THE CHURCH MILITANT
Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse.
In this video, we review an animated Barbie video teaching children how to do yoga. We will look in-depth at what these postures mean, and we will see how yoga poses are actually worship postures devoted to the gods of Hinduism; entities the Bible calls demons. One posture is intended to mimick Shiva cutting the head off of Daksha and putting in on a stake. Yoga is not something Christians, or anyone else, should be practicing.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
They’re from arguably the most anti-Christian part of the West, and they have a message: A lack of robust Christianity is killing the West.
The warning was issued on Herland Report TV, where journalist Hanne Nabintu Herland interviewed fellow Scandinavian Iben Thranholm. “The general theme of the episode is that Western values have become almost entirely materialistic in essence,” commentator Raymond Ibrahim reports. As a result, Westerners are seeking purpose and meaning.
They’re finding it, too: in New Age or pagan age beliefs — and Islam.
“Because pure materialism is ultimately dissatisfying — ‘man shall not live on bread alone’ — more and more Western people are turning to any number of metaphysical ideologies, from Islam to paganism — anything, as long as it’s not Christianity,” Ibrahim continues. “Because many of these ideologies are intrinsically hostile to Christianity, Western culture, which was founded on Christian principles, has become suicidal — hence the current situation, especially in Europe.”
Ibrahim then quotes Thranholm, writing: “You cannot understand the world only from a political viewpoint. We are in a spiritual warfare and not just a political struggle.... It has become a taboo to speak about religion due to this anti-religious ideology that claims that religion has no value. As long as we remain in this spiritual crisis, I don’t think Europe will be able to defeat Islam. The reason why Islam is so successful here is because we have a spiritual vacuum.”
Anti-theists often indulge a fantasy that religion is dying and that the future is one of secular “enlightenment.” In reality, projections show that the world will become more religious during the coming decades, not less. It’s just a matter of what faith(s) will dominate.
As to this, “‘Thousands of Norwegians are rushing to Islam’ every year, says Herland. ‘A flood of ethnic Scandinavians are becoming Muslim,’ precisely because Christianity has ‘evaporated,’” relates Ibrahim.
This is witnessed throughout most of the West to varying degrees, with recently released “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh perhaps being a poster boy for the phenomenon. Lindh (who, ironically, is at least partially of Scandinavian extraction) grew up in liberal Marin County. “He had everything: loving parents, wealth, a childhood in a fantasyland of pleasure and natural beauty,” writes the Atlantic’s Graeme Wood. Yet before “even reaching adulthood, he had rejected it all.”
The uninitiated may suppose that a boy from a liberal place, with apparently liberal parents, would be a poor candidate for Islamic jihadism. The truth is the opposite. For the secular West “stands for shallow things, shallowly,” as Wall Street Journal writer Bret Stephens put it in 2015. “Europeans believe in human rights, tolerance, openness, peace, progress, the environment, pleasure. These beliefs are all very nice, but they are also secondary.”
They’re secondary to “First Things,” which, when dealt with at all today, are treated as Optional Things (church on Christmas and Easter). Consider Lindh: Reflecting mushy modernism, his parents had different last names, both of which John received. His father, Frank Lindh, came out as homosexual in 1997, divorced his mother, Marilyn Walker, and “married” (as they incorrectly put it) a man in 2009. Moreover, reflecting how they had no firm beliefs of their own — let alone the Truth — to impart to their son, they encouraged his interest in Islam when he was just 12.
While the details vary, the message too often received (subtly) by children in this secular time is the same: We’re just organic robots, some pounds of chemicals and water. There’s no absolute right or wrong, either; it’s whatever works for you. But, hey, you can still have fun in this meaningless existence with all our gadgets, electronic wonders, and bells and whistles. So have a nice life, kid.
But while it’s easy to get lost in materialism when you’re drowning in material things, this bread-alone life doesn’t truly satisfy. Then there’s our moral confusion.
Question: What do people say when law and order break down badly enough and for long enough and anarchy creeps closer? “We need a strong law-and-order guy,” we may hear (and I have heard it). Well, what happens when moral order starts to break down, when anarchy begins to reign in hearts and minds unfettered from Truth and infused with relativism’s anything-goes credo? Some people can commence to crave a spiritual strongman.
Enter Islam.
