is evil but Christ's slaves are righteous in Him and, uniquely, have the ability to do what is right by His Spirit of Holiness in the Resurrection from death, which is the outcome of sin. The concept that the king can do no wrong is supported by the false assumption that if the king is undermined then the kingdom is undermined, but that is false. We know it's false by many, many (many) examples. Just loads of them. It's patently false (can I put it more strongly?!)! The king isn't even the real leadership, and governance is not vitally connected with politics, though the lies that politics affords seems to cover those who control those middle managers who do the governing. Kingdoms, nations, states, and empires come and go, but Satan's rulership has been and will remain unbroken until the King of Kings (that's God's Christ, our Ma

[Transcript from "Sunday Morning LIVE at Cornerstone Church - 8:30am - Sunday July 14th 2024", "Hagee Ministries", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCwK_rTqvc, retrieved July 15, 2024.] Here's a typical salvation message, and it does not tell the whole truth. This is extremely sad and wicked. There are two false aspects, one implied and one directly asserted, which lies about biblical Christian salvation. See if you can spot them, then I'll say what I saw afterward. ~~ TRANSCRIPT QUOTE ~~  you recognize that if Christ were to return 1:20:10 today there's something in your life that's out of 1:20:16 order there's something in you that needs 1:20:23 him and today you say father I want to bring that to your altar I want to lay it down and I want to walk out of here 1:20:28 set free forgiven and ready to see you face to 1:20:39 face if that's you I want you to raise your hand right where you 1:20:48 are say Pastor today I need to get on an ark be

Just because heroes aren't good, that doesn't mean we're hypocrites if we keep ourselves from lauding villains. Only God is good. Remember that. We all deserve Hell. God sent His own son from Heaven to Earth, put him into a human body, and arranged time and place and so forth to ensure that those who would do such evil in fact managed to murder Him, even though He really is entirely innocent, even more than the gentlest baby. His Father is God, so He didn't inherit sin, and death had no hold over Him at all. God allowed His son to be murdered in order to provide the only acceptable blood sacrifice to put into remission the sin of everyone who believes on Him and calls on His name for salvation, freely! Freely, because we can't do anything about it for ourselves in any way or in any amount. Just because heroes are not good, don't think that your only rational choice is to hopelessly give in to your own evil entirely. Being heroic was never your way out; it never

People sometimes have conversations about faith and reason. In these conversations, the value of human reason is strictly extolled by one or both sides (depending on who's having the conversation!) - after all, hundreds of years since the Enlightenment have built toward the goal of reason over subservience to God. Subservience to humans falsely claiming to be the voice of God is sickeningly wicked, but subservience to YHWH God by way of His Son Jesus is good. Also in these conversations, faith is made be seem like a psychologically or sociologically induced philosophical framework for living. Christ is Life, but these labels are meant to denigrate faith to ultimate subjectivity when it is really ultimate objectivity, because I don't trust my knowledge of God, I trust God, Himself, even when I don't do or understand or will rightly. Human-level reasoning based on our perceptions isn't nearly as reliable as trusting God the Creator of the Universe! That statement is obvio

The World has sometimes thought of the approaches of certain Christians as bullying.  Many churches these days seem to believe it. I think they really believe that the actual gospel is mean. We've been told in God's Word that the World will think it's foolish. The World doesn't understand, and we can't make them understand. Understand? Tell them the gospel, once. That way, if they hear God's voice one day, they'll know what to do. That's the important thing, yet most Christians don't know why they're saved, biblically; it's been obscured, even though it's found in 2 distinct passages, and then the rest of the Bible fits around it, but it's been terribly obscured. Debates and fears and ignorance and confusion go against biblical teaching, too. So, why stay that way about the most important thing in the Universe?! It's understandable that those who know this truth would want to shout it to the World - that's just another evidenc

Hello, God's Earth shines, and little minds should too. I recently asked ChatGPT why the teaching methods of the past couldn't be brought back, and it gave its usual thorough set of answers. It got me thinking about teachers' associations. My search led me to you. I wonder if organizations like this one do enough for these types of struggles. My search online listed many articles about the Anderson Federation of Teachers; all of them were about money! It's important, but not the most important thing. ChatGPT informed me (so I informed myself, right? ...because I own its output, as though I rigorously researched anything. I wonder if it gave me wrong information? ...too busy to find out, which is why it's so helpful. Isn't it?) <ahem> ChatGPT informed me that the focus on regimented testing, lack of materials, and policymakers' disconnection from the deeper problems of learning all contribute to the problem of teaching children how to think. It's sa

A man saw me walking to a McDonald's breakfast this morning, and he asked me to buy him a sandwich. So, I waved him over, asked him his name, and what he wanted, and we proceeded forth. When I asked him what he thought of Christ, he told me that he believes all the religions have something worthwhile, and he mentioned Jesus as part of the mix. I was very mellow in this. I wasn't pushy. I want you to understand that, firmly. Imagine it. We were standing in line; not for long, either. There was a little silence after the meal was ordered, and I continued the conversation.We got the food, and he walked out with me; I had some of his stuff in my bag, so we waited a moment and shuffled some things around, and then we walked on. He waited on me; he wanted me to follow him. I told him to follow Christ. I told him what he must believe and do to be saved, which I emailed you about recently. He did not. He wanted me to go with him. I would not. Friendship with the world is enmity with Go

"..how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life–such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders–can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage." - From the blurb of "When Religion Hurts You: Healing from Religious Trauma and the Impact of High-Control Religion" by Laura E. Anderson This concept is now stated. It can be talked about with some structure and careful thinking. How can we tell if the main accusation holds true? First, we have to divide between Church and World, saved and unsaved, because these two groups, separated through holiness by the fact of Christ's great saving work, have fundamentally different perceptions, behaviors, and reactions, and so the accumulation of trauma is different between them. Christians love these concepts. We know that discipline doesn't seem nice at the time that we're di