Puritan Corner - One Way to Punish a Nation

When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.

By John Calvin  (1509-1564) 

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.

Proverbs 14:32

The Desire of the Little Horn Prelates - to be like the Gentiles

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 

Having the understanding darkened, 

being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, 

because of the blindness of their heart: 

Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Ephesians 4:17-19

 

"Oh, how precious to Luther was this new and glorious light which had dawned upon his dark understanding and driven away his superstition! 

Raising his voice against the errors and sins of the papal church, he earnestly endeavored to break the chain of darkness which was confining thousands. 

He longed to be enabled to open to their minds the true riches of the grace of God and the excellence of salvation obtained through Jesus Christ. In the power of the Holy Spirit he cried out against the existing sins of the leaders of the church; and as he met the storm of opposition from the priests, his courage failed not.

 

As he pushed the battle closer and closer, the rage of the priests was kindled still hotter against him. 

They did not wish to be reformed. 

They chose to be left in ease, 

in wanton pleasure, 

in wickedness; 

and they desired the church also to be kept in darkness."  

E.G.W.

Wycliffe Didn't Mince Words....

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries...  

Daniel 11:32

 

".... the worst abuse of the friars consists in their pretended

confessions, by means of which they affect, with numberless artifices of blasphemy, that they can purify those whom they confess, and make them clean from all pollution in the eyes of God, through this assumed power of Antichrist,—setting aside the commandments and satisfaction of our Lord. 

 

Thus, in their eagerness to participate in the gain of their master the devil, they drag but too many down ...For if the conversation of the just is seen to be in heaven, by the uprightness of their rule of life, the contrary shows, beyond a doubt, that the conversation of these friars is in hell—And what is worst of all, they seduce to their ruin in spiritual things those of the people who rashly put faith in them."

Wycliffe

Zwingli Refutes Purgatory

 ...the soul that sinneth, it shall die....For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing...

Ezekiel 18:4/Ecclesiastes 9:5

 

--The true divine Scriptures know naught about purgatory after this life.

-- The sentence of the dead is known to God only.

-- And the less God has let us know concerning it, the less we should undertake to know about it.

Zwingli

Pagan Roots of Witches on Broomsticks

Are You Serious?

In the "Christian" era, there were still farmers engaged in Pagan Rituals such as the Broomstick Dance?

When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. Deuteronomy 8:9

"The earliest known image of witches on brooms dates to 1451,

when two illustrations appeared in the French poet Martin Le Franc’s manuscript Le Champion des Dames (The Defender of Ladies). 

The association between witches and brooms may have roots in a pagan fertility ritual, in which rural farmers would leap and dance astride poles, pitchforks or brooms in the light of the full moon to encourage the growth of their crops. 

This “broomstick dance" became confused with common accounts of witches flying through the night on their way to orgies and other illicit meetings." History

BTW.....Disney has the Broomstick Dance for your children --- in the

"Christian" era too.... in the 21st century---"The Broomstick Dance" is a song from the Sofia the First episode, "Cauldronation Day" and is sung by Sofia, Lucinda, Lily, Indigo, and many other unnamed witches." wikiDisney

A Catholic Pagan Holiday That Triggers Criminal Activity --go figure....

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Corinthians 6:16

 

"Retired police occult investigator Don Thompson doesn't think parents should burn their children's Halloween costumes. But the former Baltimore County policeman does think parents should be aware that the holiday has a dangerous side.

"It's fun for little kids to dress up, but people should remember that

this is one of the satanic holy days. It calls for specific rites and rituals to be done on this day," said Mr. Thompson, 45. He recently retired after 22 years, 14 of them investigating criminal satanic activity in Maryland.

"Satanism is a high-crime area," he said. "There's a lot of teen-age occult activity in all the counties in Maryland -- destruction of properties, animal sacrifices. 

--I've also seen some abuse by parents of children,  

--and adults who have been abused and held in different rites and rituals [in Maryland]. But not a lot."

Halloween, with its occult origins in the ancient Druid festivals, has left a legacy in which small crimes are "commonplace and accepted behavior," Mr. Thompson added. "Defacing churches and knocking over tombstones isn't innocent and cute. In Chicago they've had Hell Night, when they burn down houses the night before Halloween." BaltimoreSun

Let's Be Honest About What God Thinks of Halloween

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, 

or that useth divination, 

or an observer of times, 

or an enchanter, 

or a witch, 

Or a charmer, 

or a consulter with familiar spirits,  (or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. in the NLT)

or a wizard, 

or a necromancer. 

