Society
All posts tagged Society
According to the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, these are some of the meanings of;
‘gaga gä′gä″
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adj.Silly; crazy.
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adj.Completely absorbed, infatuated, or excited.
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adj.Senile; doddering.’
Now, is Lady Gaga really relevant to today’s issues? No, she isn’t and neither are all those other non-relevant celebrities who ‘…are flocking to TikTok and raising money for the China-complicit World Health Organization.
Lady Gaga is helping organize a major star-studded special on April 18, set to air across CBS, ABC, and NBC. The list of celebrity participants is long and full of A-listers. Make no mistake, this is a major television event. It’s also funding and legitimizing the WHO, which has defended the Chinese Communist Party’s reprehensible response to the outbreak.’ https://www.blabber.buzz/conservative-news/838913-celebrities-organize-major-benefit-for-china-complicit-who-special?utm_source=c-alrt&utm_medium=c-alrt-email&utm_term=c-alrt-Yahoo&utm_content=9oHkBTVG5WhdTSQ_nY5-3-6yM-TXQkLw0ig_ZIIS5Jvw.A
Is President Trump correct when he said ‘The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?’
Well, yes, he was even though ‘The WHO at first glance seems an innocent bystander to Chinese obstruction until one considers the story of SARS in Taiwan. Taiwanese health officials attempting to inform the WHO of their cluster of cases were rebuffed and asked to report their findings to the central government in China instead.
You see, the allegedly apolitical, humanitarian, and guided-by-science WHO doesn’t think Taiwan exists because China doesn’t recognize Taiwan’s independence. The WHO even refused to publicly report Taiwan’s cases of SARS until public pressure prompted numbers to be published under the label of “Taiwan, province of China.”
Clearly these matters are worthy of debate, but why would the WHO put its thumb on the scale? The answer, increasingly obviously, is that the WHO is a political organization that attempts to give its political preferences the veneer of objectivity using the label of science.
WHO Also Failed in the 2013 Ebola Outbreak
The Ebola outbreak of 2013 provides yet another window into the WHO’s lethal failings. One of the important controversies at the time related to how the virus spread. An excellent 2015 New Atlantis article dissects the controversy of transmissibility, and concludes the available evidence at the time could not rule out through-the-air transmission.
Of particular concern was evidence from the field about health-care worker infections. Health care workers who did not wear maximal Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the form of respirators to filter out airborne transmission were infected with Ebola at a high rate.
Rather than err on the side of safety, the WHO ignored this evidence. Local health officials and administrators followed their lead for a similar approach in their hospitals. First responders paid the price. The SARS outbreak in Canada was notable for the number of health workers who were infected and succumbed to the disease, in part, because the initial responders to the crisis relied on PPE guidance that wasn’t adequate.
The CDC Is In on This Action
To be fair, what’s on display here is a broader institutional malady. The U.S. version of the WHO, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, took a similar stance with another controversial topic—quarantines for health-care workers returning from treating patients with Ebola. Four states—New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois—instituted policies to quarantine anyone who had contact with someone infected with the Ebola virus while in west Africa, including medical personnel who cared for patients.
No less than the Obama administration, backed by the CDC, attempted to quash these policies, arguing this would serve as a disincentive for U.S. health workers to travel to Africa to combat the disease at a time this help was sorely needed.
The argument made by many, including the now famous Dr. Anthony Fauci, was that Ebola could only be transmitted by those who were symptomatic, so it was anti-science to consider mandatory quarantines. Of course, crossing the threshold from asymptomatic and not infectious to symptomatic and infectious isn’t a sudden process, and as the history of science repeatedly shows, theories have a way of evolving with time.
The head of the CDC at the time, Tom Frieden, had initially recommended that health-care professionals not use respirators when taking care of patients with Ebola. It took two health-care workers in Dallas contracting Ebola from a patient for the CDC to change its recommendations in October 2014.
An important recurring theme with viruses may be to follow what people do rather than what they say. This is Tom visiting a Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center in August 2014, at a time the CDC was saying a surgical mask was adequate to care for these patients.
