I’ve said this many times. Evil thrives, not because of exceptional people, but because of ordinary, unexceptional people. Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “Banality of Evil”. Because of her thesis, she was ostracized by the “intellectual community.” Why would these “intellectuals” feel so insulted by her work? She was a Jew that not only studied her own religious theology, but she studied Christian theology as well. She was truly brilliant, escaped persecution and the murdering of Jews in her own country, came to the US where she became a professor, attended the Nuremberg trials and wrote the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. She was so spot on that, and this happens regularly, she was shunned by the Elites. Elites today twist her concepts to support their own muddled totalitarian ideas much like they’ve done with the New Testament or similar old and ancient texts. There are so many layers of false illusions, one can barely begin examining what truth is. But Truth is being revealed to us now more than ever. Perhaps why we’re being squeezed through the eye of the needle., it’s all coming to a head, exposed. Out of the ashes who will survive? Will it be the Psychopathic Corporatists using Communism, etc., chaos, fear and lies as their tools for success or will it be Freedom loving, Truth loving people ready to build once again strong communities, healthy families, healing medical facilities, producing healthy meats and vegetables, water and energy leading optimistic hopeful lives free of the shackles of authoritarian propagandized governments? God is powerfully, we, who are created in His image are powerful, faith, hope, optimism is powerful. The only power Evil has are what people, who are greedy, corrupt, who feel too inadequate to live honest truthful lives, give it and good people who sit back, do nothing and allow it to flourish. Are you going to choose slavery or break free and take some risks, your Faith in what is good and truthful will see you through a very chaotic and difficult time. A difficult time we all will journey through no matter which side you pick. Don’t leave future generations scratching their head wondering how on earth anyone could have allowed it to happen.
Super! Thanks! We’ve been gobsmacked by Evil. We could use a little clarity. Not much is written about evil. Modern Biblical translation has replaced the word evil with other watered down terms. Our relativistic modern philosophy has created a population that has difficulty discerning evil and have felt societal pressure to look past what they did see. Now we are living in an Inverted Era when evil is ruling and it only takes a minority to frighten and cow the rest into submission. Courage and faith, love for beauty and truth are our weapons against these evil dictates.
"By keeping silent about evil and burying it deep within so that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice frombenesth new generations."
..........and here we are!! We here in now Babylon America were all too happy to worship before our idols of material comfort, convenience and technological razzledazzle, and sexual hedonism, thinking it was going to last forever. In so doing in our overweening arrogance we kicked God, our benefactor to the curb so we could be "free" to practice unrestrained license at will. All this courtesy of our Humanist, atheistic mindset
Ask yourselves: how's this approach been working out for us so far?
How was the approach when so called Christianity was burning women at the state during the Salem witch trials? How about we start following a simple concept and see where that takes us. DO NO HARM. How difficult is that? No victim, no crime. No crime…happy all will be. But noooooo. that is too simple. We need the 10 commandments to run our lives. Problem is, who is damaged by violating the first four? Who can come to court and say he was victimized? “Revealed” religions are a problem. ALL of them.
Christianity didn’t burn women at stakes. Men (and women) masquerading as Christians did. Men (and women) misusing and manipulating the word of God did. Authentic recognition of God and Christ and what His word really says would never lead to such acts. And by removing God and his word from our society, less and less people learn what His word truly says or what true authentic Christianity really is so we have less and less people behaving under the Do No Harm mentality. We choose to listen to what other people say is right and true rather than what God actually says. It’s like how our Constitution is being misrepresented and spun to support wickedness. The Constitution itself is written well and if followed as written would serve us well. But men and women want power over other men and women and so manipulate the interpretation. Does that make our Constitution unworthy of reading or following if so many people can misrepresent it? Does that make our Constitution blameworthy for the mess we are in? No. It makes it necessary to read it even more! And to shut out the voices of others trying to tell us what it says. In the same way we should all be turning to God more and reading His word rather than listening to what others tell us it says. And this business of “looking within for truth” is hogwash. That has gotten us nowhere. We are all sinful by nature so looking within may give momentary humility but at best it is short-lived and becomes selfishness and self-preservation. Christianity teaches sacrifice, put others first, their needs and security ahead of our own. To be at peace with one another. If we all lived that way the Do No Harm would be a breeze.