Say what you want about it, Islam’s messages aren’t relativistic; its minions don’t prattle on about tolerance, inclusiveness, “perspectives,” and shades of gray as they endeavor to put boys in girls’ bathrooms, sex ed in schools, or plan to value-signal at the next homosexual parade. Islam’s purveyors are definitive, while the West’s Christian clergymen dish up plain-vanilla sermons about social justice, afraid to speak the hard truths and behaving like politicians trying to win the next election.
Of course, there’s far more to the West’s rejection of Christianity, including the acceptance of pseudo-intellectual historical, philosophical, and scientific criticisms; emotion-grabbing media/entertainment propaganda; and that, sometimes, a religion is only without honor in its own (over-indulged) land. Islam, and other alien faiths, are much like the exotic foreigner who seems oh-so exciting to a smitten lass. Christianity is akin to the wholesome boy next door, who’d make a great husband but isn’t chosen because “familiarity breeds contempt.”
Regardless, bread-alone anti-theists should note: Their projection-enabled assumption that Muslims will embrace their enlightened secular “values” is a fool’s fancy. The world is becoming more religious as native Westerners become less so. And Christianity’s antagonists can cheer the faith’s demise in their nations, but they won’t like what takes its place.
[Lifesite News] BEIJING, January 18, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – As it arrests Christian pastors, vandalizes or destroys Christians churches, and demands control over Christian leaders, the Chinese government is also altering Christian scriptures to suit its tastes.
In 2018, the Communist Chinese government embarked on a five-year plan to make Christianity more compatible to what it sees as authentic Chinese and socialist values.Stephen Mosher, author of Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream Is the New Threat to World Order, told LifeSiteNews that altering the Bible is part of this plan.
“It is part of a larger effort in China to sinicize all religions, at the same time bringing them into line with Communist ideology,” Mosher said by email.
“So far, it is (1) no longer possible to buy a copy of the Bible online [in China], (2) existing copies of the Bible are being confiscated whenever the authorities come across them, and (3) there are new versions of all sacred texts – Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, etc. – that reinforce Communist ideology in the making,” he continued.
Bob Fu, a Chinese Evangelical pastor, testified at the U.S. House of Representatives last year that one of the ways China hopes to make Christianity more “Chinese” is to retranslate the Old Testament and write new commentaries on the New Testament.
“The plan made it clear that ‘Sinicization of Christianity’ means to change ‘Christianity in China’ into ‘Chinese Christianity,'” Fu told members of the House Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations last September.
The scheme emphasizes that “the heart and soul of Christianity’s Sinicization is to Sincize the Christian theology” and wants even to “re-translate the Bible or re-write biblical commentaries.”
Fu said a retranslation would involve a summary of the Old Testament with Buddhist scripture and Confucian teachings.
The pastor told The Christian Post that there are official guidelines “that the new Bible should not look westernized and [should look] Chinese and reflect Chinese ethics of Confucianism and socialism.”
“The Old Testament will be messed up. The New Testament will have new commentaries to interpret it.”
[Editor’s Note: This article was written by Dorothy Cummings McLean and first published at LifeSiteNews. This HT is not an endorsement of LifeSiteNews]
EXCERPT:"The plan, finalized at a meeting this March, proposes “cultivating and implementing the socialist core values” and will be supervised by the national religious affairs bureau. “Every province, autonomous region and municipality’s TSPM and CCC seminaries and churches will cooperate with it,” according to Fu." AND:https://bitterwinter.org/you-shall-have-no-god-before-marx/ ________________________________________________________
China Rewrites Bible
Propaganda materials declaring the Communist Party members cannot believe in religion, issued by a school in northeastern China. A public institution demands its Party members sign their names after watching a “Party micro-lecture,” to make sure that all have been acquainted with the atheist propaganda. Propaganda material distributed to teachers in a school of northeastern China quotes Xi Jinping’s call for party members “to be unyielding Marxist atheists, strictly abide by regulations of the Party Constitution, strengthen their conviction and ideals, keep the Party’s goal firmly in mind, and not seek for values and beliefs from religions.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
It could very well be the most peaceful place in Brevard County.Tucked away in a secluded area of Mims, the White Sands Buddhist
Center is a magnificent sight you almost have to see to believe. “Every step of the journey is the journey,” a sign reads as you enter. The 30-acre site just off Aurantia Road is near silent, except for
the trickling of a nearby fountain, chirping birds and a soft breeze
rustling through the trees. A series of statues rise nearly three
stories in the air with intricate displays of flowering plants and paved
stairways leading to their bases. The center is open daily from dawn
until dusk and all are welcome, said Ron Henderson, a staff member who
gives tours of the facility Wednesday through Sunday. There are currently three massive statues that sit before a temple, a
house for nuns and monks, a social dining hall, a gift shop and
meditation areas. A fourth will be added in the coming months.