More Concerned about Population Control than Illness
The charitable take is that institutions like the WHO and CDC are simply coming down on the wrong side of contentious scientific debates. But there is a persistent directionality to these mistakes that betrays a current of ideology. A review of the timeline of announcements by the WHO after the COVID outbreak shows an organization more concerned with avoiding panic and stigma than the virus.’ The whole article is at https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/09/why-the-who-is-a-danger-to-public-health/
Being an independent Bible believing Baptist I certainly do not agree with most of what is taught by the Roman Catholic institution. However, I do agree with former Australian Senator Cory Bernardi when he wrote that ‘In an ocean of madness there has been an island of reason this week.
The decision of the High Court to overturn the conviction of Cardinal George Pell is a victory for the rule of law over media led mob rule.
That’s not to say the law can’t be an ass; as it has through much of this case; but the right decision was reached.
Unfortunately, the price of truth can’t be called justice.
An innocent man has been imprisoned for over a year. His reputation has been trashed and his life will never be the same again.
Pell has been a victim of a modern day version of the Salem witch hunt which forever characterises mass hysteria.
In Pell’s case, the hysteria emanated from the progressive media who saw him as the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the Catholic Church. They were prepared to suspend reason, logic and the rule of law in a rush to judgement and woe betide anyone that questioned their intentions.
Opinion leaders like Sky News host Andrew Bolt demonstrated the almost impossible sequence of claims that led to Pell’s indictment. Legal experts highlighted the evidentiary failings behind his conviction.
Today, those courageous people have been vindicated and deserve an apology from the baying mob who also called for their scalp. I have no illusions that it won’t be forthcoming.
That mob is the same crowd who claim to be progressive and compassionate. Instead they are haters and liars. They are the ones who are prepared to suspend due process, honesty and integrity whenever it suits their ’collective’ agenda.
It’s no coincidence that many of them reside in the behemoth of socialist propaganda known as the ABC
Their cause is to dismantle our enduring institutions, crush their opposition and destroy the proven in favour of a grand experiment.
Unfortunately that experiment is being conducted on the rest of us and it reduces us to mere vassals of the omnipotent state apparatus.
Pell was a target of that agenda by virtue of his steadfast defence of the traditional tenets of the Church he vowed to represent. Damaging him damaged the church and that makes government agencies even more powerful.
Why do you think Communist states throughout history have sought to diminish the role of faith in their societies? It’s because it competes with the state for authority.
This judgement has been a damning indictment of the bias and compromised agenda of the taxpayer funded ABC – Pell’s primary accuser. So blinkered is their world view that they cannot contemplate their agenda could be flawed or misdirected.
Today we can take some comfort that the legal system survived the media lynch mob but it is very hard to say that justice has been done.
A man’s life has been changed forever as a result of systemic abuse by elements of the media, the Victorian police, the Victorian judiciary and the Victorian state government.
Too many others cheered them on. If you were one of them, contemplate how you would feel if they turned their negative intentions in your direction.
Today, let us give thanks for the High Court – who resisted the mob.
Let us also remember that history records last Sunday the mob laid down palms for a leader, less than a week later they called for his death.
May you and your family have a blessed, safe, happy and healthy Easter .
Until next week
P.S – I know the subject matter of this trial is a grotesque and emotional issue. It stirs strong feelings among most of us. However heinous the offence or one’s personal thoughts of the accused or the institution he represents, the most important principle is that we are all equal before the law and deserve a fair trial. That isn’t decided by the mob and judges are not infallible. Our process has worked although it has come at a great cost. Most notably to Pell himself but also to the confidence we can have in some of our most important institutions.’ https://corybernardi.com/
Luke 10:30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
Well, in the Big Apple ‘Samaritan’s Purse, are stepping up on a large scale. This Christian nonprofit has built a field hospital in the epicenter of America’s COVID-19 outbreak. While others are fleeing the New York Metro area because it is a coronavirus hot spot, Samaritan’s Purse is running toward the need. The organization sent a rapid response team of chaplains to serve the city and even built a 68-bed field hospital near the Mt. Sinai hospital to help with overflow of patients.
Samaritan’s Purse has no ulterior motive. Rather, the ministry aims to serve those who are vulnerable, and ultimately, as a Christian organization, to serve God.