So how does the average person separate who really is a Christian from those who aren’t really Christians when it comes to burning witches at the stake? What does the BIBLE say about witches? See, that’s where the problem lies. In the INTERPRETATIONS that humans have of the book.
God takes witchcraft very seriously. The penalty for practicing witchcraft under the Mosaic Law was death. The Bible tells us that “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even for guidance.” In the New Testament, “sorcery” is translated from the Greek word from which we get our word pharmacy Witchcraft and spiritism often involve the ritualistic use of magic potions and mind-controlling drugs. Using drugs can open ourselves up to the invasion of demonic spirits. Engaging in a practice or taking a substance to achieve an altered state of consciousness is a form of witchcraft.
Well, maybe both. Mind altering drugs is a far cry from Advil. LOL. And a Greek word derived from one that closely resembles witchcraft? But it really isn’t. It is derived from the Latin sortilegium, which originally meant “divination”, something that is God’s charge only and not ours. It seeks to foretell the future and gain knowledge through supernatural means. It came to mean various types of “UNAWFUL divination,” and it always meant “magic”. Magic was meant to bypass God’s divineness and sovereignty, to BE a god. To know ALL the things he knows. You could say the snake in Eden was the first to practice sorcery or witchcraft by leading others to believe they could have equal power and knowledge to God. THAT is the sin. So no, I don’t connect it with modern pharmacology at all, although …. after the travesties of Big Pharma and the medical institutions over the past four years you just might be on to something. 🤣
How do we separate who really is Christian? You shall know them by their fruits and those fruits are listed in the New Testament. Frankly burning someone at the stake does not reflect a single fruit of the spirit, so I would comfortably say anyone involved in that nonsense was not an authentic Christian.They just thought they were or acted like it for pious reasons.
Whose interpretation of the Bible is right? Well, whose interpretation of the Constitution is right? We can get close to accuracy by understanding the language when it was written, but still we disagree on its meaning. I think we all know deep down after reading something, whether it’s the Bible or the Constitution, what the truth of it really was/is. We all see the same meaning in our guts. It is whether or not that scares us or is a threat to our agenda that determines how we choose to interpret it and start to declare the meaning to others that we want it to have. Same is true of the Bible. It’s actually rather clear and easy to understand what God wants of us when you go and read it for yourself. It’s less clear when you rely on what others want you to believe it is saying. That is a threat to the majority of mankind, as even God says Himself that very few will find His way or stay on His path. Why is that? It is because we spend too much time seeking out each other’s words rather than God’s, and we get led astray. And without God’s word in our society today to counterbalance that, not only are less people threatened by His words and therefore lack much needed conviction, less people are exposed to the actual truth. If you take your own eyes off His word you fall prey to what others will have you believe. Removing God from our society was the biggest mistake we ever made.
Also, the penalty for ALL sin was death in the Old Testament ONLY. In the New Testament God sent His Son Jesus to pay that penalty for all who accepted it. So witch trials, committed after Christ, were sinful.
After 2000+ years people still misapply the Old Testament and undermine the New. And in the days of burning witches they were indeed misinterpreting their right to take another’s life for what and how, not being careful enough in their accusations, more eager to kill than to be correct, or be an example of God’s love. Did anyone deserve hanging or what not for their crimes years ago? Probably. If a self-professed witch acted in a way that took another’s life or irreparably harmed them then I might think it was just. But mankind has always been too eager to judge and execute one another.
I agree with the Bible’s explanation on “witchcraft” and “sorcery” as we commonly understand it, not from a perspective of natural medicine. It was a desire to sabotage God’s way and deny Him the glory, and to steer others away from His word and His path. To be like a God. Big no-no. I do believe it to be evil, and should be dealt with accordingly.
But in history people were looking to accuse all sorts of acts they didn’t understand or like and attribute it to “witchcraft” when a lot really wasn’t. That still happens today. Accuse someone of a radical state to silence them or remove their influence. Or just to get rid of someone you despise or who makes you uncomfortable or afraid, or threatens your agenda. Accuse them so they are ruined in the eyes of others. Think how easily people could be killed in our past for being a communist when for many they weren’t and all they did was piss off someone or threaten another regime, but that allegation was the best way to get rid of them. False accusation and the subsequent penalties are alive and well today.