--For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

Deuteronomy 18:10-12

 

 

"According to Celtic tradition during Samhain, the veil between our world and the “Otherworld” is broken, which enables spirits from the dead to come back and visit the living. As part of Samhain, the Celts offered food, animals, and even people to the spirit world.

In addition to the spirit world being able to visit the real world, the Celts believed witches, goblins, fairies, and demons would be roaming around the earth and could visit the inhabitants of the earth. 

The Druids believed in order to appease the demons, witches, fairies, and goblins,   

---you had to leave them sweets 

---or you had to dress up like them in a costume in order to not be detected as a human being." Christian.com

When Paganism, Spiritualism and Church Deisre for Synthesis walk into a "Holy Day"/Holiday....

....saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; 

2 Corinthians 6:17

"All Souls’ Day parades .....During the festivities, poor citizens would

beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits." History.com

Creation Moment 10/31/2021 - Calvin on Creation

For He spake, and it was done; 

He commanded, and it stood fast.

Psalm 33:9

"Calvin asserts a strictly creative act by the Triune God, by which all things outside Himself, ‘not only the visible world, but also the invisible spirits’, were brought into being out of nothing. ‘

 

--The world is not eternal,’ he claims against the Manichaean dualists, ‘but was created by God.’ 

 

--In opposition to Deism, he states that ‘God created the world at once, in such a manner as to be its perpetual Governor.’

 

--The Pantheistic notion that God is the ‘soul the world’ he dismisses as ‘utterly vain and worthless.’

 

Both from Moses’ use of the word ‘bara’ rather than ‘yatsar’, and from the strict meaning of the verb ‘to create’, Calvin deduces that ‘the world was made out of nothing,’ for ‘creation is . . the origination of essence out of nothing.’" multiscreen

The 3 Steps of Making the Sabbath

 "He needed no rest; 

Q: Why did He at the close of that work employ a day in rest? 

A: He was 

--laying the foundation of a divine institution, 

--the memorial of His own great work.  

“And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” The fourth commandment states the same fact: He “rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

 

--The blessing and sanctification of the seventh day was because that God had rested upon it. 

--His resting upon it then, was to lay the foundation for blessing and sanctifying the day.

--His being refreshed with this rest implies that he delighted in the act which laid the foundation for the memorial of His great work.
 

The second act of the Creator in instituting this memorial was to place his blessing upon the day of his rest. 

 

A third act completes the sacred institution. The day already blessed of God, is now, last of all, sanctified or hallowed by Him. To sanctify is “to separate, set apart, or appoint to a holy, sacred or religious use.” To hallow is “to make holy; to consecrate; to set apart for a holy or religious use.”

 

*The time when these three acts were performed is worthy of especial notice.
--The first act was that of rest. This took place on the seventh day; for the day was employed in rest. 

--The second and third acts took place when the seventh day was past. “God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work.” Hence it was on the first day of the second week of time that God blessed the seventh day and set it apart to a holy use. 

 

The blessing and sanctification of the seventh day, therefore relate not to the first seventh day of time, but to the seventh day of the week for time to come, in memory of God’s rest on that day from the work of creation.
 

--The days of the week are measured off by the revolution of our earth on its axis; and hence our seventh day, as such, can come only to dwellers on this globe. 

--To Adam and Eve, therefore, were the days of the week given to use. Hence when God set apart one of these days to a holy use in memory of His own rest on that day of the week, the very essence of the act consisted in his telling Adam that this day should be used only for sacred purposes. 

--Adam was then in the garden of God, placed there by the Creator to dress it and to keep it. He was also commissioned of God to subdue the earth. When therefore the rest-day of the Lord should return from week to week all this secular employment, however proper in itself, must be laid aside, and the day observed in memory of the Creator’s rest." J.N. Andrews

IN the NEWS - Next Stop Kids....Rosie's Bar and Grill...

And 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. Genesis 6:5

"A Florida elementary school is facing a state investigation after it took elementary school students on a field trip to a gay bar.