It’s a good thing they are not looking for the praise of men, because that is in short supply. Indeed, Samaritan’s Purse has found itself in the middle of a storm of controversy because of a tweet from its president, Franklin Graham.
The tweet links to the Samaritan’s Purse website where they ask for volunteers to help serve the vulnerable and who agree with the mission statement of the organization. One of the 11 points in the mission statement is at the root of this controversy:
We believe God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman as unique biological persons made to complete each other. God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. For this reason, we believe that marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.
This statement is nothing radical; it just espouses what the Bible teaches and what Christians have always believed about marriage and sexuality.
For this, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio attacked Samaritan’s Purse as “biased” and accused the charity of discrimination. But Samaritan’s Purse has never discriminated against its patients. It has always served everyone who needs care. But it does ask that those who represent the organization agree with the organization’s beliefs. That shouldn’t be too much to ask.
But the ideological opponents of Samaritan’s Purse are using this as an opportunity to score partisan points.
Mayor de Blasio expressed outrage at Samaritan’s Purse and promised action: “I said immediately to my team that we had to find out exactly what was happening…Was there going to be an approach that was truly consistent with the values [of] New York City.”
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman piled on by suggesting that Graham has something to learn from the coronavirus: “COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate, and neither should Franklin Graham.”
Ross Murray, the Senior Director of the GLAAD Media Institute went even further and claimed that “Graham is capitalizing upon a crisis to inflict more pain and suffering on an already marginalized population.”
Each of these statements overlook a simple fact: Samaritan’s Purse gladly serves everyone. As Kaitlyn Lahm, a spokesperson for Samaritan’s Purse explained: “Our doors at the Emergency Field Hospital in the East Meadow are going to be open to all New Yorkers who need our help. We are here to save life, which is precious in God’s sight — and we do it all in Jesus’ Name.”
Facing a health crisis, New York officials allowed Samaritan’s Purse to stay. But de Blasio promised “to send people over from [his] office to monitor” Samaritan’s Purse’s field hospital. Hoylman stuck a similar note, claiming “homophobic pastor Franklin Graham and his field hospital operation in Central Park must guarantee all LGBTQ patients with COVID-19 are treated with dignity and respect. We’ll be watching.”
The message was clear, the insinuation ugly: While we need you now, Christian beliefs are intolerable, and we have our eye on you.’ https://mychristiandaily.com/why-is-new-york-targeting-samaritans-purse-for-serving-them/
I have dealt with the murder (abortion) of the unborn many times on this blog so you know where I am on the issue. Is it not not sad that here in Australia the murder of the unborn is an everyday occurrence raising hardly if any opposition?! However, in the USA it is different! There more people are speaking out and with President Trump being the most pro-life President the USA has ever had the misnomer known as Planned Parenthood has been closing many of their murder factories.
Here is a video of David Benham being arrest for protesting outside a murder factory.
‘Conservative, pro-life activist David Benham was arrested outside an abortion clinic over the weekend for allegedly violating state and federal coronavirus guidelines.
Prior to his arrest, Benham, who gained notoriety when he and his brother were slated to host an HGTV show that was ultimately cancelled due to their Christian faith, was praying and offering sidewalk counseling outside a North Carolina facility, according to the Daily Caller.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) issued a stay-at-home order on March 27 until April 29, barring gatherings of more than 10 people and ordering state residents to stay at home except for essential businesses or outings, like to get groceries, seek medical care, or exercise.
Benham claimed he and four others were at the clinic representing his Cities4Life nonprofit. He also had with him a mobile ultrasound unit attended by two people.
“The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said there was a cluster, that there were 50 protesters,” he recalled. “And of course, none of that is true.”
In a video he posted online, Benham told police officers he and his fellow volunteers “are within our rights to be here,” noting there were more than 10 people working inside the clinic at the time they were arrested.
“We are practicing social distancing, we have cleaned our hands,” he told the cop. “We are offering help to these mothers, and if you’re saying we don’t have the right to be here, then go into the abortion clinic and make the arrests there.”
The police officer told Benham he doesn’t “have the authority” to go into the abortion clinic. In response, the pro-life activist asked him why, then, he has the authority to “bully” peaceful demonstrators.
As he was being handcuffed, Benham said: “You know I am well within my constitutional authority to be here. You know that we’re doing the right thing.”