Ultimately everything comes down to the intent of our inner spirit. Where is the intent coming from? It’s rarely able to be seen on the surface of things. It was Saul’s intent that led to his demise. He did not intend to keep God’s word. The “why”, the intent, most likely was the same as the intents of today: power, greed, self-importance, flirting with sin, trusting more in what we see around us rather than God Himself. Oh but hey, we removed God so now nothing is there to convict someone from within and we can fully trust each other for truth now. Riiiight….
Unfortunately, none of us were there during this period so here's my take on the naming of witches aka the burning of women - I believe they believed they were Christians doing 'God's work.' I also believe they lacked proof of 'witchcraft' which to me, is very similar to the lynching of blacks in the South and failing to bother with any proof of a crime -except again, basing their justification on hearsay - which is all they too, needed. Both burning 'witches' and the lynching of Southern blacks were sanctioned by the 'government' - of the times.
I see capitalism as the main culprit. It has grown into a controlling, mindless, and lawless entity. Trump himself began deleting laws off the books before adding new ones because it was becoming pure insanity. The problem with this was, he deliberately or carelessly eliminated some humanitarian laws to make room for more money-makers with fewer leashes. Being a skeptic, I always try to connect the dots and get to the motive to more fully understand what I'm being 'offered,' particularly, it's real cost and I'm not talking money. I believe, via capitalism, the masses are being taught not to think, not to question, just think about what the next gadget will do for you (that you were already doing yourself). Schools aren't exercising critical thinking, they're downplaying national pride, and independent thinking and most kids today are lazy, anti-social, mannerless, and basically clueless unless they're fed either a sales pitch or propaganda. In other words, our society has been taught to be obedient slaves to a thoroughly corrupt government and this has been going on for at least 3 decades now. The only thing today with worth or value, is money - at any cost.
I’ve said this many times. Evil thrives, not because of exceptional people, but because of ordinary, unexceptional people. Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “Banality of Evil”. Because of her thesis, she was ostracized by the “intellectual community.” Why would these “intellectuals” feel so insulted by her work? She was a Jew that not only studied her own religious theology, but she studied Christian theology as well. She was truly brilliant, escaped persecution and the murdering of Jews in her own country, came to the US where she became a professor, attended the Nuremberg trials and wrote the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. She was so spot on that, and this happens regularly, she was shunned by the Elites. Elites today twist her concepts to support their own muddled totalitarian ideas much like they’ve done with the New Testament or similar old and ancient texts. There are so many layers of false illusions, one can barely begin examining what truth is. But Truth is being revealed to us now more than ever. Perhaps why we’re being squeezed through the eye of the needle., it’s all coming to a head, exposed. Out of the ashes who will survive? Will it be the Psychopathic Corporatists using Communism, etc., chaos, fear and lies as their tools for success or will it be Freedom loving, Truth loving people ready to build once again strong communities, healthy families, healing medical facilities, producing healthy meats and vegetables, water and energy leading optimistic hopeful lives free of the shackles of authoritarian propagandized governments? God is powerfully, we, who are created in His image are powerful, faith, hope, optimism is powerful. The only power Evil has are what people, who are greedy, corrupt, who feel too inadequate to live honest truthful lives, give it and good people who sit back, do nothing and allow it to flourish. Are you going to choose slavery or break free and take some risks, your Faith in what is good and truthful will see you through a very chaotic and difficult time. A difficult time we all will journey through no matter which side you pick. Don’t leave future generations scratching their head wondering how on earth anyone could have allowed it to happen.
Great response. Check this one out…https://www.courageouslion.us/p/problem-psychopathic-control-freaks
Super! Thanks! We’ve been gobsmacked by Evil. We could use a little clarity. Not much is written about evil. Modern Biblical translation has replaced the word evil with other watered down terms. Our relativistic modern philosophy has created a population that has difficulty discerning evil and have felt societal pressure to look past what they did see. Now we are living in an Inverted Era when evil is ruling and it only takes a minority to frighten and cow the rest into submission. Courage and faith, love for beauty and truth are our weapons against these evil dictates.
"By keeping silent about evil and burying it deep within so that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice frombenesth new generations."
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Private Hudson : "That’s it, man. Game over, man. Game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now?"
