AMERICAN ADULTS CAN SUE VACCINE MANUFACTURERS FOR ADVERSE SIDE EFFECTS
You Can Opt Out Of Vaccines In All Fifty States
Bombshell: Study Reveals Unvaccinated Children
Are Healthier
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
ICELANDIC LEFTIST POISONS ROBERT SPENCER OF JIHAD WATCH IN RESTAURANT FOR HIS STANCE AGAINST ISLAMIC JIHAD
VIDEO: Robert Spencer Poisoned in Iceland
ICELANDIC LEFTIST POISONS ROBERT SPENCER OF JIHAD WATCH IN RESTAURANT FOR HIS STANCE AGAINST ISLAMIC JIHAD
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Last Thursday, I gave a lecture on the jihad threat at the Grand
Hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland. Shortly thereafter, a young Icelandic
Leftist registered his disapproval of what I said by poisoning me.It happened after the event, when my security chief, the organizers of the event, and Jihad Watch writer Christine Williams, who had also been invited to speak, went with me to a local restaurant to celebrate the success of the evening.
At this crowded Reykjavik establishment, I was quickly recognized. A young Icelander called me by name, shook my hand, and said he was a big fan. Shortly after that, another citizen of that famously genteel and courteous land also called me by name, shook my hand, and said “F**k you.”
We took that marvelous Icelandic greeting as a cue to leave. But the damage had already been done. About fifteen minutes later, when I got back in my hotel room, I began to feel numbness in my face, hands, and feet. I began trembling and vomiting. My heart was racing dangerously. I spent the night in a Reykjavik hospital.
What had happened quickly became clear, and was soon confirmed by a hospital test: one of these local Icelanders who had approached me (probably the one who said he was a big fan, as he was much closer to me than the “F**k you” guy) had dropped drugs into my drink. I wasn’t and am not on any other medication, and so there wasn’t any other explanation of how these things had gotten into my bloodstream.
For several days thereafter I was ill, but I did get to Reykjavik’s police station and gave them a bigger case than they have seen in good awhile. The police official with whom I spoke took immediate steps to identify and locate the principal suspects and obtain the restaurant’s surveillance video.
Iceland is a small country. Everyone knows everyone else. And so as it happened, I was quickly able to discover the identity, phone number, and Facebook page of the primary suspect, the young man who claimed he was a “big fan.” I don’t intend to call him. Icelandic police will be contacting him soon enough, if they haven’t done so already.
However, I did look at his Facebook page, and as I expected, I saw nothing that might indicate that he really was a “big fan” of my work, or that he held any views out of the mainstream — which is, courtesy of Iceland’s political and media elites, dominated entirely by the Left.
The most likely scenario is that this young man, or whoever drugged me, heard that a notorious “racist” was coming to Reykjavik, by chance saw me in the restaurant, and decided to teach me a lesson with some of the illegal drugs that are as plentiful in Reykjavik as they are anywhere else.
I should have seen it coming. After all, my visit had triggered a firestorm of abuse in the Icelandic press, all based on American Leftist talking points. Every story about my visit had the same elements: the notice that the SPLC claims that I purvey “hate speech,” which is a subjective judgment used to shut down dissent from the establishment line; the fact that I am banned from Britain, with no mention of the key detail that I was banned for saying that Islam has doctrines of violence (which is like being banned for saying water is wet) and for the crime of supporting Israel; and the false claim that I incited the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik to kill (in reality, I’m no more responsible for Breivik’s murders than the Beatles are for Charles Manson’s). After the event, one article even featured a big photo of Breivik, but quoted nary a thing I said that evening.
Not a single Icelandic media outlet that ran a story about my coming or about the event itself contacted me for comment, much less for rebuttal to the charges they made against me. One TV station did air an interview with me in which the interviewer refused to believe that I did not feel responsible for the Breivik murders, and asked me about them again and again.
After the event, articles in the Icelandic press included quotes from the 50 protesters, but none included even a single quotation or description of anything we had actually said. None quoted any of the 500 brave Icelanders who braved the hatred of the politically correct elites to come to the Grand Hotel to hear me and Ms. Williams – a staggeringly large number in a country of 300,000 people.
It’s clear: jihad and Islamization are not subjects that Icelandic politicians and media opinion-makers want Icelanders to discuss.
That’s all the more reason why it must be discussed.
But meanwhile, I learned my lesson. The lesson I learned was that media demonization of those who dissent from the Leftist line is direct incitement to violence. By portraying me and others who raise legitimate questions about jihad terror and Sharia oppression as racist, bigoted Islamophobes, without allowing us a fair hearing, the media in Iceland and elsewhere in the West is actively endangering those who dare to dissent. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Center for American Progress and the rest who devote so much money, time and attention to demonizing “Islamophobes” are painting huge targets on our backs.
Of course, they think they’re doing something noble. Not only does the Left fill those whom it brainwashes with hate, but it does so while portraying its enemies as the hatemongers, such that violent Leftists such as the young man who drugged me feel righteous even as they victimize and brutalize conservatives.
There is no doubt about it: I’m certain that whoever poisoned me in Iceland went away feeling happy over what he had done. If he told anyone what he did, I’m sure he was hailed as a hero. I’m also aware that many who read this will be thrilled at the fact that I became seriously ill. That in itself is a sign of how degenerate and evil the Left has become.
All over the West, as Leftist students riot and physically menace conservative speakers and Leftist spokesmen indulge in the most hysterical rhetoric to defame their foes, politicians cower in fear and decline to discuss these issues, only ensuring that the problems I identified when I spoke in Reykjavik will continue to grow in Iceland and elsewhere.
As they were rising to power in Germany, the Nazis indoctrinated their young followers with the same message: those who oppose us are evil. Those who brutalize them are doing a great thing. The Left’s demonization of its opponents today will lead to exactly the same thing. It already has for me, in beautiful Reykjavik.
_____________________________________________________
SEE ALSO:
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/medical-report-published-confirms-that-robert-spencer-was-poisoned-in-iceland
EXCERPTS:
Spencer said that about 15 minutes later, when he returned to his hotel room, “I began to feel numbness in my face, hands and feet. I began trembling and vomiting. My heart was racing dangerously. I spent the night in a Reykjavik hospital.”
The doctor states in his one-page report, dated May 12, that Spencer tested “positive for amphetamine and MDMA.”
MDMA, commonly known as “ecstasy,” typically causes an increase in heart rate.
Spencer told WND that the doctor “tried to downplay what happened,” but the report makes it clear he was drugged.
“When he spoke to me, he mentioned only Ritalin, and seemed skeptical when I told him I had never taken Ritalin.”
Spencer said the doctor didn’t mention MDMA to him, although it ended up in the report.
"POPE FRANCIS" DECLARES "SAINTS": DECEASED FATIMA CHILDREN WHO "SAW" APPARITION OF MARY
POPE CANONIZES JACINTO & FRANCISCO
"POPE FRANCIS" DECLARES "SAINTS": DECEASED FATIMA CHILDREN WHO "SAW" APPARITION OF MARY
BY HEATHER CLARK
SEE: http://christiannews.net/2017/05/15/pope-francis-declares-saints-deceased-fatima-children-who-purportedly-saw-apparition-of-mary/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
FATIMA, Portugal — Jorge Bergoglio, the Roman
Catholic leader known as Pope Francis, has “sainted” two of three
Portuguese shepherds who purportedly saw an apparition of Mary a century
ago and are credited with two miracles following their death. The
occasion, which is widely accepted among Catholics worldwide, is
rejected by evangelicals, who note numerous conflicts with biblical
orthodoxy.
According to reports, an estimated 500,000 people flocked to the
Fatima Sanctuary Complex on Saturday, where the children are buried.
Some crawled the final few yards on their hands and knees.“According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims—if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of light that protects us, here as in almost no other place on earth. We need but take refuge under the protection of the virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: ‘Show unto us … Jesus,'” Bergoglio declared.
“With Mary’s protection, may we be for our world sentinels of the dawn, contemplating the true face of Jesus the Saviour,” he said.
The canonization took place exactly one hundred years to the day that Roman Catholics believe that Mary appeared to three shepherd children—Jacinta and Francisco Marto, ages 9 and 7, and their cousin Lucia—telling them to return to the location on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months, where she would deliver various messages.
“Will you take us to Heaven?” Lucia asked.
“Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my immaculate heart,” Mary replied, according to Catholic legend.
Some of the children during the purported visitations asked for healing for certain acquaintences who were ill.
“Some I will cure during the year. Pray, pray very much. Make sacrifices for sinners. Many souls go to Hell because no one is willing to help them with sacrifice,” Mary replied.
Identifying herself as “the lady of the rosary,” she also asked that a chapel be built in her name and that the children continually pray the rosary to help end World War I.
“I want a chapel built here in my honor. I want you to continue saying the rosary every day. The war will end soon, and the soldiers will return to their homes,” Mary said.
The Marto siblings died while still children during the flu pandemic, but their cousin lived to be 97. Lucia provided an account of the incident to the Vatican, and locals built a chapel and a statue to Mary at the location, which later also became the site of an elaborate basilica.
The children’s bodies were exhumed and moved to the basilica, and Roman Catholics began making regular pilgrimage to the location.
In the Roman Catholic religion, in order for a person to be sainted, they must be credited with bringing about two miracles after their death through their intercession, with the exception of just one miracle for those who are martyred for their faith.
In 2000, John Paul II issued a decree stating that the Marto siblings were jointly responsible for a miracle, and “beatified” the deceased children. A woman who watched the service on television then claimed that she prayed to Jacinto and Francisco for healing of her child’s diabetes, and he was cured.
In March, Bergoglio signed a decree recognizing the purported second miracle required for canonization, and then traveled to Portugal to declare the Martos as “saints” on Saturday in front of half a million followers. He also prayed before the children’s tombs and offered a golden rose at the feet of the Marian statue.
“Hail holy queen, blessed virgin of Fatima, lady of immaculate heart, our refuge and our way to God!” he declared, according to a transcript from Vatican Radio.
“It is heartbreaking to see hundreds of thousands of Catholics being deceived by great signs and wonders that our Lord warned us about (Matthew 24:24),” Mike Gendron of Proclaiming the Gospel Ministries told Christian News Network on Monday.
“The Bible warns us that these last days will marked by the activity of Satan, who will use signs and false wonders to deceive the world (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Our only protection against deception is to test everything with the supreme authority of God’s Word (Act. 17:11).”
He said that it could not have been Mary who appeared to the children.
“We know it was not Mary who appeared to the Fatima children because the apparition proclaimed a different gospel,” Gendron explained. “One of the messages the ‘counterfeit Mary’ gave was, ‘Many souls go to Hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them.’ Other messages that were given to the children called for Catholics to do penance and obey the law for salvation, which is contrary to the gospel.”
The former longtime Roman Catholic who now encourages adherents to compare Catholic doctrine with Scripture also noted the absurdity of crediting the deceased with miracles.
“The unbiblical tradition of canonizing dead Catholics who are credited with two miracles began in the 12th century with Pope Innocent III. The number of miracles that were required fluctuated over the years from two to six until the 1917 Code of Canon Law provided a loophole. If miracles were lacking, the pope could dispense the requirement,” he outlined.
“Yet, the word ‘saint’ appears 229 times in the New Testament and not once does it refer to the deceased who had been been credited with miracles, but rather the living faithful who been sanctified by the truth of God’s Word,” Gendron said.
AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, TRUMP INVOKES GOD AS SOURCE OF FREEDOM
AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY, TRUMP INVOKES GOD
AS SOURCE OF FREEDOM
BY ALEX NEWMAN
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
President Donald Trump gave a powerful commencement speech to
graduating students at Liberty University this weekend highlighting,
among other important topics, America's Christian heritage and the
God-given rights of the American people. Blasting Big Government,
insiders, the “broken system,” and the establishment behind it all,
along with the establishment's efforts to lord over the lives of
Americans using the coercive power of the state, Trump urged the sea of
Christian graduates to fight back as they go out into the world as
future leaders. He also promised to defend religious liberty and
America's heritage of freedom — described as a gift from God — as long
as he remains in office.Throughout the May 13 commencement speech, Trump invoked God the Creator, Christ, the Gospel, faith, and the Bible more than two-dozen times. It was a thoroughly Americanist speech and perfectly appropriate for the setting, an evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, that is considered the largest of its kind in the world. Despite some reservations about Trump expressed by a number of prominent Christian voices, Liberty University leaders including its president, Jerry Falwell, Jr., supported Trump, as did countless Christian voters who were considered crucial to Trump's historic electoral victory over the entire establishment. The president gratefully and playfully acknowledged that support and the key role it played in securing the White House.
Trump's speech was infused from top to bottom with tributes to faith and God the Creator, whom Trump credited for freedom and America's greatness. “America has always been the land of dreams because America is a nation of true believers,” Trump told the more than 7,000 attendees and the countless others who watched the speech online. “When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth they prayed. When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our Creator four times, because in America we don't worship government, we worship God.” That catchy line blasting statism as idolatry made headlines across America, even in the anti-Trump establishment media often ridiculed by Trump for being purveyors of “fake news.”
The president went on to cite multiple examples showing that America has always been a Christian nation with its faith in God. “That is why our elected officials put their hands on the Bible and say, ´So help me God,´ as they take the oath of office. It is why our currency proudly declares, ´In God We Trust,´ and it's why we proudly proclaim that we are one nation under God every time we say the pledge of allegiance.” In fact, the whole story of America is “the story of an adventure that began with deep faith, big dreams and humble beginnings,” the president explained.
Trump also called for unity and highlighted the fact that all Americans were made by the same God. “We must always remember that we share one home and one glorious destiny whether we are brown, black or white,” he said. “We all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all salute the same great American flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God. As long as you remember what you have learned here at Liberty, as long as you have pride in your beliefs, courage in your convictions and faith in your God, then you will not fail.”
Especially in recent years, millions of Americans have become increasingly pessimistic about the future, with more than a few conservatives and Christians suggesting that America, like Rome, was an empire in irreversible decline. Trump rejected that view, sounding optimistic about the future — provided Americans keep their faith where it belongs. “And as long as America remains true to its values, loyal to its citizens, and devoted to its Creator, then our best days are yet to come, I can promise you that,” he said, echoing an increasingly common theme among his supporters, millions of whom, rightly or wrongly, viewed his election as some sort divine intervention. “America is beginning a new chapter.”
With many Christians feeling under assault by Washington, D.C., during Obama's reign — government mandated everything from providing birth-control by religious organizations to participation in homosexual “weddings” by Christians — Trump vowed to protect religious freedom, as well. “As long as I am your president, no one is ever going to stop you from practicing your faith or from preaching what's in your heart,” he said. “We will always stand up for the right of all Americans to pray to God and to follow His teachings.... America is better when people put their faith into action.”
Continuing with that theme, Trump painted a picture of an out-of-control establishment at war with traditional American values such as Christianity and limited government. “A small group of failed voices who think they know everything and understand everyone want to tell everybody else how to live and what to do and how to think,” he said. “But you aren't going to let other people tell you what you believe, especially when you know that you're right.”
In a dramatic contrast to other commencement speeches by statist Big Government mongers at other colleges and universities, Trump highlighted the value of Christian charity, voluntary giving, and more, as opposed to constant reliance on government. “And those of you graduating here today, who have given half a million hours of charity last year alone, unbelievable amount of work and charity and few universities or colleges can claim anything even close, we don't need a lecture from Washington on how to lead our lives,” Trump said. “I'm standing here looking at the next generation of American leaders.”
Taking aim at the establishment “Insiders,” the president expressed pride in being an outsider, and called on the Christian graduates in front of him to embrace it, too. “The more people tell you it's not possible, that it can't be done, the more you should be absolutely determined to prove them wrong,” Trump declared, saying the word “impossible” should be treated as nothing more than motivation. “Relish the opportunity to be an outsider. Embrace that label — being an outsider is fine, embrace the label — because it's the outsiders who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference.”
Trump also called on graduates to take action in replacing the establishment's corrupt and broken system with legitimate government — no matter how much the establishment whines and complains about it. “The more that a broken system tells you that you're wrong, the more certain you should be that you must keep pushing ahead, you must keep pushing forward,” the president explained. “And you will have the faith to replace a broken establishment with a government that serves and protects the people.”