Ultimately, Benham was booked and released later Saturday.
In a tweet posted Monday, Benham called out the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, claiming all eight arrests officers have made were of pro-life demonstrators.’ https://www.faithwire.com/2020/04/07/christian-activist-david-benham-arrested-outside-abortion-clinic-for-violating-coronavirus-orders/?utm_source=FWNL
Pastor Kent Brandenburg writes the following concerning this Covid-19 crisis which I think is worth a read.
‘Many pastors and theologians have provided their counsel, take, admonition, or encouragement on this virus that is sickening and killing people all over the world. I’ve listened to at least four sermons on it, while going about working at home while sheltered-in-place, a terminology I never remember hearing until now. It’s come up in about every one of my sermons since we knew a pandemic had begun. In addition to the offerings of Thomas Ross in the way of a gospel tract, David Warner from our church wrote one (click on the link here). Those are very good and should be utilized, if people will touch them, considering the virus might survive on the surface of the tract for twenty-four hours.
Here are ten typical subjects right now, no offense to anyone. I’ve brought them up too. They are worth meditating upon.
- God is sovereign.
- Everyone’s going to die.
- God is gracious that this isn’t worse.
- God cares for us more than many sparrows.
- All things work together for good for them who love God.
- Sin is the cause of the virus at least as a byproduct.
- We all deserve worse than this outcome.
- We know not what shall be on the morrow.
- Except we repent, we shall all likewise perish.
- It is only by God’s faithfulness that we are not consumed.
Other related topics addressed are the following: Is livestreaming “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Heb 10:24-25), is it actual church or a service, at what point do we meet again anyway, or is this the state taking away religious freedom? Those are all interesting and appropriate. This post will take at least a little different tact than any of these above.
Is There A Prophetic Nature to the Virus?
Is the world so wicked that God is sending a shot across its bow to warn it of something much greater to come? Besides just the virus, are signs of the time in the air? The soon return of Christ has been mentioned to me far more often since this started, so it’s something I think about. The virus is not technically a “sign” of the coming of Jesus Christ, so why does it get the attention as that?
The book of Revelation uses the word “plague” and “plagues” several times, and the term plague is associated with apocalypse. The word “apocalypse” is a transliteration of the Greek word that is the title of the last book of the Bible, Revelation. “Apo” means “from,” and “calypse” means “cover.” It literally means “to uncover.” It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. “Apocalypse” has come to be understood in our culture as “the time when the world ends,” and you might add, “with plagues.” Covid-19 is a worldwide plague, which is killing people. The book of Revelation has multiple plagues that kill people.
More people were killed by World War 2, World War 1, the Spanish Flu, the American Civil War, and the Bubonic Plague, especially by percentage. The situation we’re in seems worse. Why? What is it? Through the history of the world, people were accustomed to early death or even the threat of it. Rows and rows of emaciated sick bodies on the verge of dying is intolerable. It seems humanity can stop this and if it can, then it must. It’s a society that will kill millions through abortion, a clandestine death, isolated from human perception. I’m not impressed by its sudden embrace of life. I read it as a selfish embrace, more in the nature of the self-serving.
Covid-19 kills. It doesn’t kill everyone, so the death rate is lower by far than other pandemics. However, we don’t know who it will kill. Some get it and are asymptomatic, another word I don’t think I used in my life before this last month. Since there is no cure, the asymptomatic can be spreading it and give it to someone who is susceptible and to whom it is deadly. The idea right now is that you touch a door knob or cardboard box, not wash your hands, and you might kill your grandparents. There is no antidote.
If something isn’t done, the disease and death rate overwhelms the healthcare industry, where the few sacrifice themselves for the many. More casualties of the few bring greater for the many. Some kind of never before experienced tipping point could occur and the terminology, “mass graves,” is used, and sometimes, “body bags.” Funerals become too risky to attend.
The virus brings apparent justifiable fear, enough fear to stop people from traveling, shopping, and working, all of what results in industry and economy. Industry and economy stops. The supply chain is disrupted. Economy brings people into contact that makes them sick.