Dutch : “You can’t win this Dillon.”
Dillon : “Maybe I can get even.”
—Predator
Even, that's how I'm thinking!
* from beneath
..........and here we are!! We here in now Babylon America were all too happy to worship before our idols of material comfort, convenience and technological razzledazzle, and sexual hedonism, thinking it was going to last forever. In so doing in our overweening arrogance we kicked God, our benefactor to the curb so we could be "free" to practice unrestrained license at will. All this courtesy of our Humanist, atheistic mindset
Ask yourselves: how's this approach been working out for us so far?
How was the approach when so called Christianity was burning women at the state during the Salem witch trials? How about we start following a simple concept and see where that takes us. DO NO HARM. How difficult is that? No victim, no crime. No crime…happy all will be. But noooooo. that is too simple. We need the 10 commandments to run our lives. Problem is, who is damaged by violating the first four? Who can come to court and say he was victimized? “Revealed” religions are a problem. ALL of them.
Christianity didn’t burn women at stakes. Men (and women) masquerading as Christians did. Men (and women) misusing and manipulating the word of God did. Authentic recognition of God and Christ and what His word really says would never lead to such acts. And by removing God and his word from our society, less and less people learn what His word truly says or what true authentic Christianity really is so we have less and less people behaving under the Do No Harm mentality. We choose to listen to what other people say is right and true rather than what God actually says. It’s like how our Constitution is being misrepresented and spun to support wickedness. The Constitution itself is written well and if followed as written would serve us well. But men and women want power over other men and women and so manipulate the interpretation. Does that make our Constitution unworthy of reading or following if so many people can misrepresent it? Does that make our Constitution blameworthy for the mess we are in? No. It makes it necessary to read it even more! And to shut out the voices of others trying to tell us what it says. In the same way we should all be turning to God more and reading His word rather than listening to what others tell us it says. And this business of “looking within for truth” is hogwash. That has gotten us nowhere. We are all sinful by nature so looking within may give momentary humility but at best it is short-lived and becomes selfishness and self-preservation. Christianity teaches sacrifice, put others first, their needs and security ahead of our own. To be at peace with one another. If we all lived that way the Do No Harm would be a breeze.
So how does the average person separate who really is a Christian from those who aren’t really Christians when it comes to burning witches at the stake? What does the BIBLE say about witches? See, that’s where the problem lies. In the INTERPRETATIONS that humans have of the book.
God takes witchcraft very seriously. The penalty for practicing witchcraft under the Mosaic Law was death. The Bible tells us that “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even for guidance.” In the New Testament, “sorcery” is translated from the Greek word from which we get our word pharmacy Witchcraft and spiritism often involve the ritualistic use of magic potions and mind-controlling drugs. Using drugs can open ourselves up to the invasion of demonic spirits. Engaging in a practice or taking a substance to achieve an altered state of consciousness is a form of witchcraft.
From https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-witchcraft.html
I’m not saying I agree, BUT, that is another view, isn’t it? So who is right? You or these folks?
Well, maybe both. Mind altering drugs is a far cry from Advil. LOL. And a Greek word derived from one that closely resembles witchcraft? But it really isn’t. It is derived from the Latin sortilegium, which originally meant “divination”, something that is God’s charge only and not ours. It seeks to foretell the future and gain knowledge through supernatural means. It came to mean various types of “UNAWFUL divination,” and it always meant “magic”. Magic was meant to bypass God’s divineness and sovereignty, to BE a god. To know ALL the things he knows. You could say the snake in Eden was the first to practice sorcery or witchcraft by leading others to believe they could have equal power and knowledge to God. THAT is the sin. So no, I don’t connect it with modern pharmacology at all, although …. after the travesties of Big Pharma and the medical institutions over the past four years you just might be on to something. 🤣
How do we separate who really is Christian? You shall know them by their fruits and those fruits are listed in the New Testament. Frankly burning someone at the stake does not reflect a single fruit of the spirit, so I would comfortably say anyone involved in that nonsense was not an authentic Christian.They just thought they were or acted like it for pious reasons.