He praised the thousands of Christian students graduating assembled there, in particular. “Liberty University is a place where they really have true champions and you have a simple creed that you live by: To be, really, champions for Christ,” Trump declared. “Whether you're called to be a missionary overseas, to shepherd a church or to be a leader in your community, you are living witness of the gospel message of faith, hope and love.” The comments were met enthusiastically, with countless graduates and families quoted in media reports praising Trump and his speech.
Trump paid a special tribute to veterans and those who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces. “We're also deeply honored to be joined by some of the nearly 6000 service members, military veterans and military spouses who are receiving their diplomas today,” he said. “Will you please stand. Please stand. Wow. That's great. Thank you very much, great job. We're profoundly grateful to every single one of you who sacrificed to keep us safe and protect God's precious gift of freedom. It is truly a testament to this university and to the values that you embrace that your graduating class includes so many patriots who have served our country in uniform.”
Trump's hopeful, pro-liberty, pro-Christianity, anti-establishment remarks represented a remarkable contrast with other commencement speeches delivered this weekend by radical left-wing politicians and anti-God zealots at secular, government-run universities increasingly infamous for hostility to God and liberty. Indeed, from former President Bill Clinton and radical leftist U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren to failed Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and even washed-up comedians, there was a loud chorus of critics urging graduates at other schools across America to expand government, assault liberty, and sideline moral values.
While Trump's speech was made at a Christian university to a Christian audience, the president has used similar language in other speeches aimed at the entire American public. In his inaugural address, for example, Trump quoted the Bible and acknowledged God the Creator as the true source of America's protection. In that historic speech, the president also put the self-appointed globalist establishment on notice that the American people were back in charge.
But even assuming Trump is entirely sincere, he cannot beat back the establishment and protect liberty on his own. Christians, patriots, and conservatives across America must join together to ensure that those timeless American values Trump highlighted are preserved and protected.
Related articles:
President Trump Cites Bible in Unity Call; Touts “America First”
Reclaiming Religion in America
Trump vs. the Establishment
'Tis the Season in Which We Celebrate America's Christian Heritage
"Us-versus-them" Obama Again Slams Christianity
A Review of "Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society"
Michael Savage: “West Will Collapse” Without Christian Revival
Is “Trumpism” Really “Bircherism”?
Trump Victory Proves “Mainstream” Media Is Globalist Fringe
PRESIDENT TRUMP JOINT STATEMENT WITH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN OF TURKEY~DID THEY DISCUSS ERDOGAN'S PLANS TO HEAD CALIPHATE & FLOOD EUROPE WITH ISLAMIC TERRORISTS?
Turkey accused of cracking down on critics abroad
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/turkey-accused-of-cracking-down-on-critics-abroad;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The New York Times reported that Gulenists have been hunted and in hiding as a result of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aggressive campaign against them, despite their insistence that they are not involved in plotting against him and the implausibility of the charges themselves. Erdogan is now reportedly expanding his jihadist thuggery and reach, as his AKP Party is said to be using tactics similar to those of the Islamic Republic of Iran to silence his critics abroad. All the while, Western authorities remain passive in the face of this increasing aggression from jihadists of all sides.
“Report: Turkey adopts extrajudicial tactics to crack down on critics abroad”, Turkish Minute (thanks to The Religion of Peace), May 14, 2017:
A new report by the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) shows that Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has adopted a thuggish new tactic in persecuting its critics and opponents abroad by orchestrating abductions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial renditions in addition to the profiling and harassment of Turkish expatriates by government institutions and clandestine groups.______________________________________________________
The report, which was released by SCF on Saturday, was drawn from a case study on Malaysia where three Turkish citizens who are followers of faith-based Gülen movement, which is accused by Turkey of being behind a failed coup last summer, were detained and handed over to Turkish authorities over their alleged ties to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
“The Malaysian example showed how Turkish President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan can drag other leaders in his crime syndicate that trumps international human rights law. Corrupt and authoritarian regimes appear to be aiding and abetting Erdoğan’s posse in his illegal manhunt in exchange for political deals and economic incentives,” said SCF President Abdullah Bozkurt in the report.
According to Bozkurt, these three people who were turned over to Turkey on false charges will be subjected to torture, abuse and inhuman treatment for simply belonging to the Gülen movement. “[The] Malaysian government will be held accountable for enabling Erdoğan’s crimes against humanity in the future,” he added.
“Although critics from all walks of life including Kurds and Alevis were targeted in general in this stigmatizing effort by the Turkish government, members of [a] civic group called the Hizmet (Gülen) movement, which is inspired by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, have borne the brunt of this major campaign of witch-hunt,” the report said.
According to earlier reports by SCF, Turkish embassies, government agencies including intelligence services and nongovernmental organizations affiliated with the AKP government have all been involved in the profiling and harassment of members of the Gülen movement.
The report also said the Malaysian example represents an extreme case where law-abiding and peaceful people who participated in Gülen’s advocacy of interfaith dialogue efforts were unlawfully detained and abused before being extradited to Turkey.
SEE ALSO:
https://counterjihadreport.com/2017/03/22/erdogans-caliphate-threatens-nato/
_________________________________________________
Turkish President Declared Caliph
Of The Muslim World
Published on Dec 29, 2015
As
he wrote for Yeni Safak, the pro-Erdogan main newspaper under the
control of Erdogan in Istanbul. In his article regarding the new
presidential system which Erdogan wants to establish, Karaman
desperately defended Erdogan and declared what we were saying all along
they will do; that Erdogan will soon become the Caliph for all Muslims.
The following is a presentation of the exciting part in an article
Hayrettin Karaman wrote: “During the debate on the presidential
system, here is what everyone must do so while taking into account the
direction of the world’s national interest and the future of the country
and not focus on the party or a particular person. What this
[presidential system] looks like is the Islamic caliphate system in
terms of its mechanism. In this system the people choose the leader,
the Prince, and then all will pledge the Bay’ah [allegiance] and then
the chosen president appoints the high government bureaucracy and he
cannot interfere in the judiciary where the Committee will audit
legislation independent of the president. ” Hayrettin Karamanhttp://shoebat.com/2015/12/27/90032/
http://therightscoop.com/erdogans-chi...
** http://www.infowars.com/erdogan-says-...
Who Will Lead The Global Caliphate?
Erdogan Or Gulen
Published on Apr 18, 2017
As
opponents question Erdogan’s “victory” in a referendum increasing his
power, he goes on the offensive against his adversary, in exile in the
US, accusing 17 individuals in the US of aiding Fethullah Gulen.
David Knight of Infowars reports:
Nine injured as Erdoğan’s bodyguards violently attack Kurdish protesters in DC
Now he is so bold as to allow his thugs to behave violently on American soil.
“’Erdoğan’s bodyguards’ in violent clash with protesters in Washington DC”, Guardian, May 17, 2017:
Nine injured as Erdoğan’s bodyguards violently attack Kurdish protesters in DC
BY CHRISTINE WILLIAMS
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/nine-injured-as-erdogans-bodyguards-violently-attack-kurdish-protesters-in-dc;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
According to witnesses, a brawl erupted when Erdoğan’s security detail attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party outside the residence.This is a sign of what is to come. When Islamic supremacists are emboldened, their violence increases. Erdoğan has become emboldened recently — even more so since emerging victorious in a referendum that significantly broadened his powers:
The Turkish republic has always been flawed, but it always contained the aspiration that – against the backdrop of the principles to which successive constitutions claimed fidelity – it could become a democracy. Erdoğan’s new Turkey closes off that prospect.The jihadist dictator Erdoğan is bent on expanding his powers both inside and outside Turkey. Erdoğan’s temper recently flared against Europe when several European governments refused “to allow his ministers to rally Turkish expatriates.” He also declared that “Europe is collapsing…Europe will pay for what they have done in humiliating and oppressing Turks”; and in response to a European headscarf ban in the workplace, he accused Europe of starting “a clash between the cross and the crescent.”
Now he is so bold as to allow his thugs to behave violently on American soil.
“’Erdoğan’s bodyguards’ in violent clash with protesters in Washington DC”, Guardian, May 17, 2017:
Nine people were hurt and two arrests were made during an altercation at the Turkish ambassador’s residence in the US capital during a visit by Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan._________________________________________________________
According to witnesses, a brawl erupted when Erdoğan’s security detail attacked protesters carrying the flag of the Kurdish PYD party outside the residence. A local NBC television affiliate reported Erdoğan was inside the building at the time.
Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said the altercation broke out between two groups but he didn’t elaborate on the circumstances. He said two people were arrested, including one who was charged with assaulting a police officer.
“All of the sudden they just ran towards us,” Yazidi Kurd demonstrator Lucy Usoyan told ABC, adding that she was attacked by a pro-Erdoğan supporter.
“Someone was beating me in the head nonstop, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m on the ground already, what is the purpose to beat me?’”
The altercation came the same day that Erdoğan met Donald Trump at the White House. The State Department declined to comment.
Earlier Trump and Erdoğan had stood side by side at the White House and promised to strengthen strained ties despite the Turkish leader’s stern warning about Washington’s arming of a Kurdish militia.
Fresh from securing his grip on Turkey with a referendum to enhance his powers, Erdoğan came to the Oval Office with complaints about US support for Kurdish fighters and what Ankara says is Washington’s harbouring of the mastermind of a failed coup.
But both leaders also tried to put a brave face on their differences and to renew a key alliance between Nato’s leading power and its biggest Muslim member, partners in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
“It is absolutely unacceptable to take the YPG-PYD into consideration as partners in the region, and it’s going against a global agreement we reached,” Erdoğan said, referring to the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.
“In the same way, we should never allow those groups who want to change the ethnic or religious structures in the region to use terrorism as a pretext,” he added…..
VIDEOS OF ERDOGAN'S THUG BODYGUARDS BEATING UP KURD & ARMENIAN PROTESTORS
IN WASHINGTON, D.C.:
11 INJURED DURING TRUMP-ERDOGAN MEETING
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
TERESA OF AVILA: AN ANCIENT MYSTIC WHO HELPED SHAPE TODAY'S SPIRITUAL FORMATION MOVEMENT
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS:
TERESA OF AVILA: AN ANCIENT MYSTIC WHO HELPED SHAPE TODAY'S SPIRITUAL FORMATION MOVEMENT
BY By Carolyn A. Greene
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
NEW BOOKLET: Teresa of Avila – An Ancient Mystic Who Helped Shape Today’s Spiritual Formation Movement by Carolyn A. Greene is our newest Lighthouse Trails Booklet. The Booklet is 18 pages long and sells for $1.95 for single copies. Quantity discounts are as much as 50% off retail. Our Booklets are designed to give away to others or for your own personal use.
Below is the content of the booklet. To order copies of Teresa of Avila –
An Ancient Mystic Who Helped Shape Today’s Spiritual Formation Movement,
click here.
Teresa of Avila – An Ancient Mystic Who Helped Shape Today’s Spiritual Formation Movement
By Carolyn A. Greene
Editor’s Note: Today, it is
not uncommon for Christian leaders and teachers to recommend the
writings of Teresa of Avila. For instance, the late theologian Dallas
Willard encouraged his followers to read Teresa’s Interior Castle
saying Teresa is “an example to follow.”1 Christian publishers like
Bethany House, Thomas Nelson, and Multnomah Press have published books
by Teresa of Avila. Rick Warren, author of the highly popular Purpose Driven Life, says her writings are among “great, classic devotional works.”2 Pete Scazzero, author of the popular book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, lists Teresa of Avila’s book, Interior Castle as one of his “top ten books.”3 Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Pathways and Sacred Marriage, favorably references Teresa of Avila numerous times in his book, Thirsting for God. And not surprisingly, contemplative authors such as Richard Foster and Henry Nouwen see her as a fellow mystic.
In 2009, Lighthouse Trails published Castles in the Sand,
a story involving a young troubled girl who begins attending a
Christian college where she is introduced in her Spiritual Formation
class to the writings of an ancient mystic, Teresa of Avila. The
following booklet is taken from Castles in the Sand narrating Teresa’s life. While Castles in the Sand
is a work of fiction, Teresa of Avila is a real, historical figure
(1515-1582). The depiction of her life in this booklet is based on
historical records (see bibliography at end of booklet). Quotes and
paraphrases of her writings are taken from her actual written works. The
lives of other characters portrayed in this booklet are created from
composites of true stories.
While some readers may find some of Teresa’s
mystical experiences (that at times included involuntary levitating)
troubling to read, it is important to understand that the “spiritual
ecstasies” Teresa of Avila encountered were the result of her practicing
a meditative prayer, much like one that is being practiced by countless
Christians today through the Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative
prayer) movement. We pray this booklet will illustrate how mystical
prayer methods are dangerous and introduce the practitioner to occultism
and its tormenting “fruit,” something you will not be warned about by
those who recommend you study the ancient mystics. And now, the story of
Teresa of Avila.
________________________
________________________
And still they told me my visions were the work of evil spirits! For six years, I was on trial . . . six years! So many prayers and masses said, I grew weary of them all! Yet still the trances and favors have become more violent and frequent . . . oh, I am in distress, such great distress. I am weary, and so tired . . . so very, very tired.—Teresa of Avila
Teresa of Avila was a Carmelite nun who was
born in Spain in 1515. As a young girl with an active imagination and
great love for books, she was profoundly affected by her mother’s death,
which left her emotionally empty. In despair, she threw herself before
an image of the Virgin Mary and begged her to be her new mother. This
extreme devotion to the Mother Mary soon gave way to an interest in
fashion as her beauty blossomed. With it, the passion for reading,
writing, and romance was rekindled. Teresa’s concerned father sent her
away to boarding school at an Augustinian convent. However, when Teresa
fell dreadfully ill with malaria, the nuns sent for her father who came
to take her home.
Recuperating from the serious illness and suffering from headaches, Teresa read a book given to her from her uncle called The Third Spiritual Alphabet by Francisco de Osuna, from which she learned the practice of the prayer of recollection.*
Though previously not interested in reading about such things, her
illness had transformed her into a more serious kind of girl. She soon
learned to practice “the prayer of quiet,”** a state where the soul is
completely absorbed.
Weary of the worldly things that had once given her pleasure, she made secret plans to escape to the Carmelite Monastery without consent from her father and pursue a serious life of prayer, as her uncle had been urging her to do. Teresa later wrote about receiving “favors” that the Lord granted her as she continued to practice her “mental prayer” and the prayer of quiet, two stages of mystical prayer.
Weary of the worldly things that had once given her pleasure, she made secret plans to escape to the Carmelite Monastery without consent from her father and pursue a serious life of prayer, as her uncle had been urging her to do. Teresa later wrote about receiving “favors” that the Lord granted her as she continued to practice her “mental prayer” and the prayer of quiet, two stages of mystical prayer.
“It used to happen, when I represented Christ
within me in order to place myself in His presence, or even while
reading, that a feeling of the presence of God would come upon me
unexpectedly so that I could in no way doubt He was within me or I
totally immersed in Him. This did not occur after the manner of a
vision. I believe they call the experience ‘mystical theology.’ The soul
is suspended in such a way that it seems to be completely outside
itself. The will loves; the memory, it seems to me, is almost lost. For,
as I say, the intellect does not work, but it is as though amazed by
all it understands because God desires that it understands, with regard
to the things His majesty represents to it, that it understands
nothing.”
The practice of the prayer of quiet continued to bring Teresa into what she called the state of union,
the place where intellect and will cease to function over which she
soon had no control. As the years passed, Teresa’s headaches and visions
began to take their toll. She was counseled by the Jesuit Fathers to
give up her “interior” prayer, but that didn’t help.
One day, she cried out, “Oh these visions!
What tortures I have endured . . . how can I bear it?” she wailed. “I
even gave up mental prayer. I . . . I gave it up. I did! First I waited
to be free of sin, but they found no fault in me. Not a fault! Yet I was
visited again, more visions . . . more revelations . . . to this most
miserable sinner as I.”
Behind her, she could hear the group of nuns
that stopped a short distance away, pausing for a moment before turning
and walking in the other direction.
To continue reading and for endnotes and bibliography, click here.
_______________________________________________________
As a child, Teresa was obsessed with the martyrs and saints. One day, when she was seven, she convinced her brother to become a martyr . Her plan was to go to the Moors and ask to be decapitated! They were just outside the town walls when their uncle found and stopped them.
When she was 14-years-old, Teresa's mother passed away, so she turned to the Virgin Mary as a spiritual mother.
Though she was devoted to her faith, the saints and the Virgin Mother, she was also interested in reading fiction and her father worried this was making her vain. To help Teresa remain holy, he sent her to the Augustinian nuns at Avila.