“I was SO honored to be invited to chaperone Wilton Manors Elementary’s field trip to the incredible Rosie’s!” Broward County School Board member Sarah Leonardi wrote on her Facebook page Wednesday. “The students and I had a fun walk over and learned a lot about our community! A huge thank you to Rosie’s Bar and Grill for hosting this special field trip every year!”

Rosie’s Bar and Grill is a gay bar and grill that says it wants to see customers “whether you are LBGTQ+ or an ally.” Lifesite

Creation Moment 10/30/2021 - Another Body Organ Found

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Psalm 139:14

Just when Man thought he has the whole universe figured out---he finds that he missed an organ in his own body.....

"Scientists are still finding out about some of the wonderful design of the human body. 

 

They previously knew that after accounting for known bodily fluids like blood, lymph, and serum, about 20 percent of the fluid in the body was ‘missing’. It turns out this fluid is in the interstitium, a fluid-filled space (of about 10 litres) found throughout the human body. They believe it has an important shock-absorbing function, as the fluid-filled spaces can compress by ‘emptying’ and then refill with fluid to protect organs and other tissues.

Previously, scientists missed the interstitium because the process of making slides for analysis dehydrates the tissues, meaning that they couldn’t see the interstitium until they discovered it accidentally while analyzing living tissue." CMI

Changing Face of Spiritualism

Then beware lest thou forget the LORD... Deuteronomy 6:12

“It is true that Spiritualism is now changing its form, and, veiling some

of its more objectionable features, is assuming a Christian guise --- But the Bible is interpreted in a manner that is pleasing to the unrenewed heart, 

--- while its solemn and vital truths are made of no effect. 

--- Love is dwelt upon as the chief attribute of God, but it is degraded to a weak sentimentalism making little distinction between good and evil.” (Great Controversy, p. 558)

The "Really" File - (Twix, Boy in a Dress & a Witch walk intio a Park...)

 ...inventors of evil things (like this Candy ad Targeting Children). Romans1:3

"An advertisement recently released by Mars, Inc. didn’t get

anywhere close to promoting its candy bar Twix, and instead created much confusion online.

In the ad, a young boy wearing a princess dress is greeted by his new nanny who is dressed like a witch.

Later on, while playing outside, a pair of neighborhood girls asked the boy why he’s “all dressed up” and told him it’s not Halloween

yet.

Coming to the boy’s defense, the nanny asked one of the young ladies, “Can I help you?”

The girl responded, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?”

“Do you want to find out?” the creepy nanny replied as intense music grew louder and the wind started to swirl which scared the children away.

From the "Really" File

Next, as the boy got into a car with the nanny, she told him he could keep wearing his princess dress if he wants to.

The pair arrived at a park where another boy said, “Hey princess! You look like a girl. Why are you wearing that?”

The dress-wearing boy answered, “Dressing like this makes me feel good.” NW

REALLY?

Creation Moment 10/29/2021 - VNTR2-1 = Network Complexity

 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Psalm 139:14 NLT

"Jiyue Zhu is a leading researcher at Washington State University

whose team just published an important paper related to the issue of junk DNA. Zhu is an authority on the process of aging and recently said:

These DNA sequences tend to be considered as “junk DNA” or dark matters in our genome, and they are difficult to study. Our study describes that one of those units actually has a function in that it enhances the activity of the telomerase gene.

Telomeres are large parts of DNA that average anywhere between 5,000 to 15,000 bases long in the human genome. (Bases are like the letters of the genetic code.)

The telomerase gene controls the activity of the telomerase enzyme, which helps produce telomeres, the caps at the end of each strand of DNA that protect the chromosomes within our cells. In normal cells, the length of telomeres gets a little bit shorter every time cells duplicate their DNA before they divide. When telomeres get too short, cells can no longer reproduce, causing them to age and die.

Zhu and his team have been studying a DNA region previously deemed “junk” called VNTR2-1. Its function seems to drive the activity of the telomerase gene. This is interesting because it is this sequence that prevents aging in certain types of cells and might help us understand how cancer occurs.

Because of this, it was thought that if a person had long telomeres then their aging was slowed down and they’d live longer. But this was found to be overly simplistic.

Zhu said it was worth noting that having a shorter [telomere] sequence does not necessarily mean your lifespan will be shorter, because it means the telomerase gene is less active and your telomere length may be shorter, which could make you less likely to develop cancer.

