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CHAPTER   6

New Year's Greetings!

and what are YOU greeting, may one ask ?

News 335 ABC Radio, End of Year 2004

 

Things you would rather not see  ?

There are, perhaps, some things that few will greet. There are the new reports on radar interference in the cockpits of pilots of commercial aircraft, let's call them airliners to compare with the sea-liners of the past. Here come hundreds of people who have saved and spent to go to some place, either tourist or domestic, on business or on affairs of State.

Other people would like to see them die. It is as simple as that.

Reports on ABC radio news and elsewhere confirm not only that numbers of commercial airline pilots have reported radar effects in the cockpit, but make available the point that this is a known method of seeking to disorient, distract and so destroy the pilot and the aircraft - as far of course, as this world is concerned. Radar is beamed into their 'office' and its effects, depending on strength, may become terrorising or worse. It is possibly in the experimental stages, not of course from the nation itself, but from hidden enemies within it, presumably, near to the aircraft concerned.

It is interesting that, hate! Odious in rankness, odium at its most odoriferous, flesh at its most divorced from spiritual sanctity. Let us hear what Paul says of such things from Galatians 5:19ff..

"Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

If you or someone else should want this kind of thing, the former fruit, the negative one, and to have a life which figures in the list of hatred, contentions, jealousies, idolatry - your own unvalidated will or that of your own unvalidated choice of a 'god', for the sake of ruling this earth by letting out people's blood, or removing their heads from their shoulders, severing their necks, or keeping them captive to extort funds and the like: then of course this is of a type of conduct, as Paul explains. It has NOTHING to do with Jesus Christ.

If it is an Islamic body which commits such things, as often now happens, then that body has NOTHING to do with Jesus Christ, any more than one of the other movements of long-standing which did much the same for hundreds of years in many countries, the Roman Catholic body, has anything to do with Him. It is vain to claim that things are different now: if what you SAY you BELIEVE and INSIST that you HOLD in the MOST CENTRAL of your meetings as an international body, is to be believed, the Romanist body has not changed at all.

It declares that this so, affirms and declares explicitly with force and aplomb ALL its former councils and so on, in Vatican II. This is its way. Its face may change; its stated declarations of what it holds, do not. It is precisely these former statements such as Unam Sanctam, and their application, which have caused the loss of blood, and severance of bodily parts, or indeed rather their entire slow combustion in fires, in centuries past. Maybe the radar novelty noted above will be used in an effort to emulate the Inquisition, in its fiery aspect ? Who knows: for as to devils, their name is legion.

It is then vain to seek exemption by expressing regret for the undue use of force, in the case of this religion of Romanism, the city-centred name which is thus quite ununiversal and hence in the ordinary sense of the term, NOT catholic. For that, the author is a catholic Christian, and THEREFORE NOT Roman Catholic.

For a millenium, there has been in that religious body, an  insistence that RULE must occur both over the 'church' and nations, and that it must be maintained by the pope. Where this is demanded, and the very concept of using force at ALL to secure these ends is not rejected as blasphemous horror and folly, there is no change at all, except in diplomacy. Indeed, while such things as this are associated with the concept of Christian, and not rigorously condemned, with all the folly that brought them into being from whichever infallible popes or prelates, there is another religion altogether than that of John 18:36 and Matthew 26:52ff., where Peter was told to put up his sword.

If it be said, that every single inquisition and call, command and so on, either for nation to fight nation by the pope, or social powers to condemn and so institute the course for burning, expropriation of property, torture and so on, not incomparable in extent with that of Saddam Hussein, was an error, what then ? If it WERE so said, then where now is this infallible power, if it is not used in teaching which is supposedly just what the church needs, but does not exhibit the unutterable folly and blasphemy of such work wrought on Christians who BECAUSE of the Bible CANNOT worship bread or obey one master EXCEPT HE BE CHRIST! (Matthew 23:8-10, SMR pp. 1086ff., 1042ff.).

Peter learned not to use force it in this way, even for the defence of the LORD Himself. He learned because a) Christ told him, negating that kind of conduct in principle and b) Christ reproved him for actually fighting in this way, and healed the physical damage Peter had wrought miraculously (Matthew 26:52ff.).

