Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Opinion vs. Fact! One of the great quotes in any political debate occured Wednesday night during the Vice Presidential Debate. The Democrat candidate, Kamala Harris, had been 'stretching' the truth about the record of both President Trump and Joe Biden, and at one point Mike Pence, the V-POTUS, had enough. His comment will go down as one of the best used and most salient quotes in history of political discourse.  "You are entitled to your own opinion; you are not entitlted to your own facts." Mike Pence. At hearing this Ms. Harris smiled and said (under her breath), "Good line". This quote is a restatement of a quote made by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and has garnered both positive and negative response from political observers on both sides. Regardless of the origin or circumstance of use the sentiment of this statement is key to finding, defining, and understanding Truth, and goes to the heart of the mission of Spirit of Truth Ministry. The idea that there is such a thing as 'simple belief' is itself an oxymoron, because just as with the phrase 'common sense', where the idea of good sense is never common, the idea that what, how and why you believe something is anything but simple, unless you decide that you will believe something without concrete proof, just because it makes you 'feel' good. This is belief by faith, as this type of belief requires no facts with which to back it up. The 'Salvation by faith through grace' that Paul teaches in his own unique 'gospel of god' requires no actual facts to back up that belief. It is simply an opinion that has been accepted by a religion established during the first century that accepts the opinion of one man as being the very words of God, when in fact the words of God and Jesus that back up this philosophy do not exist. Religious opinion does not salvation make.

Fall~ This morning my wife and I got up early in order to take our little dog Maggy out for a walk at Wildwood park, that is about a six minute drive from our house. Every time start to get ready to go on a walk Maggy gets REALLY excited, going from one of us to the other, whinning, and urging us on to get ready faster. She also loves the car ride both too and from the park.  It has been inordinately hot here in Southern California lately, but this morning in the car with the windows open and Maggy sitting on my wifes lap with her head out the window, with air actually felt chilly, and reminded us that Fall is just around the corner. Walking in the park in the cool of the morning with my wife and my dog reminded me that we are in a period of time on this earth where things are no longer 'normal', where see events that are heating up to such an extent that soon the heat of radical change will be upon us, and that the cool of a normal life with only be a fond memory. Or will it? We have been told that any prophecy not already fulfilled WILL BE before the end. This is why the events seen in Revelation are so terrifying and disturbing, because we have been told that these events are without a doubt in our future, and we need to be READY. But WHAT IF those prophecies don't need to happen. What if there is another prophetic road that is as yet unseen and undiscovered in end time prophecy that will lead us to Peace and Prosperity, and that will allow us to not have to endure the Death and destructon that we have been assured will happen by experts that see only one road. We at Spirit of Truth Ministry urge you to join us in the discovery of this alternate road, leading to an alternate outcome that will allow the God of Creation to show the world through His servants that the decisions for salvation can be made during a time of peace if we accept that the right choices have been made.

Stupid~ Today, in spite of the great temptation to do so, I am NOT going to comment on the recent 'debate' between POTUS and the challenger. Enough Already! However, that event and the responses by the opposition to the President in general have pointed out to me that there is a condition that exists in certain members of the 'body politic', and indeed in the population in general, that is so prevalent as to be terrifying as to the future of our society, including in the church, and that condition is one of abject stupidity. "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." ~ R.A. Heinlein. "Stupid" is a human condition that allows a person to delude themselves into thinking that they are smarter than the result that the situation dictates, and that it won't bite them. A stupid person will say to themselves "This won't hurt me if I do it just once", and they will end up dead or worse. Stupid dose not allow a person to "Think it through", such that the trap inside the situation that they didn't see because of the delusion catches them off guard, and harms them in some very painful way. This is why Jesus, when confronted with a question by His own disciples that indicated shoddy thinking, He responded by saying, "See to it that no one deceives you." (Matt. 24:4.) Jesus KNEW what His disciples wanted to hear, but He gave them an answer that they NEEDED to hear.  Finding spiritual truth means that a person must remove 'self-delusion' from every aspect of their lives, and look at what is being touted as 'truth' with brutal self-honesty. Self-delusion does not allow a person to see what IS, but what they prefer to see as truth. In spiritual terms Faith is the same as Stupid. "Faith allows a person to beleive a lie as if it is the truth, without accountability!"~Rick Sterling.

