Category Archives: Apologetics

The Final Swan – Steven Menking

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For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.

Mark 4:17

I haven’t been as active as usual for the past two weeks. This is mostly because I needed to be refreshed. Following global events and analysis in real time is cognitively, emotionally, and spiritually taxing. While I toned down my efforts, some absolutely incredible events have taken place. The status quo has proven itself profoundly robust to new information that should be earth-shattering. Perhaps this stands as a testimony of the general obliviousness of a populace subject to 24/7 propaganda. Maybe, just maybe, it’s something else. Can you feel the tension? Can you sense the desperation? Can you see the truth?

The NSA has been hacked and it’s cyberwarfare weapons are up for auction

George Soros was hacked and his geopolitical influence exposed

Contradicting Obama, the State Department admitted that it paid $400M in ransom to Iran

Russia is now bombing ISIS from Iran

Turkey announced a deeper partnership with Russia via the Turkish Stream oil pipeline

1,000 year flood in Louisiana due to a stationary storm system

Hillary Clinton’s questionable health came into the spotlight

Julian Assange’s lawyer apparently killed himself via a train

The DoD Inspector General found that the Pentagon can’t account for $6.5 TRILLION

And on and on it goes. In my opinion we’re seeing the cracks in the facade become the tremors that precede the earthquake. It seems like people will brush off one thing after another of any degree of seriousness unless they wake up to find the stock market imploded or World War III begun. However, if you can see the trends you’ll notice that the unprecedented is now a weekly – or even daily – occurrence.

The United States has lost the Middle East

With Turkey swinging to Russia after the failed coup, the new Turkish Stream pipeline deal in place, the Russians beginning aerial bombardments from Iran, the Yemenis failing to roll over to the Saudis, the US signing a nuclear accord only to have Iran demand and receive ransom for political prisoners while chanting ‘Death to America’, and now the Chinese getting more seriously involved in the affairs of the region, it is past time that everyone acknowledges that the neoconservative plan implemented during George W. Bush’s tenure and escalated under Obama’s is now a ruinous heap. Mission failed. PNAC is over. The 21st Century will not be another American century. The Pax Americana is finished. The Middle East is under new management.

This is an historic development made more dramatic by its amazing rapidity and limited visibility. Ask your friends about Incirlik and see what they say. Shouldn’t it be front page news that the US is no longer the arbiter of power in such a strategically important sphere? It is everywhere but the US. It’s time that we here in Amaruca recognize that no matter what we say and what tantrums we throw (former Deputy Director of the CIA demonstrates our insane geopolitical logic) that the idea of our sole hegemony is an outdated relic.

The truth is bubbling to the surface

Lies are fragile. The web of deception that has been built up over decades and centuries has persisted because of the ability to compartmentalize and control information. Total informational control is no longer possible.

The truth is potent. Sometimes all it takes is one truth to obliterate an armada of lies. When we see the State Department have to walk back a now-blatant falsehood from Mr. Obama about paying Iran $400M ransom in cash in less than a week – while it is still in the same news cycle no less – we know that there is an acceleration of the truth.

Hacks, leaks, and other data dumps are exposing plainly that plenty of hypothesis dismissed as conspiratorial are actually fact. In order to avoid tumbling down the rabbit hole of tens of thousands of emails and documents and communications, I’ll leave it at this: we’re seeing an escalation of volcanic activity in the truth department. When the real eruption will occur is anybody’s guess.

Despite all this, we’re still…

In more normal times, any one of the topics discussed would command the strict attention of the entire nation and a comprehensive, actionable solution would be demanded. We are not in normal times. The “new normal” is a garbage twist on words and a vain attempt to explain away why the structure of society is deteriorating.

In this summer we’ve been fed a steady diet of other shoes, black swans, and last straws. Yet the facade persists. I can’t shake the feeling that there is something else in store. Maybe it’s the Final Swan: a black swan, feet adorned with the other shoes and wings made of straw. An inelegant picture perhaps, but it does have the inevitability of Icarus in its imagery.

