Christian Clarity Review

excerpted from: Scotsman.com News - International - Creationism dismissed as ‘a kind of paganism’ by Vatican’s astronomer

He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a “kind of paganism” because it harked back to the days of “nature gods” who were responsible for natural events.

Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a supernatural one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become involved in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder and lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods. “Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That’s why science and religion need to talk to each other,” he said.

“Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it’s turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do.”

Brother Consolmagno, who was due to give a speech at the Glasgow Science Centre last night, entitled “Why the Pope has an Astronomer”, said the idea of papal infallibility had been a “PR disaster”. What it actually meant was that, on matters of faith, followers should accept “somebody has got to be the boss, the final authority”.

“It’s not like he has a magic power, that God whispers the truth in his ear,” he said.

Anti-Christ through them openly admits the Pope is a liar in that he does not and has never Spoken God as Word and that God has not Spoken through the Pope and that they are nothing more than an assemblage of non-regenerate men who speak the speech they grew up in and have never heard God as Word, as they equate God’s whisper of truth in the ear of a man as ‘magic’.

These are the same folk through whom anti-Christ as their non-creating speech and mind objects to non-metaphorical new birth in Jesus Christ because in their eyes, “that would reduce salvation to a magic act.” (so incredulous are they of genuine Creation by God as Word as act of His Speech) and they deny day and night that any such thing exists as God As Word/Creating Speech that lives in those in whom He chooses to live –even in the face of God plainly and unambiguously Saying to all:

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

and

2 Timothy 1:13,14 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

Now they would, as anti-Christ through them, seek to set up Science/non-creating speech as the supposed Schoolmaster of God as Word. So they have always tried, even as God has appointed them to it.

Exodus 7:10-12 And Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and did so, as Jehovah had commanded; and Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh, and before his bondmen, and it became a serpent. And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments: they cast down every man his staff, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staves.

The fight between good and evil, God and Satan, anti-Christ is not a chance occurance to be ‘predicted’ within the ’sacred heiroglyphs’/’science’ of non-creating speech. Like the dwarves in Lord of the Rings, the last words of anti-Christ will be “..can’t ..get Out..” –of himself as speech as the Place God has assigned him in the lake of fire, long after he has been exposed for being what he is: non-creating speech of sin. Neither will those within him get Out either, no matter what they say with him as speech.

Even the ‘predictions’ of ’science’ as non-creating speech invalidate its base presumptions: that destiny is not set so that the ‘free’ will exists. Yet if destiny is not set, there are no universal laws at all, then trying to peek into the future is futile and self-invalidating for those who hold simultaneously that the will is free, acknowledge their own speech can create nothing and that the future is already set such that it can be ’seen’ before it comes to pass as the present.

The forces of good and evil have been set against each other by God through Christ Jesus as Word and the Holy Spirit, not by ’statistics’.

Isaiah 34:16 Search ye in the book of Jehovah and read: not one of these shall fail, one shall not have to seek for the other; for my mouth, it hath commanded, and his Spirit, it hath gathered them.

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Zec 8:10 For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; and there was no peace for him that went out or that came in, because of the distress: for I let loose all men, every one against his neighbour.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen

“Law enforcement was serious business back then—like it is today.”

Gab nods and smiles. He nods and smiles at everything.

We’re standing in front of the old Shady Rest juke joint. It’s run down now; a of concrete block shell: collapsed roof; vines everywhere. All that’s left of its former glory is the chipped paint, broken glass, a few beer cans from several generations, weeds spilling out the front windows; trees coming through and shading everything else.

The only thing that looks new, alive and authentic to the name (if you don’t know its history) is the huge oak trees with big, knotty roots and Spanish moss that swings easily in the breeze. They were probably here back then too. But trees always look new and alive no matter how big they get and you never really know how long they’ve been there.

Every time I come by here I think of a big, forties-looking sheriff’s car. It’s the kind of place a snake would live in: not much traffic, other small creatures for food, an excuse of any kind would work no matter what happened because there isn’t anybody else to say otherwise, except on those occassions when God comes around. –The kind with the big bubble on top and the yesteryear siren? “Sheriff” painted on the side with a single, big star and a little beat up. Couches for seats. No seat belts. A thirty eight special and twelve gauge shotgun for armament. Tragedy on wheels for a writer in the south.

One day I’m going to write a story about this place. It’ll have old, tinny blues music, sweat, the drinking of liquor, mason jars and period clothes. Tobacco. Law enforcement. Grits. Salvation. Screen porches and doors. Someone will say “What’ch you doin’ boy?” and something about New York and up north. Racial stuff. It’ll have souls and spirits and characters recognizable to the general public as people because of the emotions they’ll do. One group will be ‘out’ and another will be ‘in’. It won’t be a comedy. It’ll make a statement about God, the human condition. Love. Everything. Maybe even make peace between everybody up north and everybody down south.