We will be continuing our program from yesterday on today's program.

Supreme Court~ Today RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) lies in state in the Capitol building rotunda, ther first woman to do so in the history of our country. It is certain that RBG had a huge impact on the American consciousness regarding equal rights and opportunities for women in the profession of the Law. Few women were allowed to attend law school when RBG did, and certainly fewer women were allowed to enter service as a BAR certified lawyer. Today, more women attend law school that do men, and women hold positions in the courts of our country at the highest levels, including the SCOTUS. And although her contribution was mostly in Dissent as a Supreme Court Associate Justice, she provided the opinions of the 'loyal opposition' that had a great impact of how our country gives opportunity to the 'minority', no matter how you feel about her politics. RBG was considered and 'activist' jurist; that is, she often tried to use the High Court as a means of making law rather than simply defining law. She felt this was itself 'legal' because LAWS are often confusing because they are so complicated, and it was easy to slip an alternative interpretation into a law by edict in an 'opinion of the court'. She wanted to use the court to create law, rather than simply rule on an existing law. The Supreme Court of the Kingdom of the Heavens does not allow beings subject to the Law of God to try to 'interpret' the LAW in a way that would change any part of it. This is exactly what Satan tried to do when he went before the Court in the Heavens and tried to convince the Jurists these that he needed to be allowed to be the 'god of evil' in order balance out the activity of the God of Good. This is described in Revelation 12:7-9. Obedience to the Law of God as stated is the only justice that counts in Heaven's court. Evil has no interpretaton in God's Kingdom of Heaven.

Distraction~ We all have been distracted from time to time. Personally, it seems the older I get the more easily distracted I get. Being easily distracted, however, does lead one to contemplate the meaning of life; I will walk into a room, stop and say to myself - "Why am I here?" If we separate out the two components of the word we get 'dis-' and 'traction'; that is, the loss of mental traction. If we loose traction in an automobile we can have an accident. If we loose traction in the mind we can have a mental train wreck that can darken an otherwise good day. In the effort to prevent Distracion when trying to learn anything new we must establish a solid and viable epistemology. We need to establish a methodology that allows us to distinguish between reality and fiction, truth and lies, fact and opinion, preference and conviction. The ability to do this separates those that are lost, who don't know where they are, and don't know where they need to go, from those that know where they are, where they are going and why, and have a map that shows them how to get there.  Jesus came to earth to show people EXACTLY how to get from being in the kingdom of the world into being inside the Kingdom of the Heavens. "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost". Matt. 18:11. Yet even the disiples of Jesus said they didn't know the way. Thomas *said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" John14:5. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me". John:14:6 The epistemology of the Kingdom of God is straight forward and simple, and involves two things; "Keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus". Rev. 12:17. Do not be distracted by deciet.

Frustration~ It is apparent by the language used by both sides in the debate of ideas in public discourse in media and social media that there is a great deal of frustration in that one side does not 'see' what the other sees as the truth as to which directon the country or the world shoud take in dealing with our common societal problems. This frustration is being dramatically expressed in violent protests and riots by one side, that has led to violence to persons, looting of businesses and destruction of property, both public and private, all in the name of 'equality' of outcome, or punishment for perceived racism. As if we don't have enough to worry about with the huge fires in the West. There are also those that are taking advantage of this frustration by paying for people to pretend to be interested in outcomes, but are only doing this violence for the money, which makes the other side frustrated because they have not apparent recource in dealing with these mercenaries.  This situation today is similar to what occurred in our Revolutionary War period where the British paid to have German Hessian mercenaries to come to the Colonies to strike fear in the hearts of the people that would have otherwise join in the rebellion, but stayed on the sidelines and let others do the hard work, because of the fear of these violent and well trained soldiers. Then Trenton happened and the war changed course. General Washington showed the people that the Hessians could be beaten, and recruitment to the Continental army soared. We are at a point in our history where this is about to happen again. It will happen because the good people of the world LOVE the truth, and will rise up and demonstrate that love by actions that counter the violence of the Left with Facts, Knowledge, Understanding, and LOVE. The peopel will choose Life and Prosperity instead of Death, Adversity and poverty. The Choice is here!