At the monastery, Teresa became extremely ill and experienced moments of religious ecstasy during her devotionals.
Teresa also practiced self-mortification, a common practice during that time. It was during one such occasion she received her first vision of Jesus. She continued to have visions for the next two years, which drove her to convert Spanish Jews to Christianity, to found convents, and to spend five years in prayerful seclusion.
Teresa eventually founded a religious order; the Discalced Carmelites. Many Carmelite religious live cloistered of poverty and prayerful contemplation even today.
As St. Teresa approached the end of her life, she expressed happiness that her hour has arrived. “My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another."
St. Teresa was beatified at April 24, 1614 and canonized on March 12, 1622.
Following her death, her body was exhumed several times, each time smelling sweet, feeling firm, and was unspoiled. Several relics of her body are currently on display at various holy sites around the world.
Her feast day is October 15.
- Born on 28 March 1515 in Gotarrendura, Ávila, Crown of Castile (today Spain)
- Died on 4 October 1582 (aged 67) in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain
- Venerated in: Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion
- Beatified on: 24 April 1614, Rome by Pope Paul V
- Canonized 12 March 1622, Rome by Pope Gregory XV
- Major shrine Convent of the Annunciation, Alba de Tormes, Spain
- Feast celebrated on 15 October
- Attributes: Habit of the Discalced Carmelites, Book and Quill, arrow-pierced heart
- Patronage: Bodily ills; headaches; chess; lacemakers; laceworkers; loss of parents; people in need of grace; people in religious orders; people ridiculed for their piety; Požega, Croatia; sick people; sickness; Spain.
_______________________________________________________
BEFORE HE WAS POPE FRANCIS-
St. Teresa of Avila's "Ecstasy in Contemplation"
Published on Oct 14, 2015
St. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain in 1515. She is known as the patroness of the religious and the sick.As a child, Teresa was obsessed with the martyrs and saints. One day, when she was seven, she convinced her brother to become a martyr . Her plan was to go to the Moors and ask to be decapitated! They were just outside the town walls when their uncle found and stopped them.
When she was 14-years-old, Teresa's mother passed away, so she turned to the Virgin Mary as a spiritual mother.
Though she was devoted to her faith, the saints and the Virgin Mother, she was also interested in reading fiction and her father worried this was making her vain. To help Teresa remain holy, he sent her to the Augustinian nuns at Avila.
At the monastery, Teresa became extremely ill and experienced moments of religious ecstasy during her devotionals.
Teresa also practiced self-mortification, a common practice during that time. It was during one such occasion she received her first vision of Jesus. She continued to have visions for the next two years, which drove her to convert Spanish Jews to Christianity, to found convents, and to spend five years in prayerful seclusion.
Teresa eventually founded a religious order; the Discalced Carmelites. Many Carmelite religious live cloistered of poverty and prayerful contemplation even today.
As St. Teresa approached the end of her life, she expressed happiness that her hour has arrived. “My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another."
St. Teresa was beatified at April 24, 1614 and canonized on March 12, 1622.
Following her death, her body was exhumed several times, each time smelling sweet, feeling firm, and was unspoiled. Several relics of her body are currently on display at various holy sites around the world.
Her feast day is October 15.
Biography of Saint Teresa of Avila
Published on Feb 16, 2015
A short biography of Saint Teresa of Avila. Some basic facts about Teresa de Avila:- Born on 28 March 1515 in Gotarrendura, Ávila, Crown of Castile (today Spain)
- Died on 4 October 1582 (aged 67) in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain
- Venerated in: Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communion
- Beatified on: 24 April 1614, Rome by Pope Paul V
- Canonized 12 March 1622, Rome by Pope Gregory XV
- Major shrine Convent of the Annunciation, Alba de Tormes, Spain
- Feast celebrated on 15 October
- Attributes: Habit of the Discalced Carmelites, Book and Quill, arrow-pierced heart
- Patronage: Bodily ills; headaches; chess; lacemakers; laceworkers; loss of parents; people in need of grace; people in religious orders; people ridiculed for their piety; Požega, Croatia; sick people; sickness; Spain.
"SHACK" THEOLOGY: WHERE IS THE DEVIL?~"LIES WE BELIEVE ABOUT GOD" BOOK BY WILLIAM P. YOUNG, MORE HERESIES
"SHACK" THEOLOGY: WHERE IS THE DEVIL?
BY WARREN B. SMITH
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves.1 – C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape LettersThe Shack’s author, William P. Young, quotes C.S. Lewis favorably and frequently in his books, but The Screwtape Letters by Lewis is not one of the books from which he has quoted. I bring up Lewis, not as an endorsement, but to point out a discrepancy. The Screwtape Letters is a novel that presents some of the many ways Christians can be effectively seduced and deceived by Satan and his demons—a subject that is completely ignored in The Shack and in Young’s other books. The discrepancy is that Young chooses quotes from authors like Lewis to serve his own personal and theological agenda while conveniently ignoring writings by the same author that actually contradict his agenda. The Screwtape Letters is a perfect example.
The Screwtape Letters consist of a series of letters sent by a senior seducing spirit named Screwtape to his young understudy Wormwood. In the letters, Screwtape teaches Wormwood how to subtly undermine and eventually destroy the faith of his Christian “patient.” In the quote cited above, Screwtape tells Wormwood to conceal himself in such a way that the designated individual remains unaware of his spiritual presence. And this is exactly what we find in The Shack. The Devil and his deceptive spirits are never mentioned—not even once. It’s no wonder Young avoids The Screwtape Letters when he quotes C.S. Lewis. Acknowledgement of a real Devil and seducing spirits plays no part in The Shack and its supposed expression of Christian theology.
Young has a witty but innocuous C.S. Lewis quote at the beginning of The Shack’s main chapter on relationships.2 But where The Screwtape Letters serves to expose and warn about the ways Satan thwarts and undermines a believer’s relationship with God, Young’s novel—and in particular this chapter on relationships—says absolutely nothing in this regard. Given The Shack’s emphasis on the importance of “relationship,” it seems odd that no mention is ever made in Young’s novel about a believer’s uninvited yet inevitable “relationship” with his Spiritual Adversary—Satan the Devil. There is no acknowledgment, no warning, no advice, no anything in The Shack concerning the Devil, his seducing spirits, and their many wiles.
Contrarily, the Bible tells believers to put on the full armor of God, so they can stand fast against the wiles of the Devil and powers of darkness that are very real (Ephesians 6:11-13). We are admonished to be “sober” and “vigilant” because our Spiritual Adversary is walking around like “a roaring lion” and “seeking whom he may devour”—whether that be in a shack or anywhere else (1 Peter 5:8-9). We are told to resist the Devil and his temptations with the Word of God—not with human wisdom and “relationship” (Matthew 4:1-11).
Young’s easy dismissal of the Devil implies that our Spiritual Adversary is not someone we have to contend with in our lives and relationships. Young goes so far as to teach that “evil and darkness” don’t even exist. Young puts these words in the mouth of his “Holy Spirit” character “Sarayu”:
Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence.3But this is what the universal New Age Christ teaches—that “evil does not exist.” This false universal Christ states:
Innocence is wisdom because it is unaware of evil, and evil does not exist.4With darkness having no existence of its own, it’s no wonder that Young’s presentation of evil and darkness agrees with the teachings of the New Age rather than the teachings of the Bible. His expressed disbelief in the existence of independent evil goes right along with his self-confessed universalist leanings.5
Hidden in Plain Sight
The Shack’s Papa “God” cites a number of inhibiting factors concerning “relationship” in what Papa calls “all the limiting influences in your life that actively work against your freedom.”6 These limiting influences are also referred to as “that confluence of multifaceted inhibitors.”7 But again, Young fails to make any mention of the Devil as one of these influences or inhibitors. For a man who likes to quote C.S. Lewis, Young might want to read or reread The Screwtape Letters. It would seem that Wormwood-like seducing spirits have effectively convinced Young they have no existence. As a consequence of this spiritual deception, Young has defined the Devil right out of existence—out of The Shack, out of his “Christian” theology, and out of the Bible. Sadly, most Shack readers become so emotionally caught up in Young’s novel, they never notice that the Devil is completely absent from his Shack story and Shack theology.So where is the Devil in Young’s novel? Be sure of this—the Devil’s presence completely overshadows and thoroughly permeates the pages of The Shack. Cloaked in humor, clouded in human wisdom, concealed in flattery, tucked away in mockery and sarcasm, and hidden in half-truths and lies, the Devil thoroughly inhabits the many conversations that ultimately produce Young’s universal, New Age-flavored Shack theology. The Devil may appear to be absent from The Shack, but for those who have the eyes to see, the Devil is the unspoken force that inspires Young and purposely and cunningly drives his novel. As they say, the Devil is in the details. The Devil is not absent from The Shack, he is just hidden in plain sight.