The massive statues include a “Nirvana Buddha,” which
depicts Siddhārtha, the original Buddha whose teachings are the basis of
most Buddhist practices. The Nirvana Buddha shows Siddhārtha depicted
at age 80 just before his death. He has a smile on his face because he
is at peace, said Henderson. The statue weighs 40 tons and is about 30
feet long, massive in all respects.
Across a landscaped park, a younger Siddhārtha, depicted at age 35,
stands in front of a house that is currently home to one nun and three
monks. The statue is 35 feet tall and about 200 tons, said Henderson,
and is the largest Buddha statue in the state. Across the pond stands
Mother Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of peace and
compassion. Avalokitesvara is a female Buddhist figure who greets
Buddhists in the afterlife, helping the dead achieve nirvana or become
reborn. The statue is 32 feet tall and weighs around 60 tons. She is
framed by tall pillars and palm trees, a centerpiece of the sprawling
facility.
A fourth statue of a baby Buddha will be added this summer and stand
facing Mother Avalokitesvara. It will also rise 35 feet and weigh 200
tons. The statute will be the final addition to the center, said
Henderson, and is the result of a fundraising campaign. It costs about
$80,000 to get the statue sculpted in Vietnam. It then costs around
$200,000 to ship the statue and another $50,000 to set it in place. The
statues are made of granite and sit atop a concrete base. White Sands
gets its funding completely through donations, said Henderson and money
is not collected from visitors. “A plate is never passed,” he said.
Florida Today Feb.10
(Publisher’s comments: The untold thousands of Chin Baptists and
other Christian believers who have escaped from Buddhist persecution,
and are now in the U.S., might have something to say about how peaceful
the Buddhist religion is. Like Islam, it is peaceful when they are in
control.)
NON CHRISTIANMIND CONTROL BACKLASH CREATES ANOTHER PROBLEM
TURNING STUDENTS INTO NON-JUDGEMENTAL BUDDHIST ZOMBIES IS NOT THE ANSWER
(WARNING: WE DIDN'T EVOLVE FROM APES,
SO APES AREN'T OUR MODELS)
"CENTER FOR HUMAN TECHNOLOGY"
"THE TRUTH ABOUT TECH"
We
have built a world-class team of deeply concerned former tech insiders
and CEOs who intimately understand the culture, business incentives,
design techniques, and organizational structures driving how technology
hijacks our minds.
Technology is hijacking our minds and society. Our
world-class team of deeply concerned former tech insiders and CEOs
intimately understands the culture, business incentives, design
techniques, and organizational structures driving how technology hijacks
our minds. Since 2013, we’ve raised awareness of the problem
within tech companies and for millions of people through broad media
attention, convened top industry executives, and advised political
leaders. Building on this start, we are advancing thoughtful solutions
to change the system. What we feel as addiction is part of something much bigger.
There's an invisible problem that's affecting all of society.
Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and Google have produced amazing products that have
benefited the world enormously. But these companies are also caught in a
zero-sum race for our finite attention, which they
need to make money. Constantly forced to outperform their competitors,
they must use increasingly persuasive techniques to keep us glued. They
point AI-driven news feeds, content, and notifications at our minds,
continually learning how to hook us more deeply—from our own behavior. Unfortunately, what's best for capturing our attention isn't best for our well-being:
Snapchat turns conversations into streaks, redefining how our children measure friendship.
Instagramglorifies the picture-perfect life, eroding our self worth.
Facebooksegregates us into echo chambers, fragmenting our communities.
YouTubeautoplays the next video within seconds, even if it eats into our sleep.
These are not neutral products. They are part of a system designed to addict us.
EARLY FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE EMPLOYEES FORM COALITION TO FIGHT WHAT THEY BUILT
(Friday Church News Notes, February 9, 2018, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes: The following is excerpted from “Early Facebook and Google,” New York Times,
Feb. 4, 2018: “A group of Silicon Valley technologists who were early
employees at Facebook and Google, alarmed over the ill effects of social
networks and smartphones, are banding together to challenge the
companies they helped build. The cohort is creating a union of concerned
experts called the Center for Humane Technology.