Further research is pending. Regardless, as predicted by creationists, “the false evolutionary paradigm of ‘junk DNA’ has been utterly debunked in favor of a new model, one containing pervasive functionality and network complexity. The reality of this seemingly unending complexity is only just beginning to be revealed—an inconvenient fact that points directly to an omnipotent Creator.” ICR

We - the Unclean Thing

 We are all as an unclean thing. Isaiah 64:6

 

"THE believer is a new creature, he belongs to a holy generation and a peculiar people— but for all that the Christian is a sinner still. He is so from the imperfection of his nature, and will continue so to the end of his earthly life. The black fingers of sin leave smuts upon our fairest robes. 

--Sin mars our repentance, ere the great Potter has finished it, upon

the wheel. 

--Selfishness defiles our tears, and unbelief tampers with our faith. 

 

The most golden faith or the purest degree of sanctification to which a Christian ever attained on earth, has still so much alloy in it as to be only worthy of the flames, in itself considered.  

 

Even now, though sin dwells in us, its power is broken. It has no dominion; it is a broken-backed snake; we are in bitter conflict with it, but it is with a vanquished foe that we have to deal. Yet a little while and we shall enter victoriously into the city where nothing defileth." Charles Spurgeon

IN the NEWS - What the Next Lockdown Should Look Like

The righteous care for the needs of their animals, 

but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.

 Proverbs 12:10

 

 "The intelligence displayed by many dumb animals approaches so closely to human intelligence that it is a mystery. 

--The animals see and hear and love and fear and suffer. 

--They use their organs far more faithfully than many human beings use theirs. 

--They manifest sympathy and tenderness toward their companions in suffering. 

--Many animals show an affection for those who have charge of them, far superior to the affection shown by some of the human race. They form attachments for man which are not broken without great suffering to them."  Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing, pp. 315, 316.

"NIH is now accused of spending $100m of taxpayer's money on torturing lab monkeys with ACID and snakes: DeSantis leads calls for Fauci to quit after he was revealed to have funded horrific testing on beagles.

The National Institutes of Health has been condemned for torturing monkeys with acid, toy snakes and rubber spiders for research after it was revealed Dr Anthony Fauci had approved funding horrific

experiments on beagles.   

Watchdog the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) first accused the NIH of conducting 'bizarre psychological experiments' on monkeys back in December 2019, revealing that the experiments has cost taxpayers 'nearly $100 million just since 2007' and have been 'continuously funded for over 40 years'. 

It re-emerged the day after Fauci - director of the NIH's National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) was condemned for funding experiments which saw beagles left in the desert for flies to eat them.

Since released video footage of the testing showed distraught primates chained in tiny cages as researchers surprised them with rubber spiders and mechanical snakes - objects they instinctively fear - to observe their reactions.

The NIH scientists then removed portions of their brains or destroyed them with acid to 'intentionally worsen the primates' fear'.

'In the video, a callous NIH 'white coat' can be heard joking, 'Where the h**l is the dancing monkey?,' after one of the tests on the terrified monkeys ends,' the WCW report states.

The videotaped experiments, according to the group, took place at he National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland and have 'cost taxpayers over $16 million since 2007 and $1.7 million in 2019 alone.' " DailyMail

IN the NEWS - Silly Humans provide Media Catnip

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh... Psalm 2:4

 

"Mysterious ‘alien beacon’ was false alarm (Nature). In 2019, the

news media in unison proclaimed the possibility of an alien signal coming from nearby star Proxima Centauri. The SETI enthusiasts at Breakthrough Listen, funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, handed out media catnip that had the intended effect: publicity for their project. It turns out, though, that the aliens were us.

“It is human-made radio interference from some technology, probably on the surface of the Earth,” says

Sofia Sheikh, an astronomer at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and a co-author of both papers.

But the disturbance, detected by Breakthrough Listen — an ambitious and privately funded US$100-million effort in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) — looked intriguing enough at first that it sent astronomers on a nearly year-long quest to understand its origins.

The SETI team is now justifying the mistake by calling it good “practice” for a real detection." CMI

Creation Moment 10/28/2021 - The Problem for Evolutionists

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..  

Psalm 139:14

"A huge problem for naturalistic evolution is   

----how life with its complex coded information could have arisen spontaneously in evolution’s very first living cell.

We have previously written about how scientists have attempted to determine the simplest self-reproducing cell. This hypothetical cell was said to require a minimum of 256 genes. The problem for evolutionists is that they cannot appeal to natural selection to explain the first cell. 