If any amateurs out there put together some concept art for the Final Swan – patent pending – email it to amateursociety@gmail.com. For the record, I’d prefer an actual swan to Natalie Portman, but far be it from me to impose any formal creative limitations. After all, I’m an amateur too.

This artricle was posted originally on The Amateur Society here.

10 Things Your Children Need to Know for the 2016-2017 School Year

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10 things ballon for Gregg article

 

This is a guest post written by Gregg Jackson. For more articles by Gregg visit his website here.

This list is not exhaustive and some are taken from my book “40 Things to Teach Your Children Before You Die: The Simple American Truths About Life, Family & Faith.” Print em out. Put em on your fridge and discuss them daily over breakfast with your kids and help inoculate them from the Leftist lies and propaganda so prevalent in much of our culture and society today.

  1. You’re not a “global citizen.”If you were born in the United States of America or are a legal U.S. citizen, you are a United States citizen not bound by any other Constitution than the United States Constitution.
  2. The climate is always “changing.”It’s called weather. The reason you don’t hear about “man made global warming” anymore is that it has been thoroughly de-bunked. The major reason the earth’s temperature heats/cools is due to solar activity. During periods of increased solar activity the earth warms and vice-versa. “Climate change” initiatives are really just efforts to institute higher taxes and regulations to control the people ultimately for the purpose of establishing a global New World Order.
  3. There are only 2 types of humans God created.Men and women. Your sex (or gender) is determined by your chromosomal makeup. Males have XY and females have XX. There is no such thing as a “transgendered” person. A man who puts on lipstick and a wig has become a “cross dresser” but is still a man. Women who act/dress like men are still women. Boys should always use the men’s room and girls should always use the girl’s room.
  4. Our nation was not founded by secularists. The original founders, the Pilgrims and Puritans, were God fearing people whose main desire was to live in a nation where they could freely worship Jesus Christ. While many of the Framers of the Constitution were not Christians, our nation was explicitly founded on Judeo-Christian values, beliefs and principles. To the extent America returns to those founding principles and beliefs will largely determine whether we can ever become “great again.”
  5. Truth is not relative.God has defined all truth and apart from His Transcendent Divinely Revealed Word, everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Humans become their own gods. Man centered (humanistic) societies that have rejected God’s Word have been the most murderous and barbaric nations in the history of the world (Nazi Germany, Communist China/Russia, etc…)
  6. “Social Justice” is another term for Socialism. And Socialism is always wrong because it is based on the belief that it is ok to covet, steal, and re-distribute other people’s “stuff” for the general benefit of the “community.”
  7. God has defined, established and ordained marriage. It is the exclusive union of one man and one woman and the natural human family is the first, oldest, and most important form of government God ever created. No majority of judges, legislators or voters can re-define what God Himself has defined. All other types of “marriage” are legally null and void since they violate God’s definition.
  8. Courts don’t make law.Courts can issue opinions on individual cases before it, but court opinions are only binding on the individual plaintiffs and defendants in the case. Only the people directly or via their elected representatives can make, alter or amend laws, statutes or Constitutions. Any law or court opinions contrary to God’s Law is no law at all. It is legally null and void and must be ignored and rejected by all civil magistrates at every branch and level of government.
  9. There is only 1 race of people.The human race. People have different skin colors and come from different parts of the world but all humans are originally descended from the Original First Family (Adam and Eve.) Efforts to introduce race (“affirmative action,” “race based preferences,” “white privilege,” etc…) are merely efforts to divide and conquer.
  10. There is only one way to heaven. Through faith alone, by God’s grace alone, in Christ alone. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father in heaven but through Me.” (John 14:6) Is He your Lord and Savior?

This article first appeared on Gregg Jackson’s blog here.

Thoughts from Just Before the Fall – Steven Menking

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With August coming to a close and the fall season shortly at hand, I have a few observations to make:

1. It is becoming clear to more and more people that the primary narratives in essentially every area of our lives are nothing but lies and propaganda.

Cognitive dissonance levels are so far off the charts right now that a new descriptive term may be necessary that goes beyond total denial. The severity of the narrative contortions going on currently points directly to a troubling yet all too real prospect: spiritual blindness.

