Jesus was and is a divinely appointed, planned and proven messenger of the good news that eternity is for real, it awaits each of us despite the ugliness of our present circumstances on this earth. Eternity is our universal positive final destination. Further, he encouraged us to welcome this eternity by now putting into action the fundamental principle of eternity, namely the respect or love for all of life. We all have a final destiny in God!
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
President Biden’s America is sick unto death. Forget COVID. America is now sick for the following reasons. 1. We are now a Godless country. 2. Politics is about spreading the next big lie for the next news cycle. 3. Political power is the new economy. 4. A politics that promotes self-interest as a tool to build a constituency is promoting eventual doom for all. 5. Sick leadership begets the spawning of sick voters. Congratulations Joe.
Another great
politic of history, began as a small democracy in Italy in the 6th century
BC and began expanding into the 3rd century BC. As it expanded beyond the Italian border it
ceased to value democracy, rather, the people chose to be ruled by one man, the
all-powerful Emperor. The empire quickly
expanded through the know Mediterranean world and enjoyed two hundred years of
prosperity and growth, then divisions within and without gave way to three hundred
years of chaos, decline, defeat and dismemberment. The history of these last
three hundred years of the Roman Empire are not pretty with failing leadership
and a populace obsessed with the blood sports.
In totality, the empire lasted five hundred years.
America is at a similar crossroad in our history. We began as a rare bird in this world, the democracy established in 1776 and 245 years later we are looking down over the cliff that can only lead to disaster for all, every man, women and child. It is simplistic to blame our leaders for the coming carnage because too a large extent, political leaders gain and maintain their control by offering but never extending to the people the security and goodies the people want. The people are easily duped. Like catnip dangling on a string, the power hungry manipulators turn the ignorant masses and against their own best self interest, real democracy, not the fake version touted by the power hungry Democrats.
The easily manipulated folks are us!
G.Goslaw
Landers. CA
Chucky Shumer, the Democratic Senator from New York and majority leader in the Senate, says that it is time for bold change in America! Change you say? What is your real motive for change Mr. Shumer? You don't care about progressive ideology, you have sat in Washington for four decades, suddenly you are a spokesman for the new political winds for change. We don't buy it! You are a political chameleon, changing your spots as you divorce your agenda from any concern for all Americans, not just the new guys. In our time, your sudden rebirth as a progressive socialist says that your first concern is for Democratic political power, regardless of the costs that you dump on we 75 million. There was a time not long ago when politicians at least mouthed a loyalty to country above party. Where has the loyal opposition gone?
The new agenda from the radical left is a very old agenda. The radicals are pushing upon us an autocracy, a body politic that rears it's ugly head in many forms. Simply put, it is the top down rule by the political elites or one elitist, over the lives of we little people, which means to the elites, all the people. The power hungry elitists of our American moment are the Democrats, primarily the Democratic Party leaders such as Chucky. Their only agenda is to change America into their fiefdom, where the sole viable political party has absolute control over the people. I will not bore you with examples from history and the present worldwide conflicts but America has been the body politic, that has had the most success at avoiding such top down authoritarian control. That is, until 2020.
Now, in Schumer's changed America, after cheating their way into power by insisting on no name voters in the wake of the China virus, the new politics of our time is taking drastic actions to cement their control. Cementing control is best achieved, in their world, by making America Poor. They say to themselves, governmental control of our national means of production should do the trick. The new American "elitists" shall decide or authorize economic winners and losers, as long as they pay their fair share to the government and pledge allegiance. People of both parties, Democrat and Republican, wake up, you have been duped. As an example that will foreshadow the future, don't you see how Democratic leadership has twisted the Covid 19 response in so many Democratic states? The biggest lie of the 21st century is, "we are all in this together"! No way! The government decides who will be paid to sit at home and who will have their lives destroyed economically by closing only certain businesses.
Flooding our country with the very poor illegal "refuge seekers" is plan "B". These folk will surely repay national openness with their votes to Democrats well into the future, so goes the Democratic elites playbook. It is of no concern to the elites that an invasion of the poor and uneducated will bloat our welfare system and drive down the wages of working people. Our taxes will skyrocket as we all become poor, except of course, those of us who are feeding on the government. Can an open borders policy be anything other than another Democratic ploy to Make America Poor and thereby make opposition to the government nigh unto impossible? To those simplistic voters who voted for Biden in 2020, to those voters who believe an open border will not affect them, the Democrats and their trickle down poverty economics will come for you next!