Along with the nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media, it
also plans an anti-tech addiction lobbying effort and an ad campaign at
55,000 public schools in the United States. The
campaign, titled The Truth About Tech, will be funded with $7 million
from Common Sense and capital raised by the Center for Humane
Technology. Common Sense also has $50 million in donated media and
airtime from partners including Comcast and DirecTV. It will be aimed at
educating students, parents and teachers about the dangers of
technology, including the depression that can come from heavy use of
social media. ‘We were on the inside,’ said Tristan Harris, a former
in-house ethicist at Google who is heading the new group. ‘We know what
the companies measure. We know how they talk, and we know how the
engineering works.’ The effect of technology, especially on younger
minds, has become hotly debated in recent months. ... Pediatric and
mental health experts called on Facebook last week to abandon a messaging service the company had introduced for children as young as 6. Parenting groups have also sounded the alarm about YouTube Kids, a product aimed at children that
sometimes features disturbing content. ... The new Center for Humane
Technology includes an unprecedented alliance of former employees of
some of today’s biggest tech companies. Apart from Mr. Harris, the
center includes Sandy Parakilas, a former Facebook operations manager;
Lynn Fox, a former Apple and Google communications executive; Dave
Morin, a former Facebook executive; Justin Rosenstein, who created
Facebook’s Like button ... Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook,
told The Guardian last month that he would not let his nephew on social media.” (For practical instruction on protecting young people from evil influences, see The Mobile Phone and the Christian Home and Church, available as a free eBook from www.wayoflife.org.) ______________________________________________________
Watch the TED Talk by Tristan Harris
"How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day"
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“Silence” is the latest movie by Martin Scorsese, who also produced
“The Last Temptation of Christ.” I have read several reviews by
professing Christians who are recommending it without reservations.
Additionally, the Dove Foundation awarded the movie 4 out of 5 doves.
Charisma News asks, “Is Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ Prophetic?” CBN also
presented a rave review. Christianity Today entitled its review,
“Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ Asks What It Really Costs to Follow Jesus.”
Another review in CT is entitled, “Silence Review: Hollywood’s Gift
To The Church That Might Just Save Your Faith.” And what is the message
of “Silence” that might save your life? The message of the movie is
antithetical to true faith.
The title of Lumindeo’s review of the movie is, “Silence—A Christian’s Contemplative Guide.” [1]
In the “About” section of the Lumindeo website it is described as “a
network created by and for passionate followers of Jesus Christ.” If
Lumindeo consists of passionate followers of Jesus Christ, why don’t
they know that Christianity never grew in apostasy, but always in
persecution and martyrdom?
Crosswalk likewise implies that it is a Christian-themed film with
the statement, “Theologians, look no further: this movie is jam-packed
with spiritual themes.” [2]Spiritual themes, perhaps, but Christian themes? Not by any stretch.
Crosswalk reveals a misunderstanding of true Christianity in the
following statement.
“The Christians in the film are Jesuit Catholics…”
The truth is that “Silence” is not a Christian film.It was not
produced by a demonstrable Christian and has nothing to do with biblical
Christianity. National Catholic Reporter declares the movie as,
“Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ is his most Catholic film.”[3] I agree with that assessment. “Silence” is Roman Catholicism presented as true Christianity. The major theme in “Silence” is about renouncing Christ when
threatened by martyrdom. In fact, the apostate Father Ferreira urges the
Jesuit Rodrigues to apostatize by insisting, “If Christ were here He
would have acted. Apostatized. For their sake. Christ would certainly
have done at least that to help men.” In fact, Rodrigues is overtly presented as a “Christ” in the film and
the people worshipped him. When he apostatized, it was to the people as
if Christ had apostatized. Furthermore, Ferreira’s statement is a heretical interpretation of
Christ’s mission. Christ declared that He came to die for our sins. His
sacrifice was to deliver us from the penalty of sin, death, and to
provide for us eternal life. If we deny Him before men, He will deny us
before the Father. (Matthew 10:33) Rodrigues hears a supernatural voice, presumably Christ, who tells
him to apostatize. The voice says, “Come ahead now. It’s all right. Step
on Me. I understand your pain. I was born into this world to share
men’s pain. I carried this cross for your pain. Step.” Rodrigues obeys the voice, steps on the fumie, and goes on to
denounce Christianity. That iniquitous deed was followed by an apparent
conversion to Buddhism. (Thomas Merton, the priest who introduced
Contemplative Spirituality, also called The Silence, into Roman
Catholicism, likewise became a Buddhist-sympathizing Catholic.) The supernatural voice presented an extra-biblical revelation, which
is actually heresy. God’s word declares that trampling on Christ is
egregious and punishable by God.
“Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought
worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of
the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the
Spirit of grace?” – Hebrews 10:29
Additionally, Christ did not come to “share men’s pain,” but to bear
our sin and pay the penalty for it. Trampling on Christ is despising His
sacrifice and rejecting His grace. Christ declared that no one can be
His disciple unless they take up their cross and follow Him. A cross is
to die on. “Silence” violates everything Christ taught about
discipleship.
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 16:25 In my opinion, the blood of the martyrs will cry out against Martin
Scorsese and everyone involved in this film on the Day of Judgment. “Silence” is also a spiritually seductive lure into Contemplative
Spirituality. Throughout the movie there are poignant references to
God’s silence. Rodrigues prays, but God does not answer. At one point he
declares, “Despair is the greatest sin, but in the mystery of Your
silence, it crowds my heart.”
In another scene Rodrigues ponders silently, “Lord, I feel the weight
of their fate. Those who have died. Those who will die. Like the weight
of Your silence.”
Makoto Fujimura, the cultural and special adviser to Scorsese during
the film, stated, “…the film is not about the silence of God, but God’s
voice in silence.”
Near the end of the movie the supernatural voice is heard again and declares, “I suffered beside you. I was never silent.” Rodrigues, now a Buddhist, replies, “It was in the silence that I
heard your voice.” In my opinion it is an unadulterated suggestion that
as a Buddhist he heard Christ in The Silence. He never heard Christ as
a professing Christian until right before he stepped on the fumie. Scorsese said at the screening of Silence, “My way into spirituality happens to be Roman Catholicism.”Of
course, Roman Catholic spirituality is “the Silence” or contemplative
spirituality. Consider Scorsese’s understanding of Christianity in his
response to the following question. “The Last Temptation of Christ’ and
‘Silence’ — in your art and mind where do these two films find each
other?” “… But for myself, as a believer, unbeliever, doubter, have
faith, not have faith, go through life, making mistakes, I don’t know. “Because when [Fr. Rodrigues] does apostatize, he gives
up anything he’s proud of and he’s got nothing left except service,
except compassion. So, he gives up his religion, he gives up his faith
in order to gain his faith. Wow. How do you do that? That’s amazing.
Could you do that?” – Martin Scorsese I would answer Scorsese with an emphatic “No, you cannot give up
faith to gain faith.” However, he goes on and produces the movie with
the theme of abandoning faith to gain faith.Scorsese portrays the
“service and compassion” of the apostate Jesuit as refined and elevated.
The clear message is that committing apostasy and converting to
Buddhism to avoid martyrdom is spiritually superior to
faithful-unto-death Christianity. How does that compare to the martyrs
in Revelation?
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” –
Revelation 12:11 In summation, “Silence” is nearly 3 hours of very powerful emotional
manipulation. The movie presents such a horrendously evil view of the
Japanese Inquisitor that the Jesuit Rodrigues appears saintly by
comparison. However, the idea of authentic Christian Jesuits is as
oxymoronic as the concept of biblically validated Roman Catholicism. I
believe the only good value of the movie is that it reveals the complete
failure of Roman Catholicism when the religion masquerades as
Christianity. The dangers of the movie are first its heterodoxy that one can
apostatize to avoid martyrdom and remain a child of God. An equal danger
is the obvious allure of Contemplative Spirituality. This diabolical
movie may prepare innumerable anemic professing Christians to compromise
their faith under the pressure of persecution. However, it may also be a
vehicle to carrying them into mystical experimentation with
Contemplative Spirituality. The potential of “Silence” to deceive millions of weak professing
Christians is feasible. Could this be part of the “lying signs and
wonders show” that the Apostle Paul referred to in 2 Thessalonians? “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,and
with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did
not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” – 2
Thessalonians 2:9-10 [1]http://www.lumindeo.org/uncategorized/silence-christians-contemplative-guide/ [2]http://www.crosswalk.com/culture/movies/silence-movie-review.html [3]https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/scorseses-silence-his-most-catholic-film
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OFFICIAL TRAILER:
Martin Scorsese discusses his faith, his struggles,