Humanity has also become more accustomed to a higher standard of living. Something much lower seems apocalyptic. One could and should call this covetousness or greed. To get what they want, people live right up to the edge, leaving most people one month or less away from bankruptcy. That seems fine for the people, who have money in the bank, except that they are in the minority. Businesses can’t close, because home owners are so close to defaulting on their mortgage or renters so close to not paying the rent, which results in the landlord defaulting on his loan, that the whole system comes tumbling down, this in a matter of mere months. Can it start up again then? Maybe, but only if more money is printed and the federal government borrows the money to bail out more than half the country.
This isn’t over yet. People do not know what will happen. It might take a long time to sort out. The fear stops people from buying, which stops people from hiring, which results in less buying, less hiring, and massive unemployment, the collapse of the housing market, then the banks. I’m describing what could happen, and then the crime. Some are not going to put up with the lesser lifestyle. Some will become desperate and steal. Drug and alcohol use rise. Societies are not accustomed to what’s going to happen. They will turn to leaders that pander to their worst instincts. They will be encouraged by others like them. They have become accustomed to doing what is most expedient.
With due respect to those with the virus who are suffering and have suffered or know or love those who have died from it, this virus is a slap in the hand on a world that deserves destruction. It is not a real apocalypse. That is described in the book of Revelation. However, it is the sample platter. It is a sample like I haven’t, again, seen in my lifetime. People have the opportunity to repent. That is the big question right now. Will they? Will they listen? Is this enough? I don’t think it will still be enough. Yet, believers should use the possible opportunity. I say, possible, because a few perhaps will listen.
2 Chronicles 7:14 Again
2 Chronicles 7:14 doesn’t apply to the pandemic. Solomon had prayed for God to hear Israel’s prayers in the temple he led in building, if Israel found herself suffering through pestilence and famine and war, because of her disobedience. Could she come to the temple and pray out of repentance and have God hear her? The answer is, yes, if my people come and pray with a truly repentant heart, I’ll hear her prayers. That’s all based on God’s promises to Israel and in particular Solomon.
Our country can repent. That will help the country. Perhaps people would then have the discernment to make good decisions that would result in a virus not wreaking so much havoc on a nation. Maybe the disease is a message to the world. The world, and our nation, should take it as such. It should be the Luke 13:1-5 message from Jesus, to repent. Everyone needs to repent, because either from this virus or the debilitating depression that arises from it or something else, everyone is going to die and face God.
We should be preaching repentance, a message that churches haven’t been preaching, perhaps 80 percent or more. We should be praying biblical prayers. I won’t pray for the disease to end. I’ll trust God to do His will. I’ll pray for boldness and abounding love and knowledge and wisdom. I will pray what God says to pray for his people. I will pray for the governing leaders. I will keep serving and preaching in and through the church. I will not look for something sensational based on a false interpretation of the Old Testament.
As much as ever, people need the Word of God. This break from the regular rush should bring renewed Bible and prayer. It shouldn’t be planning parties and binging on entertainment. We should use this crisis as God would have us, to take advantage of the mercy and grace of God.’ https://kentbrandenburg.blogspot.com/
Martin Iles of the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) writes that ‘Governments should be servants of the truth; but what happens when truth is sacrificed? The coronavirus is an object lesson – for governments and individuals alike.
Coronavirus and the Chinese Communist Party
I want to talk about the issue of coronavirus and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I want to find out what this disease and the way in which its outbreak was handled tells us about the CCP; but more importantly, I want to see what it shows us about truth.
Note that when I say “China”, I’m not referring to Chinese people in general. I’m talking about the government: the Chinese Communist Party.
China first admitted to the World Health Organization that they had several cases of COVID-19 on 31 December. It was identified as a new coronavirus on 7 January, and the first death was reported on 9 January.
By the end of January, coronavirus cases had been reported in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, USA, Australia, France, Malaysia, Canada, Nepal, Cambodia, Germany, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, India, the UK, Russia, Sweden and Spain. The World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January, about a month later than the initial report.
And China’s role during that time, and indeed subsequently, has been predictable in many ways. It’s sort of been ‘communist playbook 101’.
Dr Li Wenliang, for example, has become the figurehead of a group of about eight doctors who were called by the Chinese government ‘rumourmongers’. These doctors blew the whistle on the new disease before the authorities actually went to the World Health Organization.