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)Endnotes
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)
- C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1960), p. 39.
- William P. Young, The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity ( Los Angeles, CA: Windblown Media, 2007), p. 104.
- Ibid., p. 136.
- A Course in Miracles: Combined Volume (Glen Ellen, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975) (Text) p. 38.
- Wm. Paul Young, Lies We Believe About God (New York, NY: Atria Books, 2017), pp. 118-119. (Young states that he believes in universal salvation.)
- William P. Young, The Shack, op., cit., p. 95.
- Ibid.
BOOKLET – The Shack and Its New Age Leaven by Warren B. Smith
The Shack’s Universal Papa
“The Shack,” TBN, and the New Age
___________________________________________________
“Truths We Believe about God” Theological Review of “Shack” Author’s New Book: “Lies We Believe About God”
The movie was released in the same time as Young's latest book By Pastor Larry DeBruyn
SEE: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2017/05/truths-we-believe-about-god.html;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
A Biblical & Theological Refutation of Wm. Paul Young’s book, Lies We Believe About God
But
there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction.
—The Apostle Peter, 2 Peter 2:1, KJV
—The Apostle Peter, 2 Peter 2:1, KJV
Introduction
As promoted by the best-selling religious allegory The Shack, a non-Christian worldview is playing around with the mind and soul of evangelicalism even to questioning of salvation’s meaning. With the release of the movie by the same name, The Shack’s verbal images are now being visualized. Contemporaneously, and capitalizing upon the publicity generated by the movie, yet another book by Wm. Paul Young has hit the market, Lies We Believe About God.[1]
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| Note the Yin/Yang, light/dark symbolism |
What Young covertly taught by allegory and metaphor in The Shack he now overtly teaches in Lies—teachings among others, regarding God, humanity, love, and salvation. Reportedly, Young admitted that, “The Shack is theology.” And then added, “But it is a theology wrapped in a story.”[2]
Now in Lies We Believe About God, the shrouded “story” plays a more minor role as Wm. Paul Young openly states his theology. Young continues to exert a compelling presence among mainstream evangelicals through his interviews, books and release of the movie, The Shack. Leaders Pat Robertson and James Robison have praised the movie.[3] Featuring the book’s author, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) has recently aired a weekly program Restoring The Shack.[4]
Why Be a Christian?
But despite their popularity, Young’s teachings contradict what Scripture teaches about God, humanity, love and salvation (his contention being that all people are reconciled to God, are friends with God; i.e., universalism), and this conflict needs to be addressed. His revisionist thinking about “Christian beliefs” does not derive from seeing the faith through the lens of Holy Scripture, though he might pretend it to be otherwise, but rather through a prism of his life experiences and emotions. His devastating life experiences while growing up in New Guinea as an MK (Missionary Kid) may explain his journey as to why he has come to believe what he believes. But while the negative emotions aroused by his experiences, and similarly those of others, may explain why Young feels the way he does about some of the evangelical culture’s expressions of belief, they do not excuse his departure from biblical Christianity; that is, if biblical Christianity is to remain the true way of understanding and approaching God.
The purpose of this writing is not to deal with all the issues Young raises in Lies We Believe About God. While he raises a few legitimate concerns which I might share, most of them are illegitimate. What I find irreconcilable with the authority of Scripture is the template he forces on the Christian faith and how wedded to his life experiences, he tries to fit the Bible and its teachings into the psychological and philosophical way he views the world.
For example, if, as he states, all people are universally reconciled to God (Young: Are you suggesting that everyone is saved?... That is exactly what I am saying! LWBAG, 118), then why believe Christianity? (John 14:6) Isn’t that Young’s point by using an atheist as an example of being a child of God to disprove the lie, “Not Everyone is a child of God.”? (LWBAG, Chapter 24, 203-208)[5] If early Christians had not believed in the exclusivity of the Gospel, the Christian church’s genius would have been lost and Christianity would have reduced itself to the status of a sect in the first century. If I thought universalism to be true, I would possess no compulsion to believe Christianity or encourage others to place their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. If in the Trinity I along with every other soul on this planet already have an eternal and loving relationship with God, then no matter what I believe or how I behave I am going to be God’s friend and go to heaven anyway, right? It may take time to work out the friendship between God and me, but we’ll get there.
“Unshackled: Breaking Away from Seductive Spirituality”[6]
Previously to this writing and eight years ago, I expressed my concerns regarding the theology of Paul Young as expressed via story, allegory and metaphor in The Shack. My reservations were written in my book, Unshackled: Breaking Away from Seductive Spirituality (2009). Interested readers can also consult my article about the “god” of The Shack posted years ago on the website Herescope titled, Elousia and the Black Madonna: Imagination, Images and Impurity in “The Shack.”[7] The purpose of this writing is not to replay previous writings contained in Unshackled, but rather to biblically and theologically interact with and refute Paul Young’s teachings in his book, Lies We Believe About God; namely, that by virtue of descent from the Trinity via creation, every human being is through Jesus connected to God in a personal, organic, dynamic and eternal relationship (Genesis 1:26-30; 2:7).[8]
Thus we turn to look at the view of salvation Young promotes in his book (really, all his books) Lies We Believe About God. To begin with, I would like to share the paradigm Paul Young employs to measure Christianity, how he determines what are the truths and what are the lies regarding the faith. Understanding this template will help readers to see, I hope, why Young embraces some beliefs and why he discards others. And I might add, around this worldview much of the popular pan-evangelical movement appears to be coalescing.
The Author’s Spiritual Template
As I have reflected upon two of his books, The Shack and Lies We Believe About God, a spiritual template emerges—call it a paradigm, straight jacket or grid—by which Young measures his spiritual truth derived from the aggregate of his life experiences—as well as those of others (good and bad)—his psychological preferences, his philosophical perspectives, his twisting of Bible passages, his theological musings and his beliefs about God. In order to be included as part of the “relationship” between God and man as his template fashions it, his religious experiences and beliefs must fit in accord with his misgivings about the Christianity he experienced while being part of the North American fundamentalist-evangelical subculture (being an MK, Bible college student, etc.).
The Themes of His Template
The core of his template is this: Young believes that universally all humans have a relationship with God and are redeemed and reconciled to Him. Everything in life—all cultural experiences, Scripture and theology—must, conditioned by his and other’s experiences and accompanied by his explanations, be molded to fit his belief system. If life events, evangelical expressions of faith or Scriptural teachings don’t fit his system of “truth,” they are considered “lies” (few, a very few, deservedly so). Thus the question arises, because he writes from a claimed Christian perspective, what are the psychological, philosophical, biblical and theological underpinnings which form the universalistic template by which he determines his truth that everybody’s saved because they’re in a relationship, either enjoying or not enjoying it, with God? To explain why he believes what he believes, we will try to unpack these assumptions.
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| (Movie endorsements for The Shack. Source) |
Three Themes
Indicating where he’s coming from, there appears to be three general themes which form his paradigm: first, by virtue of creation, the universe and the Tri-Personal God (Father, Son and Spirit.) co-exist in oneness; second, in this oneness the Trinity infuses the universe with the Love (spelled with an uppercase “L”) they interpersonally experienced before the foundation of the world (John 17:23, 24, 28); and third, every human by virtue of having been created by and being immanently inside the Trinity has, does and will participate in this divine “Love” Young calls “Relationship.”
First Theme: The Universe and Universalism
To Young God is the Tri-Personal being who infuses and permeates the whole of creation which he spells a couple of times with an upper case “C” (Creation) in Lies We Believe About God and approximately twenty times (Creation) in The Shack. In doing so, he suggests nature is possessed of divineness. Presumably, the universe exists because in a symphony of unity the Trinity created it (Father, Son and Spirit, Genesis 1:1-2 and John 1:1-4). But this created universe, and here’s the catch, exists “inside” the Trinity.
In the Foreword to Young’s book Lies We Believe About God, C. Baxter Kruger, a Trinitarian theologian, explains the relationship of the Three-Person Oneness of God to creation like this: “Inside of this moving divine dance of relationship, everything was created: every human being, every plant, every subatomic particle, everything.” (Emphasis added, LWBAG, 127-128). So in this view creation is not separate from, but is contained in the Tri-Personal God. The universe is inside, not outside the Trinity. The Trinity is the container, the universe becomes the contents, and God infuses Love into the contents so that no separation exists between container and contents.
Remember: Both Young and Kruger tell readers there’s no separation between the Trinity and humanity, no us and them. (LWBAG, 232, 11) Question: How do compatriots Kruger and Young know everything’s inside the Trinity? Do they arrive at this conclusion through philosophical speculation, their Sophia? Is that the basis? (In The Shack wisdom or Sophia is not Christ (1 Corinthians 1:24, 30), but “a personification of Papa’s wisdom,” 171).
Note: Kruger, as presumably Young, views the whole creation as dwelling within the Trinity (i.e., as Young would say, “No separation!”). By implication, it can be postulated that the converse of this creation-relation-equation can also be believed; that the Trinity indwells a dancing creation the Tri-Personal God shares with “every human being, every plant, every subatomic particle, everything.” If it is assumed that creation is symbiotically inside the Trinity and the Trinity inside the creation, then as represented by Jesus the prototypical human—“every single human being is in Christ... and Christ is in them.” (LWBAG, 119)
This quantum-like physics worldview (where like gravity the Trinity’s energy or Force of Love infuses and permeates the entire cosmos) is monism or oneness, i.e., all is one and one is all. This eastern-like mystical and New Age worldview implies that the universe and the Triune God exist together in a harmonious and rhapsodic movement (No separation!) of dance, in a sort of hypostatic union comparable to the way in which the divine and human fused and danced together in the Word incarnate, Jesus Christ. In such a symbiotic relationship (Creator and Creation “need” each other.) the creation feeds from the Trinity and the Trinity feeds from the creation (Yin/Yang or As Above, So Below).
God as the Ground of Being is thus the God in whom Tillich would have us place our trust. But this God belongs to the circle [“We are a circle of relationship,” Papa tells Mack about the Trinity in The Shack, 122] of pantheistic theory. Ultimately, Tillich’s God absorbs everything into Himself [ed., like Young and Kruger’s model of the universe—everything is “inside” the Trinity].[10]
Tillich’s dialectical theology “has been variously designated as a system of Gnosticism, naturalism, pantheism, and atheism; and all these designations are, more or less, accurate.”[11]
In addition to Tillich, Young and Kruger borrow from and are popularizing the theology of Jürgen Moltmann (1926- ), in many ways the “father” of the emerging church, who used “the classical term perichoresis to speak of the mutual relations among the divine persons in God.”[12] This perichoresis relationship (Greek peri = “around” combined with choresis = “choreographed”), also called “social” Trinitarianism, co-inherence, “the dance,” Moltmann extends “to all relations, including mutual interpenetration among beings in the world and their mutual interpenetration with God.”[13]
In cosmic co-inherence, not unlike quantum theory, the Tri-Personal God and all that comprises the universe symbiotically dance together, mutually moving with, among, between and in each other in an ethereally loving and dancing relationship. As the title of Cooper’s book indicates, Young and his friend Kruger are peddling and popularizing panentheism within the greater evangelical, charismatic and emergent church communities—that God is in everything (contrast pantheism, everything is God).
Because
that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And
changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping
things.
—Romans 1:21-23
—Romans 1:21-23
Kruger’s quotation of Moltmann indicates his connection to the German theologian. To introduce chapter 9—“The Oneness of the Spirit, Son, and Father”—of his book The Shack Revisited, he quotes:
By virtue of their eternal love they live in one another to such an extent, and dwell in one another to such an extent, that they are one.Thus, any understanding that God is Holy (“holy” means to separate, to be set apart, and to be sanctified) becomes quite naturalized.[15] And by the way, if the Lord God is not Holy (Revelation 4:8) then neither is He Worthy (Revelation 4:9-11).
—Jürgen Moltmann[14]
But in a worldview like Young and Baxter’s there is no separation between Creator, creation and creature. As Cooper points out, this worldview is panentheistic (God dwells in all, and all dwells in God), though both Young and Kruger probably would not outright state this to be the case. But it might also be classified, at least according to the stated characteristics of their paradigm, to be pantheism. In stating something that sounds eerily familiar to what Young and Kruger write, Andrews defines monism-pantheism:
The essential element of Pantheism... ‘is the unity of God and nature, of the Infinite and the finite, in one single substance.’ The Infinite is not swallowed up in the finite, nor the finite in the Infinite, but both co-exist; and this co-existence is necessary and eternal [ed., by Young and Kruger’s reckoning, everything eternally exists inside the Trinity]. Thus we have the One and the many, the Absolute, the All. It will have no dualism, it will unify nature, man, and God.[16]
This then is their sense of their universalism, the Trinity circularly moving, “dancing” and changing together in the oneness of Love, and in the process (enter process theology) why not let the whole creation, “every human being, every plant, every subatomic particle, everything” join the great quantum-cosmic dance? Then indeed, there will be “no separation” between God and humans as biblical words sin, wrath, condemnation and judgment imply, only Love manifested in “dancing,” “sharing” and “relationship”—the next word we move on to consider.
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| (Perichoresis illustration - Source) |
Second Theme: The Universe and Relationship
God is Love, and because the whole creation exists inside the Trinity, there is as has been stated, no separation between God and humans. The Tri-Personal Deity infinitely and eternally loves; each member equally loving the other two without personal diminishment, jealousy or competition between and among them (To state again, this is called perichoresis, co-inherence, social Trinitarianism or “the dance”). Their “dancing” relationship the Tri-Personal God desires to see reproduced between them and all humanity, and this the sovereign Tri-Personal deity has done, is doing and will continue to do ad infinitum. Because all creation exists “inside” the Trinity, creation becomes infused, like gravity, with the Love they share. “Relationship” therefore becomes actualized between God and every human being who ever lived.
Extending out of the Trinity’s union with creation, God is understood by Young to love humans unconditionally, and humans, though they might not realize it just yet, to similarly love God. (After all, they’re inside the Trinity!) Though some humans do not find themselves necessarily “fond” of God, God always remains fond of them (“Fond” is Young’s synonym for love, “We are especially fond of you,” Papa says to Mack in The Shack, 234). It may take time for some humans to become “fond” of God (i.e., develop a relationship), but sooner or later when they wake up to Love, whether in this life’s dimension or the next, they will (Talk about determinism...!).
Of course, such a scenario flies in the face of the Apostle Paul’s statement that there are those who are “haters of God” (Romans 1:30). Yes, some people can’t have a relationship with God because they hate Him!
Having looked at the aspect of relationship in Young’s worldview, we turn now to the subject of redemption and reconciliation.
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| (Source) |
Third Theme: The Universe and Redemption-Reconciliation
Because God has lovingly wedded all humans into oneness—they are inside the Trinity—within him, her or them (Young’s hermaphroditic [androgynous, ed.*] goddess “Papa” in The Shack) they experience union with God, an eastern-mystical-like union which transcends time, matter and space. Young states that, “every single human being is in Christ (John 1:3), and Christ is in them, and Christ is in the Father (John 14:20). When Christ—the Creator in whom [Note: not “by” whom.] the cosmos was created—died, we all died. When Christ rose, we rose (2 Corinthians 5).” (LWBAG, 119) Young then adds that “prior to the foundation of the world, we were all included;... saved in eternity... all included in the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:19).” (LWBAG, 119)
From birth, if not before, Young teaches that the whole of humanity, being inside the Trinity, was somehow metaphysically “present” with Jesus in the great redemptive event of history, his life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven. All humans therefore have experienced, are experiencing, or will experience reconciliation and relationship with the Tri-Personal God because “all” were eternally in Christ when He redeemed-reconciled them to him/her/them “selves.” Baxter Kruger writes that to speak the name “Jesus” is to speak in “oneness,” the name of the Trinity. He explains,
Therefore, to speak the name of Jesus is to say that the Triune God, the human race, and all creation are not separated, but together in relationship. Jesus is Himself the relationship; He is [ed., by virtue of His incarnation] the union in between the Triune God and the human race. (LWBAG, 11)
Kruger then explains that this is “why Paul and I regard the widespread notion that human beings are separated from God as a fundamental lie, one that denies Jesus’s very identity”—and presumably, denies our identity also, an identity of being from time immemorial metaphysically and transcendently one in Jesus, which oneness has now totally become immanent. (LWBAG, 11)
Note: I do not deny the truth that in positional union in/with Christ all believers have together been made alive, raised up and seated in heaven with Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6; Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3-7). What I do deny are the universal implications which Young prejudicially extracts from the great truth of believers-only union with/in Christ to extend it to every single human being who ever lived.
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| Read more concerns HERE |
The Template’s Summary
This is the spiritual template of Wm. Paul Young and C. Baxter Kruger, a grid through which Scripture must pass and then be molded to fit into their paradigm of universalism. This is the foundation upon which they base their beliefs. (Bible verses had better fit, or else!). In the last part of the book and in an attempt to prove his fantastic scheme of universal relationship-redemption-reconciliation, Young weaves together a series of Scripture passages, something he calls A Catena. He extracts and intertwines thirty-four Scripture passages in his catena, many extracted from the Apostle Paul’s letters. In this weaving-deceiving he attempts to make biblically believable the conversation he’s having with naïve readers. His catena only includes passages containing the words “all,” “every,” “world,” “cosmos,” “everything” or “everyone,” passages he personally selects to fit his template and provide cover for his aberrant theology. About this method of using the Bible we ought to recall words of the Apostle Peter. Young’s approach to Bible quotation or allusion resembles that of “untaught and unstable” teachers who distort the meaning of Scripture to their own and others’ destruction if they swallow “hook, line and sinker” what is being cast to them (2 Peter 3:16).
Young presumes that because all creation is “inside” the Trinity, because the Love of the Trinity resides in union with all creation, and because all humanity before time participated in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, all are, have been or will be redeemed-reconciled with God. For readers who might have read or be reading The Shack or Lies We Believe About God, I ask that you consider my assessment of Paul’s paradigm to see whether or not his arguments can best be understood against this backdrop. Universal Love as expressed in universal relationship-redemption-reconciliation is the template Young tries to fit God and humanity into, and no matter what, they are going to fit!
This is the New Age-New Worldview-New Spirituality destination the evangelical movement appears to be traveling towards. Though the movement’s trains, whether the New Apostolic Reformation, the Emerging Church, Neo-Calvinism, the Charismatic Movement (add Liberal Denominations, Catholicism and Primitivism into the mix) etc., seem to be traveling on different tracks, they will arrive at the same hub: pantheistic nature worship. If not Christ, religious persons will devoutly deify and worship the cosmos, and then themselves. “I was an atheist” the T-shirt saying goes, “until I found out I am God.”
About the captivating religious box Young and Kruger have constructed for people to put their trust in, no matter how earthly-wise the packaging of it, the Apostle Paul gave this warning to believers: The box is empty!
Beware lest any man spoil [captivate] you
through philosophy [love of sophistry]
and vain deceit [empty deceptions],
after the tradition of men [human wisdom not God’s],
after the rudiments of the world
[the constituent particles and powers of the universe],
and not after Christ. For in Him [Not us!]
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
—Emphasis and bracketed comments added, Colossians 2:8-9
through philosophy [love of sophistry]
and vain deceit [empty deceptions],
after the tradition of men [human wisdom not God’s],
after the rudiments of the world
[the constituent particles and powers of the universe],
and not after Christ. For in Him [Not us!]
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
—Emphasis and bracketed comments added, Colossians 2:8-9
To be continued . . .
Endnotes
[1] Wm. Paul Young, Lies We Believe About God (New York, NY: Atria Books, 2017). Besides this book and The Shack, Young also wrote Crossroads and Eve.
[2] Charity Gibson, “‘The Shack’ Cover Artist Renounces Book for Leading People Astray: ‘I Have Deep Regrets’,” The Christian Post, April 19, 2017 (http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-shack-cover-artist-praised-renouncing-book-i-have-deep-regrets-180895/). Gibson quotes Dave Aldrich who designed the cover for The Shack who quotes Young.
[3] Al Dager, Media Spotlight (Sequim, WA; Omega Ministries Spring 2017): 27.
[4] Trinity Broadcasting Network, March (https://www.tbn.org/programs/restoring-shack).
[5] I will employ the acronym LWBAG (Lies We Believe About God) and page numbers when quoting the book.
[6] Pastor Larry DeBruyn, Unshackled: Breaking Away from Seductive Spirituality (Indianapolis, IN: Moeller Printing Company, 2009). Book available for free PDF download at Discernment Ministries website, http://www.discernment-ministries.org/Unshackled%20by%20L.%20DeBruyn.pdf ; hard copies available from Discernment Ministries, P.O. Box 520, Canton, Texas, 75103; Phone: 903-567-6423.
[7] Pastor Larry DeBruyn, “The Shack, ‘Elousia,’ & the Black Madonna: Imagination, Image, and Idolatry,” Herescope, July 2, 2008 (http://herescope.blogspot.com/search?q=Black+Madonna ).
[8] Pastor Larry DeBruyn, “The Shack and Universal Reconciliation,” Herescope, October 24, 2008 (http://herescope.blogspot.com/search?q=reconciliation ).
[9] Young adapts the phrase “ground of all being” from the term used by Paul Tillich (1886-1965) “to indicate God as the source of all reality or being.” Donald K. McKim, “Ground of Being,” Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms (Louisville, KY; Westminster John Knox Press, 1996): 122.
[10] Kenneth Hamilton, “Paul Tillich,” Creative Minds in Christian Theology, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, Editor (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1969): 470.
[11] Vernon C. Grounds, “Pacesetters for the Radical Theologians of the Sixties and Seventies,” Tensions in Contemporary Theology, Stanley N. Gundry and Alan F. Johnson, Editors (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1976): 95.
[12] See John W. Cooper, Panentheism The Other God of the Philosophers: From Plato to the Present (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006): 251. For further study, Kruger recommends the writings of Jürgen Moltmann. See C. Baxter Kruger, The Shack Revisited (New York, NY: FaithWorks, 2012): 267.
[13] Cooper, Panentheism: 252.
[14] Kruger, Shack Revisited, 106. In his chapter’s title note how Kruger subtly employs one definite article “the” to preface Spirit, Son, and Father, contrary to Jesus’ command to make disciples by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The quote subtracts from “the” Trinity in favor of “oneness.”
[15] See Larry DeBruyn, “The Holy God,” Unshackled: 17-22.
[16] Samuel J. Andrews, Christianity and Anti-Christianity in Their Final Conflict, Second Revised Edition (New York, NY: G.P. Putna’s Sons, 1899): 126-127.
*Herescope's editor added this word. Read Warren B. Smith's excellent article "The Shack’s Universal Papa," in which he descibes Papa as not unlike a pagan trickster god. "But in regards to Papa, it states that “in his shapeshifter form he tends to change genders and forms to delight himself." Our friend Warren B. Smith is writing many articles posted at Lighthouse Trails, some which are referenced or linked to in this article, including his most recent: “Shack” Theology: Where Is the Devil?
• TBN Pulls Plug on “Shack” Author’s New Book—Sort of . . .
• “The Shack,” TBN, and the New Age
To read more discernment material about William Paul Young, and his two controversial books THE SHACK and LIES WE BELIEVE ABOUT GOD, including the recent Hollywood movie based on The Shack, see the articles referenced in Pastor Larry’s footnotes above. Also see the many articles posted on the Herescope blog over the years, such as:
• THE SHACK & Its New Age Leaven
• THE SHACK, "Elousia," & the Black Madonna
• THE SHACK and Universal Reconciliation
• "UNSHACKLED"
• Quantum Physics and the New Spirituality
Herescope and the Discernment Research Group have been on a badly needed sabbatical since December 2016. This post begins a multi-part series which will be published on Guarding His Flock Ministries website and also Herescope.
Reprinted with author's permission with minor modifications to the textual layout for blog posting. The glossary of definitions throughout this post were added by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for the Herescope version of his article. For the original article see: http://guardinghisflock.com/2017/05/01/truths-we-believe-about-god/#more-3090
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