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Matthew 15:14

In the Bible there are many instances where madness and blindness have come upon the leaders of a land. Nebuchadnezzar was stricken with what we would now refer to in newspeak as ‘mental health issues’ when he was driven from the throne and lived in the wild like an animal in Daniel 4.

Returning to the present, we have Hillary Clinton calling out InfoWars and the “Alt-Right” and decrying everyone questioning any aspect of her campaign, health, record, or history as a conspiracy theorist while BleachBit brags about ‘wiping’ her email servers. We also see that there are real consequences to asking questions and making statements against obvious corruption and cover-ups. Just ask Dr. Drew or Seth Rich. Hopefully InfoWars is too high profile to interrupt through covert means without overplaying a hand that ultimately engenders grassroots support for the “Alt-Right”, but that conclusion unfortunately rests on the assumption that we’re dealing with sane people. We are not.

It’s tricky to claim incessantly that everyone else is lying about everything in the face of clear and direct evidence. You can attempt to bury evidence and refuse to deal with realities like the influence of George Soros on global politics, but people just aren’t buying the lies anymore. The information is available for free in the public domain, and you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Any day now I’m expecting a poll to come out showing that people don’t trust polls. I suppose that makes me a lunatic for questioning the objectivity of our institutions. Surely they are fully unbiased, follow proper methodologies, and get everything right.

I’m not “Alt-Right”. I’m a Christian who knows how statistics can be manipulated in unscrupulous hands and understands the law of noncontradiction, the law of the excluded middle, and the false choice fallacy.

Why isn’t an understanding of basic logic a universal requirement in our educational system?

Let’s save that for another time. Brexit showed us that people are awake now. The information war is being won in small battles. The truth will win because all lies ultimately fall apart. There is nothing hidden that won’t come to light. Hopefully we will see things for what they are before it’s too late.

2. After the quietest month in financial markets in a lifetime, things are about to heat up again and the central bank saviors are either totally clueless or entirely complicit.

Realized volatility is the lowest in a lifetime. It shouldn’t be a surprise to readers that stock indexes are currently out of touch with reality, but we’ve gone past the point where anything could be described as reasonable. Interestingly enough, this situation of hyper insanity that ignores all risk potential is a necessary step before reality can set back in. Investors have lost their memory of a properly functioning system because they haven’t seen a real market in decades. The younger batch have never seen one.

So what does the Federal Reserve think?

Well, out at Jackson Hole, Janet Yellen said a whole lot of nothing and then multiple Fed goons came out with contradicting statements. It’s all just diversionary tactics. We know that Stanley Fischer is the real power at the Fed and that Janet Yellen is a prop. We know that the Exchange Stabilization Fund controls price action in all financial arenas with off book money. We know that the Fed is not an independent institution.

With that in mind, let’s see what the Fed thinks about interest rates in the future. Make sure you’re sitting down. Here’s the key graph:

These people really know what they’re doing: look at all that precision and confidence! If this doesn’t make you chuckle then you may want to go elsewhere for your economic commentary. Even more amusing is the Fed’s Facebook disaster. Check out the comments people are leaving on their Facebook page. Take a look soon because it might not be up for long. The result of this experiment gone wrong really does give me hope for humanity.

The jig is up. When the next pressure is applied to the economy in the form of a recession the Fed may need to print $4 trillion to mitigate it. It says something that even Bloomberg is reporting on this and questioning the Fed. But don’t worry everyone: Paul Krugman says everything will be fine and he won a Nobel Prize in Economics! Now we’re just waiting on the The Final Swan to land and the global reset to occur.

We’re going into an interesting season.

3. Most importantly, get right with God.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
1 John 3:15

The climate of hate, disunity, strife, anger, resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness that we are experiencing is truly poisonous. We can’t remove these things from our hearts in our own strength. Only God can deliver us from these prisons. Jesus Christ came to set the captives free and he is able to deliver you from these things that eat us up from the inside out. Surrender to the Lord in all things and He is faithful to begin and complete a work of purification in your life. It may not be instantaneous. It’s usually a long, delicate process. Yet continue to pray for your faith to be strengthened. He is able.