But police from the Wuhan Public Security Bureau interrogated Dr Li on 3 January, giving him a warning notice and censuring him for making false comments on the internet via a WeChat group in which he and his colleagues were sharing information.
Li was made to sign a letter of admonition and promise not to do it again. And the police warned him that if he failed to abide by the admonition terms, he would be prosecuted.
Shortly afterwards, on 8 January, Dr Li actually contracted the virus himself. He passed away from the infection on 7 February. He was 33 years old, and tragically left behind his pregnant wife and young son.
Interestingly, as a side note, Dr Li was a Christian.
Now, it’s understood that Dr Li was not the first person in the medical community to raise concerns, nor to be targeted by the Chinese government. And others are, no doubt, too fearful to speak.
Speaking of cover ups, the South China Morning Post has now reported that the Chinese government under-reported coronavirus cases by 43,000, meaning that 81,600 reported cases is, in reality, more like 120,000. These 43,000 extra cases are people who actually tested positive for coronavirus, but didn’t show obvious symptoms. Because they were asymptomatic, they were not included in the official tally.
Now, that under-reporting actually meant that the World Health Organization assumed at first that so-called ‘silent carriers’ – that is, people who are asymptomatic but have the disease – weren’t a big problem.
But scientists around the world are now discovering that nothing could be further from the truth.
So not only did the CCP very likely prevent the timely discovery and reporting of the existence of COVID-19; it also contributed to a very serious misunderstanding of how it spreads through communities.
Why did this happen?
It happened because the CCP does not rank truth as a high value. For communists, there is no higher authority than the state. And when you’re in that situation, you wind up with a couple of things.
You wind up, firstly, with atheism as the preferred, if not the enforced, religion; and you wind up with a situation in which the state is no longer the servant of truth, but, as the ultimate authority, becomes an author of ‘truth’.
The state actually decides what is ‘true’.
I was reminded about this in relation to the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in 1986. In that situation, the Soviet Union’s response was initially flat-footed and denialist, because their position was that a nuclear disaster wasn’t possible in the Soviet Union. If that was their position, it could not happen.
But of course, under those circumstances, as we see in China right now, another concern quickly started to overtake, which was the prospect of embarrassment under the scrutiny of the world.
And so, something was done. But not before lives were spent; not before those first crucial actions in response to the problem in the earliest moments after the disaster were compromised.
And it has also been the case in China, in the early days when this disease was first coming to light.
Dr Li and others were silenced by the authorities for ‘spreading rumours’… or, in other words, for speaking truth. It wasn’t true according to the state; couldn’t be true according to the state; it was a truth that the state had decided was impossible.
And it wasn’t until they realised that they had to tell the World Health Organization for fear of global shame that these matters were actually taken seriously. And by that time, the disease had most likely already spread outside China.
But what’s the point of all of this?
There are three ideas that I want to draw out of all of this.
First, I have painted that picture because I believe that in Australia and, to a lesser extent, the West at large, we face something of a moral crisis in our relationship with China.
We’re a little bit blind to the realities of that regime, and how dangerous those realities are; because, for anyone who is a little bit blind, whether wilfully or genuinely, there is such opportunity.
There are promises of endless economic growth if you throw your lot in with China. There are promises of ludicrous wealth… bags of money for people who will go all the way with China. And you know, some people are prepared to look past the lies, the fruits of those lies, and the dreadful corruption of this regime.
And this is just scratching the surface.
Now, Australia is in a position where we’re very nearly the most prosperous country on earth. And the reason for that, in many ways, comes down to one word: China.
But this is a dangerous regime, upon which we depend at our peril. And it may end up being a great Achilles’ heel for Australia, a nation that’s historically been preserved from so much trouble.
If China gets too powerful, we might rue the day that we went all in with China.
Maybe that’s a bit strong; maybe we’re not “all in with China”. But I fear that as politicians rank economic prosperity as the highest priority, we’ll continue to turn a blind eye to just how dangerous this regime can be.
Second, I want to make a point about God and government.