Liar, Liar~ What do you do when someone claims that you are lying in a situation, but they are lying about exactly the same thing and blaming you? Most people would call this a 'double standard'. but it is really called 'projection'! Projection is being blamed for doing something bad that someone else is doing in order to get people to look at you, in order to keep them from looking at them. This sounds convoluted, and it is-on purpose. Most people are not able to initially see or acknowledge that there is 'Projection' without help, because they don't have the emotional and psychological filters to be able to discern the implied connections. The type of person that uses Projection will rely on the fact that most people are good, and simply see Projected evil as a directed device, rather than a subte betrayal of confidence.  Jesus was plagued by the 'Projection' of the leadership of the Jews, who accused Him of doing the very same things they were doing in secret, in order to try to justify their behavior, in order to keep the esteem of the people and their high value positions of authority. Jesus was asked many questions designed to trap Him into speaking a lie, but Jesus responded with questions that they could not answer without showing that they were the liars.  Projection is happening today, and it is easy to get caught up in the projection of a lie about someone or something, and believe that it is the truth. The underlaying system is that just as the Jewish leadership hated Jesus and tried everything they could to get the people to reject Him, so too today will people hate you because of your love for the Truth, and they will to anything to get you to "believe a lie as if it is the truth." "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you". John 15:18.

Patriot~ Today is Patriots Day - a day upon which we remember the lives and innocence lost on this date 19 years ago, when the Twin Towers and building #7 in New York were destroyed by the actions of "Enemies of the State". The bravery and heroism demonstrated by the people that were directly affected by these events have gone down into the history of the United States of America as some of the most selfless and courageous acts of bravery, worthy of honor in the panoply of American Patriots. A Patriot is a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion (Dictionary.com). The firefighters, police, military and civilians that ran INTO those buidings and toward danger, demonstrated a love and devotion to their fellow Americans that in truth IS NOT unusual as a function of the American spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to the ideals that our Founders codified in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  They died so others might live, and there is no higher calling in our society than this. There are also founding documents of the Kingdom of Heaven that codify the ideals and actions of those that "Keep the Commandments of God, and hold to the testimony of Jesus". Those documents define the Gospel of the Kingdom, and contain the WORDS of God in the Old Testament, and the words of Jesus in the New Testament, that define the brave and selfless behavior of those that are devoted to  those words, and love them more than life itself, such that those people of that Kingdom would rather die than go against them. They are the Patriots of the Kingdom of God, that just as those that ran into the buildings 19 years ago, will run toward the sound of the war between Good and Evil, and will triumph in the Truth. Jesus set the standard of courage when He faced down death to give us life, and brought the words of Truth to the world.

Benign Evil~ It is a fact of life that when we get into a routine we tend to ignore things that are outside of our routine. The protests and riots, for example. It has become a daily occurance that we hear about another protest, or worse another riot on the news. After a while this becomes normalized in our consciousness. We see it, but we don't. It's there, but it isn't. Another example; we hear from time to time about an Amber Alert, where our phones tell us that a child has been abducted or lost, and 'please keep a look our for them'. We get the notice but we never hear the result. We almost never hear what happened to the child. At that point we simply say to ourselves, "That's too bad", and go on with our lives. This is similar to 'fudging' on our taxes, or telling a 'white lie' in order to cover our butts at work. These is 'benign evil'. It is below our consciousness, but rises up every once in a while, and then disappears again like the thought you get at the market when you forgot what you came for, because you didn't write it down, and you say "I'll get it next time.. This kind of evil doesn't impact your life so it isn't really noticed.However, there is going to come a time when there is no "Next Time". There is evil manifesting in the world today that is anything but benign. Evil that is so heinous that you would throw up if you saw the result of it's presence. Our lifestyles, and indeed our religions have put us in a state where we don't react to the presence of evil as God will soon require. We are not prepared for battle on an enormous scale simply because we have ignored the training that the words of God in the Old Testament and the words of jesus in the New Testament can give us.  Those that claim that they are in the army of God need to awaken to the fact that evil is never benign!