The New Testament teaches that a state of hatred in your heart and soul is equivalent to murder and that a state of lust in your heart and soul is equivalent to adultery. Those are hard lessons to learn if we are in either one of those prisons. Give it to God. Only He is able to deliver. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We must forgive in order to be forgiven.

So who is our brother?

This epistle was written to the church, and we know all followers of Jesus are brothers and sisters in Christ adopted into the family of God. A brother isn’t necessarily a blood relative, a fellow countryman, or a member of the same ethnic group. We need to stand for truth, but we must do it in love – even if we are rejected – to show the world the love that God has shown us. We don’t have the ability to do that naturally. We must be supernaturally empowered by God to represent Him properly. Take everything to the Lord in prayer. Give everything over to Him. Let Jesus set you free.

If you’re still with me, perhaps you’ll entertain a thought I’ve had recently that I just can’t shake… We should pray for Hillary Clinton. Let me elaborate before I get taken to task. What an incredible testimony it would be if she were to be miraculously saved by Jesus and then stood up for righteousness and came out with the truth about the inner workings of political corruption in our nation that she has voluminous understanding of as a consummate insider for an entire lifetime. We know a tree by its fruits, so we know she needs Jesus. We also know that all things are possible for God. If this were to happen an untold number of the enemy’s plans would be ruined.

Remember who Saul was before he became Paul.

Perhaps another Road to Damascus moment is in the cards made wondrously poetic in light of the literal destruction of that historical city as a result of US foreign policy during her tenure at the State Department.

Look to Jesus. He is an ever present help in time of need. Have faith and be encouraged. Even if things get stormy know that God is still with each and every one of His children.

This article was originally posted August 26, 2016 on The Amateur Society website here.

The Church and Its Mission Today – Part 1

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broken down pulpit

America is being led into a cesspool of deviancy and America’s pastors remain largely silent. For those of us who have been calling attention to the rank immorality that daily seems to increasingly encroach upon the shores of common sense and moral sensibleness, this is not surprising.

Few pastors said a word when contemplative prayer, labyrinth walking, yoga, word faith heresy, and many other misguided and unbiblical practices were introduced into the church by goats masquerading as sheep. While these things demonstrate a tragic departure from the faith once for all delivered to the saints, today we are facing a full on frontal assault from our politicians.

President Obama, who demonstrates a spirit of antichrist, lobbies for men utilizing women’s bathrooms and threatens our public schools with loss of funding if they do not allow boys to shower with girls. Attorney General Loretta Lynch throws around threats of fines and jail time in a blatant attempt to make sure Obama’s evil and unconstitutional demands appear legitimate.

Where are America’s pastors? The progressive Marxists among us aided by the progressive Marxist media have rendered most pastors deaf mutes for fear of being labeled as a hater or racist or homophobe. Friends it is time that Christians throw off the shackles of political correctness and stand strong in the power of God and deliver this message: “No more, no more, no more! We will not silently stand by and watch our nation be torn apart by people who hate America. We will not stand by and allow morally depraved people to have their way with our children. We will not be afraid of what this President or any other evil tyrant says or threatens to do. God will reign and He will rule in our hearts and minds and therefore we will not fear any man or the consequences of our stand!”

It is the “eleventh hour” in America friends. Will you don the spiritual armor of God and stand firm against the encroaching evil? Will you encourage your Christian brothers and sisters to join you in this battle? Please encourage other believers to find a church that is true to the gospel and is not compromised by an end times Babylonianism.  This means finding a church that is not characterized by compromise, pandering to the pagan culture, or that rejects the Bible as our guide for righteous and holy living, the very Word of God.

This article is the first in a five-part series looking at the subject of the Church and its mission today. The intent is to encourage you as well as to help you identify a body of believers who is being the church as God intended.

God bless you today as you seek Him.

You can reach Pastor Mike by email at ccpastormike@cclohio.org