In the West we once believed earnestly that the highest authority was Almighty God, with the state as His servant. In fact, that’s why the phrase “Almighty God” actually appears in the preamble to our Australian constitution: “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God”. We once believed in God and Caesar and we honoured both in their proper places. The state was a servant of God. That’s Romans 13 language.
We still have government ‘ministers’, right? Minister for Finance, and Minister for Health, and Minister for Education… that’s because of biblical language.
But you know, as godlessness, atheism or lack of understanding God as the highest and greatest being rises in the West, so too will the state. And beware the state that has no higher authority.
We are contributing to this. We look to the state, the government, to solve everything from toilet paper, to family breakdown, to bushfire season, to our own mental health. We look to them to give us rights, and to make us happy.
They ought not to have the power to do these things.
As Christians, we too often look to the government to love our neighbour for us; to provide for all our welfare needs. Well, no. It’s your obligation first. Don’t forget this.
And let me say again, beware the state that has no higher authority, where government is placed in that position of greatness, because you risk this: it’s no longer a servant of truth, but may in fact creep towards being an author of ‘truth’.
That is a bad road to go down. We should be concerned in the West as we see governments’ hypertrophy grow out of proportion.
Finally, and really, this is the biggest deal for me: sometimes we encounter moments that serve as powerful object lessons. This is one of those moments.
It’s a powerful object lesson that tells us just how important truth is.
We live in a day when truth is not highly valued. But we let the idea that truth isn’t to be treasured rub off on us at our peril. There is in fact nothing more important than truth. Without truth, we’re all doomed.
There’s a great quote I heard the other day which makes this point very powerfully. It’s this: “Every time we tell a lie, we incur a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt must be repaid.”
In the context of what I’ve been saying, two huge debts would be COVID-19 and Chernobyl, right? Those are shocking and staggering debts to pay, off the back of lies that led to the bitter fruits of those lies. If the truth had been told, how much sooner could these disasters have been contained and solved?
But you know, this doesn’t just relate to geopolitics. This relates to those sweet lies that we hold on to every day of our lives, in our own personal lives, for ourselves, that we want to believe.
If you do this, the pain will come.
If you do not live consistently with what is true, you’re not living consistently with what is right and good, and the pain will come.
It doesn’t matter how you justify ignoring the truth. It doesn’t matter how good you feel ignoring the truth. It doesn’t matter how important your feelings might seem to be in the face of the truth. It doesn’t matter when you make your own truth, and it doesn’t matter whether you just don’t care about pursuing truth that doesn’t interest you. I’m here to tell you, the pain will come if you are believing lies; the pain will come if you are racking up a debt to the truth, because the truth has a way of making itself known.
Romans 1 says that the problem with people in a society like ours is that they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. That’s what this is all about. It’s just saying, “Well, I don’t care what’s true.” It’s not seeking truth and it’s not letting it shape us. It’s not valuing and prizing truth.
And then what happens? “They receive in themselves the due penalty for their error”. It comes back to bite hard, and it destroys.
You know, it’s high time that truth was fashionable again.
So, seek truth with all your mind. There is nothing more important, and we lose sight of that at our personal and societal peril.
And sadly, that was the truth about coronavirus and the Chinese Communist Party.’ https://mychristiandaily.com/coronavirus-the-chinese-communist-party-and-the-truth/
‘The Coming Plagues & COVID-19
The coronavirus, COVID-19, has caused worldwide death and has had devastating effects on the economy of the USA and other nations. The Lord Jesus Christ, surveying the future, warned: “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Mt 24:7). Are the future plagues predicted by Christ far worse than COVID-19?
What Will Future Plagues Do?
The Bible predicts a future seven-year period of horrible judgments before the return of Jesus Christ. The future will witness successive waves of warfare, bloodshed, and widespread famine (Rev 6:3-5), the death of a fourth of the world’s population (6:7-8), the death of a third of sea-life (8:8-9), the poisoning of a third of the fresh water (8:10-11), and the darkening of a third of the heavenly bodies (8:12-13). Then “the bottomless pit … [will be] opened … and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power … And to them it was given that they should … tormen[t] [men] five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them” (9:1-6). Following this plague, demonic beings will be loosed on the earth “to slay the third part of men” (9:13-21).