--*--That’s because natural selection requires a living, reproducing cell to pass on any trait selected for! Further research in 2006 increased this figure to 387 protein-coding and 43 RNA-coding genes.

In 2016, the minimalist genome was once again increased with the creation of a synthetic self-reproducing bacterium: this time, to 473 genes (531,560 ‘letters’), including 65 whose function are unknown but which were essential for the survival of the cell. This is not much less than Mycoplasma genitalium (482 genes, 582,970 letters)—which itself is a parasite of even more complex organisms. 

Q: How then can evolutionists explain the origin of the very first self-reproducing cell? 

---It is a mathematical impossibility for just one gene to have arisen by chance—much less 473." CMI

IN the NEWS - An Even Creepier side of Lucifer [Quest for man made Immortality]

 .... bury therefore thy dead. Genesis 23:15

"Transhumanism is a futuristic religion that exalts technology as the highest power.

Prominent figures gathered at the TransVision 2021 conference in Madrid over the weekend.

Transhumanists’ goal is to merge man with machine. 

If Big Tech is the established church, transhumanists are Desert Fathers in the wilderness.

Transhumanists confess there is no God but the future Computer God. They believe neuroprosthetics will allow communion with this artificial deity. They believe robot companions should be normalized. They believe longevity tech will confer approximate immortality.

By 2045 (or 2049), we will hit the Singularity — when artificial

superintelligence surpasses human intellect to the point we cannot comprehend its output. Purely organic humans will be left in the smart dust. Our only chance for long-term survival is to fuse our minds and bodies with the All-Powerful Machine — to become a new posthuman species.

As computers advance to superintelligence, the story goes, their output will tilt toward humanity’s moral compass. Eventually, this digital deity may colonize distant galaxies — turning all usable matter into computerized mind — so our actions today might determine the fate of the entire universe.

Both transhumanists and Luddites see 24/7 reliance on smartphones as an early phase of our symbiosis with machines. An entire generation is being lost to self-pleasure.

The futurists who gathered in Madrid last weekend — along

with those preaching technocracy at the World Economic Forum — are laying the intellectual groundwork for a fully digitized social order. Today, it’s the Fourth Industrial Revolution — a global paradigm of total transformation — embraced by Microsoft, Alibaba, Sony, General Motors, Mozilla, and Salesforce, among many others. Tomorrow, the faithful proclaim, it will be artificial superintelligence, brain implants, and unstoppable killer drones." JoeAllen

Sunday Sacredness as a Form of Baalism

"International Sunday-school lesson for July 17, 1898, was “Elijah on Carmel.” The M. E. Church South publishes a weekly Illustrated Lesson Paper, devoted largely to the lesson for each successive Sunday.

In this Lesson Paper, concerning “Elijah on Carmel” we find the following, which we copy exactly as it was there printed:

CATECHISM LESSON
Question 81.—What is the fourth commandment?
Answer.—The fourth commandment is: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Ques. 82.—What does the fourth commandment forbid?
Ans.—The fourth commandment forbids us to work on the Sabbath day.
Ques. 83.—What day is the Sabbath?
Ans.—Sunday is the Sabbath.

That is precisely the way that the Baalites talked and taught in Elijah’s time. See here:

CATECHISM LESSON
Question.—What is the first commandment?
Answer.—The first commandment is: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Ques.—What does the first commandment forbid?
Ans.—The first commandment forbids us to have any god but the true God.
Ques.—What God is the true God.
Ans.—Baal is the true God.

That is a catechism lesson such as was taught by the priests of Baal in Elijah’s time. And no man can fairly deny that it is parallel in every respect with the catechism lesson here quoted bodily from the Lesson Paper of the M. E. Church South.

Setting Up a False God

The word of God in the fourth commandment, as printed in this

catechism lesson of July 17, A.D. 1898, says, plainly, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Yet directly in the face of this word, a man, or a set of men, sets up the word, “Sunday is the Sabbath;” while these men themselves know that Sunday is the first day, and not the seventh day at all.

Just so in the lesson of July 17, B.C. 898; the word of God in the first commandment said plainly that the true God was he who had brought the children of Israel “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Yet directly in the face of this word of God, men set up the word, “Baal is God;” while these men themselves knew that Baal was not he who had brought them out of Egypt." 

A.T. Jones