Then there is plan "C". Socialism as the ultimate authority in our lives is only popular among the few. To gain and perpetuate socialist control, the power brokers must paint themselves as the good guys while painting anyone who disagrees with them as evil conspirators to be feared. Their reliance on childish name calling, character assassination, racial warfare, class warfare and income inequality are a natural fit for scaring big questions out of a dubious populace. The deployment of 20.000 troops in Washington also sends the same ready message. Soon the threats will escalate to enforcement, fines, imprisonment or the Schumer agenda may employ poisoning as they do in Russia. Who, pray tell, are the extremists? Are our free speech advocates really the extremists?
How about plan "D"? The Schumer, Democratic Party, Socialist plan is to trash our traditional democratic priorities, the American Constitution and our national elections. America now smells! The Constitution has been under attack for decades, particularly since Roe verses Wade. Our new elites care not to understand the priorities of the Constitutional Congress, only to make adjustments and additions to fit their social and political norms. Anyway, the Constitution is irrelevant, so they say, a mere ancient text written by and for a bunch of racists, how can it be valuable? So goes the new leftist rational, to them, tradition is an evil to be purged.
As unjust as this change may be, as tragic as it is, the Schumer agenda for change is working and America will probably be doomed to wallow in the feces of a totalitarian autocracy forever. Gone are the priorities of our ancestors who prized liberty above all else!
G. Goslaw
Landers, CA
Critics of universalism espouse three arguments used to silence anyone who should believe in something other than the religious heaven and hell scenario. These arguments are primarily misunderstandings of what they think is being said. The first argument is that universalism is not biblical. This argument can only be arrived at by avoiding the totality of scripture to focus on a few passages that, rightly understood by the religious powers that be, give a distorted picture of eternity. Bluntly, these folk are guilty of lazy reading of the Bible. This is not entirely the fault of the people in the pew on Sunday but is a result of the proof texting that goes on in the pulpit. A verse or a phrase easily becomes a junping off point for a religious tirade.
The second argument is that universalism is anti God when nothing can be further from the truth. A universalist believes in a bigger God than the kinder garden understandings of eternity given to us by the Church. How big is your God? Is your God as big as infinite space with it's billions of solar systems ever changing? Why is the spiritual expectation to forgive regardless of the offense here on earth but God will punish most of us with brimstone and fire for an eternity? The religious answer is that God is a just God and this God must punish we wicked ones but it just doesn't square with reality. Is the blessing of life some kind of test to qualify for a positive eternal future? If this is your understanding of eternity, no one on earth nor in the Bible ever passed that test. We all are the most miserable.
The third misunderstanding is that universalism dethrones Jesus Christ as a religious icon. This is a valid criticism of universalism but inadequate. Religions and the many religious icons are merely second rate to the magnificence of eternity. Who was Jesus, you ask? Jesus was a God chosen messenger and prophet of eternity who appeared among us at the appointed hour. This messenger preached to us about the God of eternity, accomplished miracles and was raised to eternal life, confirming his message. For the first three hundred years after the resurrection, this Jesus was not labeled by any believer as a religious icon. Jesus only led us and them toward eternity.
One man's opinion.
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
All are flawed, some more than others but we are all flawed, right? Therefore, if there is a God, eternity is the fix for all. The theft and eating of the apple in the Garden of Eden, is a biblical story giving legs to an obvious fact of human life, a fact we all share. Being banished from the forever garden or being born to human parents is one and the same, a separation from ultimate, eternal values and a death sentence. A separation and sentence we all share, therefore, we all will be ultimately fixed by the power of eternity. This I so believe.
Religion is
a pill to relieve our lost or flawed symptoms but is powerless to change or fix
our selfish human nature which is bound to each individual in this life. From garden to grave, our human nature is to
kill, expressed in all manner of ill will toward others, our personal or
corporate enemies. Violence and the need to destroy, it is who we are. “If I don’t get my way or if I am hungry or if
I must defend myself, I will kill to get what is desired.” That is what we say in our innermost souls
while we vehemently deny this compulsion from the housetops. Those who deny the
loudest seem to be, if truth were told, the most culpable. Yes, this is relative culpability but we are
all culpable to some degree, in some measure, in our thought patterns and/or daily
practice (Sermon on the Mount).
Jesus and universalism.