The Antichrist (1 Jn 2:18) will control a one-world government in which “he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor … to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast [Antichrist, compared to a bloodthirsty animal], or the number of his name.” He will seek to kill all who refuse to worship him and his image or take his mark (Rev 6:1-2; 13:11-18). Those who take the Antichrist’s mark will be able to get this world’s goods, but the Bible warns: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” (14:9-11).
The final plagues before Christ returns are described as: “a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. … The sea … became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea … the rivers and fountains of waters … became blood. … The sun … [will] scorch men with fire … [following which the sinful world will be] full of darkness; and [men] gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds” (16:1-9).
Then the kingdom of Antichrist will be destroyed (17-18) and Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, will return: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (19:11-16). Christ will rule the world, and His enemies will have to stand before Him in judgment: “I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire … the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (20:11-15; 21:8). “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (6:14-17).
These judgments of God will be unutterably horrible—far worse than any plagues humanity has experienced in all its sinful history. In the worst plague of all—eternal torment in the lake of fire—“the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (19:15) will be manifest, as He shows to all what the infinite weight of His unrestrained wrath, fury, and fierceness is upon the damned (Rom 9:22) who get what they deserve for their sins.
Why Is Judgment Coming?
Judgment is coming because you—and the rest of the human race—are sinners who have broken the holy law of the pure and righteous God. He commands: “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16), but “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God … there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom 3:10, 23). You have a sinful nature passed down from the first fallen man, Adam (Rom 5:12-19). God “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5). You are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1); controlled by Satan (2:2); and are “fulfilling the [sinful] desires of [your] flesh and … mind” as by “nature the chil[d] of wrath” (2:3). Because your “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9), unless your sin is taken away, you “cannot please God” but are “defiled and unbelieving” with “nothing pure” (Rom 8:8; Tit 1:15). At this very moment you are “condemned already” (Jn 3:18). “Kno[w] therefore the terror of the Lord” (2 Cor 5:11), and tremble before Christ’s warning: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell” (Mt 23:33)?
Can I Escape the Coming Judgment?
God has made a way for you to escape His judgment. In fact, before the coming seven-year period of plagues, He will take to Himself those He has redeemed, sparing them from the punishment He will bring on the world (1 Th 5:9; Rev 4:1ff.). Those of His people who die before these judgments begin are immediately in the bliss of heaven (Jn 14:1-3), while those who perish in their sin are immediately “turned into hell” (Ps 9:17). To escape judgment, consider that “the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Repent: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin … turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die” (Eze 18:30; 33:11)? You will experience the coming “great tribulation” unless you “repent of [your] deeds” (Rev 2:22). Do not be like those who “were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols … neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts … [but] blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds … they repented not to give him glory” (9:20-21; 16:9, 11). Turn from your sins and submit to Christ as Lord!
Believe the gospel: The “gospel” is the good news “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day” (1 Cor 15:1-4). The Lord Jesus is “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim 3:16). He is the Son of God, who has existed from all eternity with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the three Persons of the one and only true God (1 Jn 5:7; Mt 28:19). Christ became a Man, lived a sinless life, and then died on the cross, where His Father “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). He died to pay in full what you owe for your sin, and then rose from the dead, conquering death and Satan and proving that His payment was enough to remove sin forever. You cannot take your own sins away, but Christ “loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood” (Rev 1:5). You cannot be saved by your works, but you can be saved by Christ’s perfect and complete work on the cross.
You must “believe the gospel” (Mr 1:15). “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). Commit or entrust your soul to Jesus Christ alone. Forsake all confidence in any good works or religious rituals you have done, are doing, or plan to do in the future: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8-9). If you think you will be saved by being a good person, you reject Christ’s work on the cross: “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal 2:21). You must be “justified [declared righteous based on Christ’s death] by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28) or you will certainly perish eternally. After justifying you, God will change you so that you love Him and His commands, and hate sin, not in order to be saved, but because you are already saved: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17).
Because of the plague of sin, God will soon send plagues that are worse than anything the world has ever experienced, culminating in the worst plague of all—eternity in the lake of fire. Christ promises: “Surely I come quickly” (Rev 22:20). Are you ready for the coming plagues—have you been saved from your sin?’ https://faithsaves.net/coming-plagues/
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