Whose interpretation of the Bible is right? Well, whose interpretation of the Constitution is right? We can get close to accuracy by understanding the language when it was written, but still we disagree on its meaning. I think we all know deep down after reading something, whether it’s the Bible or the Constitution, what the truth of it really was/is. We all see the same meaning in our guts. It is whether or not that scares us or is a threat to our agenda that determines how we choose to interpret it and start to declare the meaning to others that we want it to have. Same is true of the Bible. It’s actually rather clear and easy to understand what God wants of us when you go and read it for yourself. It’s less clear when you rely on what others want you to believe it is saying. That is a threat to the majority of mankind, as even God says Himself that very few will find His way or stay on His path. Why is that? It is because we spend too much time seeking out each other’s words rather than God’s, and we get led astray. And without God’s word in our society today to counterbalance that, not only are less people threatened by His words and therefore lack much needed conviction, less people are exposed to the actual truth. If you take your own eyes off His word you fall prey to what others will have you believe. Removing God from our society was the biggest mistake we ever made.
Also, the penalty for ALL sin was death in the Old Testament ONLY. In the New Testament God sent His Son Jesus to pay that penalty for all who accepted it. So witch trials, committed after Christ, were sinful.
After 2000+ years people still misapply the Old Testament and undermine the New. And in the days of burning witches they were indeed misinterpreting their right to take another’s life for what and how, not being careful enough in their accusations, more eager to kill than to be correct, or be an example of God’s love. Did anyone deserve hanging or what not for their crimes years ago? Probably. If a self-professed witch acted in a way that took another’s life or irreparably harmed them then I might think it was just. But mankind has always been too eager to judge and execute one another.
I agree with the Bible’s explanation on “witchcraft” and “sorcery” as we commonly understand it, not from a perspective of natural medicine. It was a desire to sabotage God’s way and deny Him the glory, and to steer others away from His word and His path. To be like a God. Big no-no. I do believe it to be evil, and should be dealt with accordingly.
But in history people were looking to accuse all sorts of acts they didn’t understand or like and attribute it to “witchcraft” when a lot really wasn’t. That still happens today. Accuse someone of a radical state to silence them or remove their influence. Or just to get rid of someone you despise or who makes you uncomfortable or afraid, or threatens your agenda. Accuse them so they are ruined in the eyes of others. Think how easily people could be killed in our past for being a communist when for many they weren’t and all they did was piss off someone or threaten another regime, but that allegation was the best way to get rid of them. False accusation and the subsequent penalties are alive and well today.
Ultimately everything comes down to the intent of our inner spirit. Where is the intent coming from? It’s rarely able to be seen on the surface of things. It was Saul’s intent that led to his demise. He did not intend to keep God’s word. The “why”, the intent, most likely was the same as the intents of today: power, greed, self-importance, flirting with sin, trusting more in what we see around us rather than God Himself. Oh but hey, we removed God so now nothing is there to convict someone from within and we can fully trust each other for truth now. Riiiight….
Unfortunately, none of us were there during this period so here's my take on the naming of witches aka the burning of women - I believe they believed they were Christians doing 'God's work.' I also believe they lacked proof of 'witchcraft' which to me, is very similar to the lynching of blacks in the South and failing to bother with any proof of a crime -except again, basing their justification on hearsay - which is all they too, needed. Both burning 'witches' and the lynching of Southern blacks were sanctioned by the 'government' - of the times.
You are slaves to whoever you give your self to be servant to
Love me some Lysander.
I see capitalism as the main culprit. It has grown into a controlling, mindless, and lawless entity. Trump himself began deleting laws off the books before adding new ones because it was becoming pure insanity. The problem with this was, he deliberately or carelessly eliminated some humanitarian laws to make room for more money-makers with fewer leashes. Being a skeptic, I always try to connect the dots and get to the motive to more fully understand what I'm being 'offered,' particularly, it's real cost and I'm not talking money. I believe, via capitalism, the masses are being taught not to think, not to question, just think about what the next gadget will do for you (that you were already doing yourself). Schools aren't exercising critical thinking, they're downplaying national pride, and independent thinking and most kids today are lazy, anti-social, mannerless, and basically clueless unless they're fed either a sales pitch or propaganda. In other words, our society has been taught to be obedient slaves to a thoroughly corrupt government and this has been going on for at least 3 decades now. The only thing today with worth or value, is money - at any cost.
What do you mean by this:
or mortgage them to the hilt.
Become "ungovernable".