Romanism did not so learn as Peter did; and indeed all of its formal Inquisitions would need to be condemned as blasphemous and atrocious impositions, crimes against humanity, and all of its worshipping of bread would need to be removed and condemned (cf. SMR pp. 1032-1088H, 1086), before any of its former follies could be called the work of Christians. The pope in his apology declared that the use of force was the work of Christians. You cannot however use this term of what the Bible abhors, or make a sacrifice out of what Christ calls a memorial, or make His body and blood out of words of which HE said, that they were SPIRIT AND LIFE (John 6), while indicating He was returning to heaven from which He came (Acts 3:19ff.).

No, there is indeed the fateful and entirely relevant and instructive parallel between these two atrocities and crimes against humanity, those of Romanism and Islam, both of which have seized or kept power with no small use of such power or the wealth thus obtained; and both of whom talk of Jesus Christ in commendatory terms, but neither in biblical terms, and neither without idolatry. ANY GOD who is not the God of the Bible is an idol, as the Bible makes so clear from the 10 commandments on (cf. Outrageous Outages ... Ch. 5).

Do you then welcome for your New Year the hatreds of Christians which is so marked that many in the ways of Islam, as formerly in those of Romanism, and still in essence in the same, though it not for the time put into practice directly, exercise such emotions and intents passionately ? Do you hold with the concept that it would be a good idea to destroy America, which unlike Islam suffers without degradation, or has done so for centuries, the free expression of the worship of Jesus Christ as the Holy and Only Redeemer, the Son of God, the giver of eternal life through the physical breach of death ? Do you agree with the idea of destroying people because they do not agree with you ?

If not, then you will not welcome Islamic violence and ferocities. It is quite vain to talk here about good and bad Moslems. Of course some do not approve, as perhaps some of the Romanists did not entirely approve of mass murder, torture and the assumption of the role of divine judge over others. This does not in the least alter the fact that just as Romanism insists on its former councils and declarations of 'state', so does Islam on its Koran which has much in this line, as terrorists may like to quote (cf. Divine Agenda Ch. 6, More Marvels ... Ch. 4). This does not condemn those who do not go along with this, but it is impossible to separate Islam from the Koran, or the Koran from such passages.

Putting parts of people at some distance from other parts is not easy to reconcile with worship of the God who made them, and uses no force to secure faith, for if He did, then the principle being in force, there would be no question of man's freedom being the cause of the pain and suffering, the evil and the outrageous. As it is, Christ made it clear that force, even to protects His own person is OUT, and that indeed in the most general principle, HIS servants do not fight concerning their kingdom, and indeed, He further intimated that it was this which made it possible for Him to be crucified.

Thus we do not look forward, myself and many of you, to a Year coming, a New Year in which in principle or in practice such violence is used to secure conformity to somebody's religion, or its reign or rule, or its totalitarian impact on society; and since it is being exported, this horrific violence, from some lands to others, then we do not look forward to a Year, a New Year in which these exports of what some call religion are occurring. In some of these countries, such violence is used to secure or impose or sustain rule, but this is an outrage against humanity, and a presumption against the evidence which attests the true and living God (cf. SMR Ch. 1, Pitter-Patter of Prophetic Feet Ch. 4, Repent or Perish Ch. 7).

He is quite well able to judge in His own day and time, when He deems it fitting; and He is in no need of making a religion a force-method of imposing what CANNOT then be faith, but only a formalised fiction and abuse of the term.

Even when, in Old Testament times, Israel, after the strongest possible endorsements and verifications, including some of the most momentous and public displays of divine power in all time in the land of Egypt (cf. The Exodus Escape), invaded a land which the Lord had revealed to require time before its 'cup of  wickedness' would be 'full' - even some centuries (Genesis 15:12ff.), there were a number of special features which divorce it from the Romanist-Islamic principle and procedure. First, it had NOTHING to do with trying to make aliens to respond to force by accepting the ways of the Lord. It was an act quite simply of divine judgment through a nation appointed in the most internationally pellucid way to do that job; and it was to be done against those who had so erred from the ways of the Creator, that their name, Canaanite, has become all but a synonym for gross carnal corruption.

It was not done in order to retain a large sector of the world for some concept of divine glory, as with the al Qaeda movement (cf. Lord of Life Ch.   8,  *1), or to make an earth in which the kingdoms would be obliged to worship according to a particular religious faith. When the Jews later joined in the false and corrupt moral and religious practices of those whom they were sent to replace, they too were given discipline, and in the end their Northern kingdom was abolished, and the Southern one, Judah, had a 70 year exile before in their crucifixion of Christ, they had one for some 1900 years. God gives in His own way for breaches of declared faith, and for appalling and sustained breach of evidence and attestations which as this site shows, are anything but open to quest ion.

It is this which is bringing in a second not so welcome part of the New Year. It is the rule of the sea being less restricted than it was. Tsunamis have now moved on Sumatra, Indonesian islands, Africa and India, yes and Thailand too, bringing tragedy and sorrow of the highest order in the sense of emotional disruption and physical commotion. If infallibly endowed Rome, able by ex cathedra, formal annunciations made a few appalling mistakes involving thousands of victims and seized lands, moneys and bodies at will, to enrich herself and her territories, directed kings in war and required action in invasions, as occurred in the Holy Roman Empire days and beyond, could not find the infallibility to spare herself these errors over the long centuries, it is appallingly obvious that such power does not reside in her. The claim is monumentally false, the methods were monumentally fraudulent and the restoration of the billions must occur at once, if repentance is to have any meaning at all.

It is vain to say that it is not clear  how this could be done. The divestment of such illicit and frankly, to be accurate, murderous gain, is a mere beginning of exhibiting any truth in the expression of regret for the use of force. Even Zacchaeus gave away much of his ill-gotten wealth as a testimony of what John the Baptist called fruits worthy of repentance. The apology of the current pope for the use of force by Christians in pursuit of the truth (cf. The Frantic Millenium ... Ch. 6 and 10), is not even to the point. What has murder to do with Christians, when it is maintained over centuries and grasping hands took wealth inconceivable for the 'church' ?

What has the pursuit of truth to do with the use of torture to inflict a viewpoint contrary to the Bible on the Christians who were insufferably persecuted!

What has the truth to do with crucifying the flesh, when it is ONE'S OWN FLESH which has rather to be crucified, and hatreds, lusts and violence are to be expunged and expurged from the service of Christ's kingdom (Galatians 5) ? Is there not a fundamental error here: Romanism has been, figuratively but nearly literally, crucifying the flesh of Christians by the thousand who believed the Bible, while they should have been crucifying their own, and not violating Christ's teaching on the forcible imposition of dogma, let alone that formed in terms of the traditions of men, quite explicitly (cf. Mark 7:7ff.).

The apology is so couched that only if Rome were right in its idolatrous doctrines erecting the pope as master in the frankest possible derogation of the express counter-claims of Christ (cf. Matthew 23:8-10), and bread for worship, could she be sorry. Whatever you SAY, bread is still bread, and if you want worship of bread about which something has been said, it is even then, still bread. It is not a physical body. That has quite different characteristics. Had the body which Christ had in view when He broke bread at the Last Supper, EXPLICITLY IN REMEMBRANCE of Him, been His very body, then of course He would have committed suicide, since His incarnation as in Hebrews 2 and Romans 8 and Philippians 2, is in the FORM OF MAN, and man as to bodies, he has but one.

Since she is as far from the ways of Christ in these doctrines as possible, and the use of a man in the divine place and his recognition in it is idolatry (cf. A Question of Gifts), then there is no apology at all in the papal terms, just as there is no change of principle in the claim for power over all (cf. SMR pp.1032ff.). In other words, the principles asserting that it is right for the pope to rule both princes and church, and that salvation is found ONLY by submission to him,  remains as clear in the former formal machinations and declarations of Romanism as ever it was, and as contrary to the Bible, the word of God, as it ever was, and the effort to have the matter of faith arbitratable by the Romanist body, is as far from allowing it as was the High Priest in the day of Peter and John, when he gave them an edict, which they violated at once.

And WHY did they so act, as seen in Acts 4 and 5 ? It was, as they told the priestly party, because they could judge for themselves whether it was better in the sight of God to obey them, or God!

It is when you follow the Bible that you find the written word of God (cf. SMR Ch. 1), not when you violate it in order to obey someone who refuses to obey the Lord in His demand that ALL the rest be as brethren, but ONLY HE, the CHRIST, eternal and sinless, should be Master.

Romanism is thus as contrary to the inviolable Gospel as ever it was  (cf. Galatians 1, 3, 5, SMR pp. 1070-1082, 1061ff., 1056ff.).

Thus in principle both the Koran and the Romanistic doctrine are still committed to various forms of claim or force or both, in the expansion of their religions.

When Rome condemns all the Papal Bulls, declaration or directives, appeals or entreaties,  which required inquisitions or wars or force over all time,

bullet declares them anti-Christian and contrary to the teaching of Christ,
 
bullet unreservedly declares regret for them as unchristian and divorced from the entire teaching of Jesus Christ,
 
bullet and acknowledging that her ways in vast terrains of conduct and dogma have been in entire violation of both the spirit and form of truth, makes express efforts to recompense for the theft of life and wealth on a vast scale:

things would be different.

However, this would be to dismantle itself, since its claim is fundamental to its existence, and only on the basis of its being right, is any sorry expressed at all. If however it WERE right, then it would be wrong to resist its endeavours!

These things came with the tsunamis, and some may not welcome them for the New Year. The same misuse of force continues in Communist China, despite her elaborate presence in the Edinburgh Tattoo this very night, January 1, 2005 (cf. Aviary of Idolatry, SMR pp. 925ff., 971-972, News 37, 69, 97), while naturalistic humanism is also in its own more subtle way employing force in its insistence on indoctrination, much in the style of Hitler youth, irrespective of its entire failure to maintain its case scientifically (cf. SMR pp. 149ff., Beauty for Ashes Ch. 3, TMR Ch. 1, Secular Myths ... Ch. 8, Delusive Drift or Divine Dynamic Ch. 3).

Now while

bullet Romanism and
bullet Islam,
bullet Communism and
bullet Naturalism*1

have become major offenders in the claim-force line, and this is long shown: 

what of the tsunamis.

You cannot blame anyone for that! someone may declare.

No, it is true, one does not blame anyone for that. However  the entire human race, to the extent it has not repented and make peace with God on HIS, the Creator's terms, it is to blame. It is not without significance that child pornography is in the ascendant in many lands, far from the tsunamis; or that in those lands, in many cases, worse than this occurs in a virtual trade in children. That is to be sure only a small part of the total provocation to God, which resembles that of Pharaoh to Israel when he would not let them go, but insisted on enslaving them and keeping them slaves, or that of Manasseh, King of Judah, in making children pass through the idolatrously conceived fires (cf. II Chronicles 33:6).

But what else ? As we wait on the Sudan massacres, and notice that the southerners are called 'rebels' in some broadcasts on this maximal horror scene, where children are reported stolen from what may be Christian homes in order to do whatever with them, make them slaves, second class citizens in the Koran mode, or sex units, and that  this sort of thing goes on for years, we conceive the fire of folly reaching in this way to heaven itself. While a peace is sought in order to enable a composite government including the realm of the assassins, where government troops are repeatedly reported to be involved in the subjugation tactics in terms of an Islamic force method: what do we think on the 'resolution' ? Work 'together for a few years' ? How nice! How nice to have had months or years of inaction in order to scrub out perhaps more than the tsunami did, of those whose faith is not liable to the FORCE methodology!

The things on this earth which call for its judgment mount far higher than any tsunami, almost to heaven itself.

As to the Sudan, then, proposed are quite a few years in which they decide whether or not they want to continue as one nation. And what in the interim ? and what in the years of interim already ? And why is Sadam Hussein so great a horror that his land is invaded, yes for this is by some in high places made a retrospective justification for the invasion of Iraq, when what happens in Sudan is given a velvet glove treatment ?

Can it have anything to do with justice ?

It is not apparent how this could be. Is it being done as a subservience to the force of violent Islamic actions, whether in this or that form of decapitation of ethics, heads or homes: so that none of the mighty in money or oil, will be offended ? Was it not the same sort of thing when one well-known Australian statesmen, from memory, declared that the reason why South Africa was being given a strong international rebuke and effort to unseat its form of government, was that it was POSSIBLE. On the contrary, it seemed to be suggested that with the then USSR (and the term 'then' shows how impossible it was NOT to treat it similarly), it was not possible. Hence ONLY South Africa received ... the treatment.

bullet Where justice is a joke, and force is kept in breach because of convenience;
 
bullet where ideals are pragmatic and principles can bend;
 
bullet where appalling horrors are routine;
 
bullet where God is being divorced from England in successive steps, the latest news of 'other religions' being involved in the prospective, potential coronation of the next Ruler;
 
bullet where pornography is obsessive;
 
bullet where violence of self-serving is accepted as a norm:

is it any wonder that the Lord, as long predicted, is indeed removing restraint from His beautifully constructed earth! He said He would do it, and He said why (cf. Revelation 9:20ff.), and yet now that He is beginning to make the point, people act as if surprised.

It was much the same, in a different direction, when Christ came as the Suffering Servant and was killed on time (cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4), so that even in his most rebellious and vexatious tyranny, man was still so foreknown by God that He even foretold WHEN it would be done, which was to be done, and what it was that would be done! (cf. Joyful Jottings 22-25).

 People acted as if it were all new, and they knew not what they did; yet it was written for a millenium, and in detail most express, for more than two thirds of that.

If man disregards God, ignores His patience, pillories His servants, relativises and disguises His Gospel*2 , mutilates his neighbour, invents religions without divine imprimatur and makes them engines of violence, misuses the name of Christ in false christs and prophets as predicted (Matthew 24:24), and altogether makes of himself and so many of his institutions and so much of his culture a writhing morass of immorality, unspirituality and ungodliness, seeking to move, even in formerly rather exceptional cases like Britain, further from Him: then is it expected that the divine One will disregard now what He did NOT disregard in the days of the Canaanites ?

Now He acts direct. Israel has both acted in its day, and suffered when it went astray in similar ways itself; but now God acts with a style which is as predicted, reminiscent of the days of Pharaoh (cf. Micah 7:15,  Member Contributions  No. 1), and this is merely the beginning. Christ Himself made it clear that the temperature of events would become hot, and that this would be a beginning of sorrows, so that if He did not directly and personally intervene, man would not because he could not continue on this earth (Matthew 24:12,22,24).

These tsunamis and allied actions as in Luke 21:25-26, like the return of the Jews to Jerusalem (as in Luke 21:24), they are simply the passing scenery as our Age Express comes near the end of its line. "The powers of the heavens will be shaken" is merely part of it, and in part it has already happened with the hydrogen bomb and its kindred, past;  and to come may be more of its kind, and more of the fulfilment.

If then these things are not looked forward to in the coming year, the New Year, yet it is not all black.

These are merely an eruption before peace. The peace is in two stages.

First there is a short , a brief 'peace' with force the method of rule as in Revelation 13 (cf.  I Thessalonians 5, Beauty for Ashes Ch. 4);

then there is the removal of the rebellion against God in judgment, delayed not this time for 400 years, but already for 1900 plus (cf. II Thessalonians 2). This is exciting and wonderful, for just as it is already obvious that the Lord as Creator is wonderful and gracious and the very source of peace and beauty where He is in fellowship with His people, on His own terms (for He does not give to sinful man the option of making his own terms!); so in that time, "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea" - and that, it is well worth waiting for! (cf. Micah 4, Isaiah 2, 11, 65; Sparkling Life ...Ch. 10).

Certainly, it is wonderful to be able to exercise faith in Him in the meantime, as a dog might be devoted to his master (and HOW wonderfully apt is the loyalty of many a dog, with a degree of understanding and faithfulness which borders on the miraculous, but is in fact a testimony in this lower form of creation, of some of the great features of the higher, in its own different way). Then it will be still more wonderful to be able to SEE IT ALL, manifest as the sun now is. To that, then, this year or sometime soon, we look forward in the New Year, this one or a not distant one.

This is more delightful than the deliverance of Europe from Hitler, after 5 years of servitude and resistance; than the end of a prison sentence in Siberia. For those, why, they operate but for a few years; but this, it has been 1900 of them. They are from this or that country's hegemony and violence; but this with which the peoples has been afflicted especially since the day of Jesus the Christ, it is from the hegemony and violence, indeed vileness of this whole world. This deliverance it is which is to come; and those who do not like slavery of spirit, but relish the reality of God and His liberty, these seek it more than those in the pulse of racial power in Hitler's day.

When the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15), then truth in the ascendant and manifest, there will be joy in manifest form, just as already it is "joy unspeakable and full of glory" (I Peter 1) in the heart of the people of the Lord. NOW it is wonderful; then, the glory will be SEEN!

Happy New Year! May His return be soon, or as Revelation terminology provides for it: Come quickly Lord Jesus!

In the meantime, ensure that your year is not a hidden one, far from His saving grace, His atonement and redemption; but receiving Him with all joy, embrace the truth, live in peace, fight the good fight which involves no violence to the bodies of others, and their liberty to ignore what is said; and be faithful.

Faithfulness, it is the sort of thing which adorns ANY year. Why not make it especially relevant for THIS ONE!

It is a new year, for Christians, in which to take heart. The escalation of vileness, violence of various kinds and the appearance much more literally and obviously of the coming judgments which herald the return of the only Redeemer, whose gift of eternal life and guarantees are entirely free (Romans 3:23ff. Titus 3-4): this is like a fever reaching crisis point. In this case, we KNOW the result: the death of this world as a governing rule of selfish autonomy and irrational irreverence, and the return of the Lord in marvellous power, such as has always been His, no more masked in the removal of sin service, but now manifest in the brilliance of majesty.