Gab must be thinking the same thing. He lets out a “WaaaaAAAAA!” that starts out low and gets louder like the old sirens. I nod and grin.

Hank jumps. I laugh. He was lost in his own thoughts and Gab’s siren must have sounded like an alien, demon spirit from the pit of all the evil that took place here suddenly moving through to inspect his domain. Possession. (Hey—that too.). Everything. A prison or road gang angle. Women. People with cars and those without them. Mules. Hound dogs. Huntin’. Dancing and sex will be implied but not demonstrated.

The wind picks up and the moss brushes my face. I’m standing under the shade. You too, brother. Old oak trees and Spanish moss. Lemonade. Church. Fresh cut lumber. Turpentine. Guilty laughter. Clean fun.

It started out and finished a juke. No one recalls the owner’s name—or what happened that closed it down. But they do say he changed the name to Shady Rest (from ‘Traveler’s Rest’) because it is what the locals had taken to calling it: he sold beer; moonshine under the table and played that music. As deep a sin pit as there ever was.

Somebody will take a sip in that story. And a bite. Bobcats. Alligators. A body. The swamp.

We’re out walking because we had a flat tire. We usually drive by this place and don’t stop. It’s not spooky per se. It’s just that nobody really has any business here anymore.

We were on the other side of the road, but Hank just helped a turtle to cross the asphalt faster. They tend to be slow and get run over with some frequency. The sign is still here and creaks on its hinges. There will be a repetition of the same mistakes over and over.

A woman in a car drives by. We stare stupidly to make it obvious we’re just visitors and don’t know where we are.

Gab lives just up the road. We can bring his truck down. It’s got the tools we need. But the air is hot now and we’re soaked through already.

It’ll have shade too, that story–some relief beyond ‘I saw it and understood it.’ And somebody will come home and everything will be alright. Except for one character. One family. Somebody always takes a hit.

Tall grass. Turtles. Roads. A perfect, Red Delicious apple. Everything.

For now we stand here and wait. We see what we can see and be what we can be in the small concrete square of the old patio. A moment will come and we’ll know the time to move on has come. A breeze or maybe someone we know will blow by. Perhaps the sun will go down beyond the overhang of the old oak’s branches or moss. We’ll just know.

Hank kicks a can toward the tree and sighs.

The turtle? He’s not moving and has no expression on his face.

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Isaiah 34:13-17 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her fortresses; and it shall be a dwelling-place of wild dogs, a court for ostriches. And there shall the beasts of the desert meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; the lilith also shall settle there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the arrow-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there also shall the vultures be gathered one with another. Search ye in the book of Jehovah and read: not one of these shall fail, one shall not have to seek for the other; for my mouth, it hath commanded, and his Spirit, it hath gathered them. For he himself hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them with the line: they shall possess it for ever; from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen

One walks in the world, having been born again by the Word, sometimes knowing when and where that new birth occured and others wondering. Suddenly one is seized by the collar by a stranger who says this in its entirity while slathering on healing salve to boot for a disease you were unaware you had — without permission and as if he knew you for years. Then, as you are astonished at the temerity of the stranger, you are seized by another to tell you this in its entirity with the full expectation that you will understand and be profited thereby peculiarly. As if that were not enough, these things happen again and again, hidden things are shoved on you, forced, that have no value in the world or to others to whom you try and explain them to while the things you were taught to believe, as being common to all and were the barest essentials of a successful life are stripped from your hands by God, while those around you tell you you are stupid, weak willed and backward, else you would surely have more of the world’s merchandise than you do.

One day you enter into a room filled with persons just like yourself –all have been ‘assaulted’ by God as being genuinely blessed and ‘deprived’ of the false merchandise of this world; their lives destroyed, their hopes of fitting in dashed while they were constantly accused variously of being whiners and thieves of others hard ‘earned’ resources and stupid persons who knew not ‘how’ to ‘use’ the supposed ‘free’ will and belligerent persons who heard ‘advice’ on ‘how the will’ ought to be ‘used’ in keeping with a supposed ideal model of behavior as ‘earning heaven’ and didn’t take it. Weapons are given to you that you are told God will show you how to use and that He will use them through you for the blessing of others. Not everyone gets the same weapon.

Before you know it, Christ in you and many others is helping the blind and diseased, through whom anti-Christ curses you for your trouble, Christ in you is destroying the wicked while you are propelled forward to help another and destroy another nest of lies and liars, thieves and demons. You hear what happened to the guy who who first told you the Truth and hope you never end up like him.

Then you find it is a great honor to end up like him and pray the same happens to you –and others.

People don’t like you and don’t understand you.

So it goes and there you are.

1 Corinthians 7:26 I think then that this is good, on account of the present necessity, that it is good for a man to remain so as he is.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen