History
All posts tagged History
Genesis 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies
Can there be design without a designer? That’s a pretty simple question which requires a fairly simple answer! No, there cannot be. Now, evolutionists try to explain how there can be but when it comes down to reality they are ‘deceiving, and being deceived.‘ True science will NEVER back up what the evolutionist teaches.
Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…
Ever since Australia voted in favour of same-sex marriage through a referendum religious freedom and simply freedom of speech has been under attack. To alleviate this the Federal government has proposed a Religious Discrimination Bill. Even though I am a born again Christian I believe all people, whether religious or not, should have the freedom of speech.
However, those in charge believe such a bill is necessary. Here is what the National Director of Family Voice 
Australia had to say in a recent email concerning the proposed bill.
‘On the 29 August, the Federal government released an Exposure Draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill 2019. The Draft starts out well with worthy objects and a direction that in giving effect to the objects of the Act, regard is to be had to “the indivisibility and universality of human rights and the principle that every person is free and equal in dignity and rights.”
We may infer that this is advice to those charged with adjudicating disputes that as far as possible they are not to elevate one protected attribute above another.
Another object is that people can make statements of belief – consistent with Australia’s obligations with respect to freedom of religion and freedom of expression, and subject to specified limits. The inference here is to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, together with other international covenants and conventions listed.
The Draft defines discrimination on the grounds of belief – and therefore what is not discrimination. It is helpful to have this clearly stated.
The Draft recognises the right of religious people to make statements of faith and to practise their faith – and that this is not inherently discriminatory, though in some cases this may be contested.
In the appointment of a Commission for Religious Freedom there is some protection in the event of a charge when rights are competing. The Commissioner is appointed to ensure balance in the application of laws. However, the Bill provides no guidance on how this balance will be arrived at.
The Draft also leaves judges (and commissioners) to determine core beliefs of a faith. In a dispute between competing rights this is likely to be a factor upon which much could hinge. This should not be the case.
Attempts have been made to strengthen protections in the workplace, among professional associations and the health sector, but the protections are qualified and limited.
There is no definition of what it means to vilify. This is a very subjective term which can be used to restrict religious speech.
There is no provision for commercial businesses that have a purpose arising from the faith of the owners/management.
The Bill does not reflect the true nature of conscientious objection – that it is not a matter of moral preference but of principle.
The Bill by its very existence is an acknowledgement that religion is important. However it does not fully reflect the nature of the religious motivation – that a person of faith may be speaking or acting out of integrity or genuine concern according to their faith and conscience and yet be wrongly perceived as being malicious and harmful. And this may well be the role of this law – not to be a moralistic document but to practically address the conflicts that arise from difference and to limit the permissible forms of discrimination.
This applies to the motivation for establishing and operating faith-based institutions and importantly to sincere individuals in all sectors. Faith should not be viewed as an unwelcome element of society but as an important part of the moral and compassionate social fabric.
Will the nation be better off for this Act? Time will tell. Religious freedom is so important because it is not simply about freedom to make a statement of belief in respect of a disputed moral issue. It is about the role of true believers in the whole scope of the national life at every junction of society, being salt and light – both preserving what is good and dispelling the darkness in the national conversation.’
It is a slippery slope further into the abyss of freedoms lost when sin is accepted by the nation’s populace and its government.
Exodus 13:11 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee,
Exodus 23:23 For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.
Abortion seems to be a BIG issue with the left. The leftist will protest against killing whales but protest FOR the killing of unborn human babies! Is there a mental condition that warrants a research grant here? This dichotomy in thinking doesn’t make sense apart from an understanding of Genesis Chapter three.
Here is a video of the Australian Christian Lobby’s Martyn Iles speaking on the Australian New South Wales’ new Abortion Law, Reproductive Healthcare Reform bill.
America is in a crisis! The following article should be entirely read but take note especially of those paragraphs I have made bolder.
‘This past weekend, Americans learned of another mass shooting, this time by an employee who decided to murder as many of the people he had worked with for years as possible. As of this writing, the murder toll is 12 people.
Every American asks why. What was the killer’s motive? When we read there is “no known motive,” we are frustrated. Human beings want to make sense of life, especially of evil.
Liberals (in this regard, liberals’ views are essentially the same as leftists’) are virtually united in ascribing these shootings to guns. Just this past weekend, in a speech in Brazil, former President Barack Obama told an audience: “Our gun laws in the United States don’t make much sense. Anybody can buy any weapon any time — without much, if any, regulation. They can buy (guns) over the internet. They can buy machine guns.”
That the former president fabricated a series of falsehoods about the United States — and maligned, on foreign soil, the country that twice elected him president — speaks to his character and to the character of the American news media that have been completely silent about these falsehoods. But the main point here is that, like other liberals and leftists, when Obama addresses the subject of mass shootings — in Brazil, he had been talking about the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 — he talks about guns.
Yet, America had plenty of guns when its mass murder rate was much lower. Grant Duwe, a Ph.D. in criminology and director of research and evaluation at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, gathered data going back 100 years in his 2007 book, “Mass Murder in the United States: A History.” Duwe’s data reveal: In the 20th century, every decade before the 1970s had fewer than 10 mass public shootings. In the 1950s, for example, there was one mass shooting. And then a steep rise began. In the 1960s, there were six mass shootings. In the 1970s, the number rose to 13. In the 1980s, the number increased 2 1/2 times, to 32. And it rose again in the 1990s, to 42. As for this century, The New York Times reported in 2014 that, according to the FBI, “Mass shootings have risen drastically in the past half-dozen years.”
Given the same ubiquity of guns, wouldn’t the most productive question be what, if anything, has changed since the 1960s and ’70s? Of course it would. And a great deal has changed. America is much more ethnically diverse, much less religious. Boys have far fewer male role models in their lives. Fewer men marry, and normal boy behavior is largely held in contempt by their feminist teachers, principals and therapists. Do any or all of those factors matter more than the availability of guns?
Let’s briefly investigate each factor.
Regarding ethnic diversity, the countries that not only have the fewest mass murders but the lowest homicide rates as well are the least ethnically diverse — such as Japan and nearly all European countries. So, too, the American states that have homicide rates as low as Western European countries are the least ethnically and racially diverse (the four lowest are New Hampshire, North Dakota, Maine and Idaho). Now, America, being the most ethnically and racially diverse country in the world, could still have low homicide rates if a) Americans were Americanized, but the left has hyphenated — Balkanized, if you will — Americans, and b) most black males grew up with fathers.
Regarding religiosity, the left welcomes — indeed, seeks — the end of Christianity in America (though not of Islam, whose robustness it fosters). Why don’t we ask a simple question: What percentage of American murderers attend church each week?
Regarding boys’ need for fathers, in 2008, then-Sen. Obama told an audience: “Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools; and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.”
Yet, the Times has published columns and “studies” showing how relatively unimportant fathers are, and more and more educated women believe this dangerous nonsense.
Then there is marriage: Nearly all men who murder are single. And their number is increasing.
Finally, since the 1960s, we have been living in a culture of grievance. Whereas in the past people generally understood that life is hard and/or they have to work on themselves to improve their lives, for half a century, the left has drummed into Americans’ minds the belief that their difficulties are caused by American society — in particular, its sexism, racism and patriarchy. And the more aggrieved people are the more dulled their consciences.
When you don’t ask intelligent questions, you cannot come up with intelligent answers. So, then, with regard to murder in America, until Americans stop allowing the left to ask the questions, we will have no intelligent answers.’ https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/why-so-many-mass-shootings-ask-the-right-questions-and-you-might-find-out/
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God…34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
God is jealous for His own Name and for the worship of His people.
Leviticus 18:21 And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech…
God had a prohibition for his people and their children in how and to whom they were to worship. He alone was to be worshiped and this worship did not include passing one’s child through ‘the fire’ in worship to ‘Molech’. In other words, God was very interested in how His people worshipped and to whom His people Israel worshipped.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus said in John 14:1-6 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The Lord Jesus Christ according to His own words said He was the ONLY way to God the Father and heaven. Without Him, a person cannot enter heaven but will spend eternity in the lake of fire, Revelation 20: 14,15.
John the immerser said in John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. That’s pretty clear speaking.
Peter proclaimed in Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Now, true born-again Bible-believing Christians believe all those verses just quoted and in fact they believe all the verses between Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21! Too mix idolatry with Biblical Christianity is anathema and yet that is exactly what occurs at least for one week each year in Australia, known as NAIDOC week. NAIDOC stands for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.[1]
It is during this week that the false beliefs of the Australian Aboriginals are promoted by all forms of Governments from the Federal to local councils. In their recognition of the Aboriginal people, the government holds events where the Aboriginal flag is raised and a smoking ceremony is observed.
The man in the top job, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, is a professing Pentecostal Christian and he has said the smoking ceremony should be ‘…a prime ministerial tradition of warding away evil spirits with indigenous leaders on Australia Day eve.’[2] This is a man that professes to be a Christian and believes a pagan ceremony should be performed each year to ward away evil spirits?! Unbelievable!!!!
The PM in his 2019 address to the Country said ‘Here, 65,000 thousand years (The PM shows he is definitely not a young earth creationist) of Aboriginal culture meets mere centuries of Westminster tradition, which the Leader of the Opposition and I represent, being here together and I acknowledge Anthony as I do all of my Parliamentary colleagues, the Deputy Prime Minister who joins us here today.
We gather in respect – acknowledging the Ngunnawal elders, the ancient ceremony of fire and smoke that will commence shortly has become part of the tradition of this building, and thankfully so.
It was just over a decade ago that the first ever smoking ceremony accompanied the opening of Parliament, and I thank the Speaker and the President of the Senate for their continuing support of this as it shall always be in this place (emphasis added).’
What is a smoking ceremony and should a professing Christian participate in the ceremony?
‘A smoking ceremony is an ancient custom among some Aboriginal Australians that involves smouldering various native plants to produce smoke which they believe has cleansing properties and the ability to ward off bad spirits.’[3]
Another source adds that a smoking ceremony ‘…has been believed to have cleansing properties and the ability to ward off unwanted and bad spirits, which was believed to bring bad omens.’[4]
The smoking ceremony is plainly a pagan practice that professing Christians should not participate in. Nevertheless, one probably shouldn’t be amazed to read that ‘The Aboriginal Catholic Ministry incorporates the Smoking Ceremony in its liturgical expression.’[5]
Then there is the Aboriginal lady who said she ‘…combines Aboriginal spirituality and Christianity when the need arises.’[6] Sadly, this lady will go to hell as her spiritual foundation is certainly not the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone!
Then there are the religious schools such as the Roman Catholic’s St. Augustine’s in Narromine, NSW which will celebrate NAIDOC with a mixture of Romish ‘…liturgy and smoking ceremony’.[7] I guess this is trying to have the best of both worlds.
At the local level we find many city councils throughout Australia promoting Aboriginal spirituality even though in the end it will send people straight to hell as they bypass personal saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, ‘The City of Greater Bendigo will kick off 2019 NAIDOC Week celebrations with a civic reception and flag-raising ceremony…and Smoking Ceremony…’[8]
Last year (2018) ‘The Sydney Anglican Diocese has backed down on a controversial policy banning smoking ceremonies on any property owned by the church following outrage from Indigenous leaders, school principals and priests who work closely with First Nations communities.’[9] Controversial perhaps but it would have been Biblical for as Paul said in Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.!
Christian believers should understand that a pagan Smoking Ceremony will not fend off the Devil and his demons but is rather a celebration and invitation to more demonic activity! That is why white and Aboriginal Australians should be celebrating the arrival of the First Fleet! There the Lord God had His man Reverend Richard Johnson preach his first sermon on this great island known as Australia on Sunday 3rd February 1788, from Psalm 116 and verse 12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
From that beginning the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was preached around Australia to both Europeans and Aboriginals. When however, there is always the need for more Gospel preachers and some years later Charles Spurgeon asked ‘Who will go? The men who ought to go are young brethren of good abilities who have not yet taken upon themselves family cares.
Each student entering the college should consider this matter, and surrender himself to the work unless there are conclusive reasons for his not doing so. It is a fact that even for the colonies it is ‘very difficult to find men, for I have had openings in Australia which I have been obliged to decline. It ought not to be so.’[10]
Australia as with all nations needs not just Christians but Gospel believing separated living sin-hating Scripture loving Christians. Definitely, Australia and the world doesn’t need more compromising weak-kneed Christians!
Now, to answer the question asked earlier, ‘should a professing Christian participate in the ceremony’ the answer is a resounding NO! Again, quoting Paul when he said in the inspired Word of God to the Ephesian church ‘have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness’! Pretty plain language if words mean anything at all.
Today, the compromise of the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with the pagan aboriginal Smoking Ceremony by compromising professing Christian politicians and ecumenical conceding denominations has led many aboriginals and non-aboriginals straight to hell. It MUST be understood there can be ABSOLUTELY no compromise between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the ‘doctrines of devils.’
[1] https://www.naidoc.org.au/about/history
[2] https://www.couriermail.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=CMWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.couriermail.com.au%2Fnews%2Fqueensland%2Fcleansing-ceremony-should-be-tradition-says-pm%2Fnews-story%2Fc37716216431201fceb7ff5a76305d10&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium
[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ceremony
[4] https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/aboriginal-ceremonial-dancing/
[5] http://www.winnunga.org.au/uploads/docs/Spirituality%20Review%202009.pdf Page15
[6] http://www.winnunga.org.au/uploads/docs/Spirituality%20Review%202009.pdf Page 40
[7] https://www.wnswphn.org.au/uploads/documents/Event%20Flyers/NAIDOC%20Week%20Events%20UPDATED%20040719.pdf
[8] https://www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/About/Media-Releases/flag-raising-celebrate-start-naidoc-week-celebrations
[9] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-22/sydney-anglican-church-property-smoking-backdown/10403548
[10] LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS Volume 3 Page 28
whatyareckon 