While many move further away as if the fulfilment of the conditions for His return were some kind of offence, it is time to move to Him in complete faith and absolute surrender, in trust (Luke 14:27ff.), knowing this, that such a Lord as this is not to be found in this world; and it was His removal, albeit in a predicted sacrifice, yet with odium and contempt, precisely, which has made of this world, prince-of- peace-less, to be successively and now terminally filled with false religion, vested in hate, manifest in blood.

Nor is this all. The blood, it is that of others, not its own - and lofty in arrogance, misteaching its young, and finding the results of such disfaith flung in its face as judgments mount, it continues as imperturbable as those who did not flee before the tsunami of December 26, 2005. Indeed, some in the photographs, they even appear to be running TOWARDS it!

God has been very patient. It is a good year to walk with Him, for patience is a virtue to be found with goodness and grace in Him without fail; and the terrible and the marvellous among men, self-acclaimed and proclaimed, they can have for their New Year, their terror and their wonders in their own unverified ways, all too apparent in force and unreasonableness, for themselves. The Prince of Peace is coming; and then, these rancid social failures and vacuities of religious adventurism which disadorn the earth, they will be separated from the climate and territories of life, as one separates cancerous tissue.

It is a good New Year to rejoice that the terminus of test draws near, and as you look back on centuries of the faithful: enduring much, believing and acting, fulfilling in their own day the testimony of truth in personal  meekness and the boldness of faith, it is a good year in which to join them. In what do you join them, if you will ? It is as believers in the Prince of Peace, Jesus the Christ, and as pupils in the School of Faith, so becoming part of the successive generations which walk on the road of peace, the path of gracious power and godly living, fearless of man and faithful to God, and finding them like an invisible cloud, your predecessors.

 

See for further development of this message, with scriptural exposition from Isaiah 54-55,

in the next chapter.

 

NOTE

*1

Christ used the typically delightful designation of 'leaven' for a teaching, doctrine, taught perspective or approach. Thus He told His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:12), and there was that not unusual little humour of realism which is not omitted, when they thought at first that He was referring to some incident in the bread line! However they were made aware of the actual portent of His words. It is in such ways that one perceives the homely graciousness of their relationship without adornment.

This brings out the useful point here, that in so designating this or that 'ism', we mean 'ism', and not all who use the term of themselves 'ists'. Where people are in terms of any idolatrous religion or pseudo-religion is not for a mere man to determine, though one must act on the information if the Bible so advises, as in separation (cf. Separation 1997). People can become confused, or there may be stirrings or awakenings in their hearts, earth movements where the prejudices of a life-time are the earth, so that it is normally best simply to leave their judgment to the Lord. To be sure, some become so obstreperous and demanding, that they confirm their identification, but even then, as you see in Acts where Peter tells Simon the sorcerer to pray to God if by any means he may be given repentance for his sin (Acts 8:18-25), there is hope for the end.

Where the THING ITSELF is, the 'ism', rather than the 'ist', the person, this may be found by analysing its components and applying the word of God. This one does as perforce part of the ministry of the word of  God, the Bible, in the name of Christ, in whom and for whom one has been called this half-century and more.

 

*2

See such sites as those following.

The Biblical Workman Ch. 4,

Generation of the Dispossessed,

Stepping Out for Christ, Ch. 1 and Ch. 4

Three Anzas, One Answer Ch. 5

Of the Earth, Earthy Ch. 13

 

Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch.  1  (actual);

The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith (FM)  2 (actual and commonly suggested ... antidotes); - AAA9 - glamour, stammer, hammer  ... flitter and glitter;

REF  3 (the soporific self, and the unity glide, under the sedation of sin),
FM Ch.  11 - twigs and towers;
News, Facts and Forecasts (NFF) Ch. 8 - sham, shame and co.;
NFF  13 - symphony and seditions - two heady heads,
NFF  14 - deadly d's;
Repent or Perish Ch  5 inventions in mind, gender, politics ...
(spiritual - political - economic surrealism, and reality, and various modes of escape from efficacious unity, where it belongs), and with this,
It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls Chs.  10 11,  5,  4,
News, Facts and Forecasts 13, More Marvels ... Ch.  10  (spiritual);
earth charter, religious summits and UN - CALL 11,

NFF 13,