Defenders Of The Earth

Hit & Run Commentary #152

In regards to the Plague, those without medical credentials are being threatened to stay in their lane in that they are not to question public health decrees. That being the case, those schooled in the medical sciences and not economics or business should stay out of that lane in regards to evictions.

It is threatened that those unwilling to submit themselves as human petri dishes on behalf of the great experiment in planetary pharmacology should be forced to pay as much as $100 per month more in insurance premiums. Very well then. Those funds can come from the discretionary income the unvaccinated will no longer be allowed to spend in assorted unnecessary venues such as restaurants, movie theaters, gymnasiums, and concert venues. If worse comes to worst, just divert funds to pay for your insurance that would have otherwise gone to churches that have not done squat to speak out against these pending deprivations of liberty and in many instances intellectually abetted them.

A county pamphlet on taxation instructs that the window for in person payment will be reopened on 8/30/21. However, cash will no longer be accepted. It will no doubt be claimed such a policy change is necessary in light of the Plague. But aren’t physical checks as likely to be contaminated by pathogens as paper currency? Maybe if taxes weren’t so high, there would be far fewer bills necessary to settle one’s debt.

New York is considering paying people not to commit crimes. Will that include those that refuse to relent to the Plague cult alchemy who engage in acts of destructive civil disobedience for having been barred from entering an establishment?

Can it be explained to me how the following is philosophically consistent? An online theologian has criticized someone who has not taken the plague alchemy for a variety of religious reasons as an anti-science cultist who dares to question the expertise of credentialed medical professionals. But this very same theologian that has no more medical background than his associate that has not taken the Plague alchemy and has probably reflected less on the nature of science than the associate declining the dubious elixir now hints at refusing to concede to additional pharmacological intervention of the very same sort advocated by the medical experts he was initially heralding as intellectually unassailable. If you took the filth the first time, why are you backing out on an additional round of this concoction unless you had an allergic reaction?

Science, vaunted as an infallible magisterium by authoritarian technocrats, concedes that those relenting to the Plague Cult elixir are also capable of spreading the sacred pathogen. So why shouldn’t they also be subjected to compulsory testing requirements like those refusing to acquiesce to alchemical modification?

It was said in a sermon that, if a missionary faces hindrances to the spread of the Gospel, the blame is to be pinned on the lack of prayer on the part of mere pewfillers. Isn’t it enough that the mendicants guilt-trip the rest of us for money or to denigrate the American way of life in favor of Third Worldism? Why isn’t it that the answer to the prayer is not perhaps “ no” or later”?

Faith Promise Missions. Because even after you have tithed, Fundamentalist Baptists still aren’t done with the financial shakedown. And it’s not enough that you might slip a little something else in the plate occasionally, they want a record of it beforehand.

One of the local churches that I regularly monitor for intelligence gathering purposes announced in an email that September 12 will be celebrated as “All Nations Sunday”. Given that this is the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, one would think time would be better spent reflecting upon the threats to America and the dangers posed by errant world religions instead of globalist kumbaya dreck with the ultimate purposes of looking down upon the United States. It is announced that there will be music and Scripture reading in other languages. If I want that waste of time, I’ll attend a holy roller Pentacostal or charismatic congregation. Cultural attire is also being encouraged. As such, if someone is from the deep south, will they be allowed to sing “Dixie”, “Carry Me Back To Old Virginny” or even “Maryland, My Maryland” while wearing a Confederate uniform?

If hair restoration medication can result in sexual dysfunction, doesn’t that undermine the main reason for wanting hair restored in the first place?

Breonna Taylor’s portrait now hangs in the Smithsonian. A century hence when historians discover that she was not flawless in her every utterance and life’s choice, does that mean this work of art will be removed when philosophical and ideological preferences swing back the other way?

In his six point oration no doubt in homage of the Beast, the Autarch urged businesses to deny economic opportunities and services to those that have failed to incorporate Plague Cult Alchemy into their underlying biological essence. Yet the Autarch promised funds to businesses that fall upon financial hardships during these trying times. One reason for such hardships could be the result of denying services to those that have simply embraced the Reaganite admonition to just say “No” in regards to substances they don’t want to take into their bodies. Such economic intervention to circumvent the inscrutable workings of the Invisible Hand has nothing to do with the free market but is the epitome of fascism.

And you think the Capitol Kerfuffle was an upheaval? Just wait until people are not permitted to work and thus acquire the necessities of existence over their failure to relent to tyrannical regime decrees.

A church in an area that is about as “urbanized” as you can get (complete with the desire to be off the streets before nightfall over concern of befalling a crime) has announced a harvest festival because “We don’t celebrate Halloween.” Technically isn’t the “Harvest festival” Thanksgiving? Yet the leaders of this congregation apparently had no issue with embracing Black Lives Matter. There was nary a word in condemnation of the looting.  In fact, the Pastor remarked White property because it was owned by Whites should be surrendered to Blacks for simply being Black. Nearly a year and a half later, I am still waiting for a reply from the Caucasoid octagenarian Head Deacon who dismissed my concerns and never responded when the church would be sponsoring a White Lives Matter march or join with Roman Catholics in pro-life outreach.

President Biden made it clear that his patience with those resisting the admonition to acquiesce to Plague Cult Alchemy is wearing thin. Yet the Autarch never did scrounge up the appropriate levels of Geritol necessary to direct a similar degree of chastisement at the subversive destruction at the hands of Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

Forbidding people to provide for themselves over a difference of opinion that violates no actual promulgated law is what often causes regimes to collapse. Such is simply a truth of history. Now you see why so many statues were removed in order to prevent minds from reflecting upon the lessons derived from that discipline.

When asked about alchemical mandates, Comrade Fauci reflected upon what he considered the Autarch’s moderate ultimatum. The nation’s most highly-paid civil servant let it be known that if up to him it would be vaccinate or not. Any journalist worthy of that profession’s designation would now be asking what is to happen to those that do not.

It was said in a sermon on Christianity and Community that the greatest threat to a harmonious community is not political differences. Rather it is pride. It was admonished that one must lower one’s sense of pride in order to achieve such a desired state of social existence. We are well beyond simply being a Republican or a Democrat.  So just how chummy beyond detached respectful distance are we to get with those now insisting that property should be looted from you because you happen to be part of a maligned majoritarian demographic or that you should be denied employment and even sustenance as a result of failing to support yourself over failing to subject yourself to a particular biochemical injection?

Apparently if a missionary “comes off the field”, it is our fault in that we did not pray enough for them. How do we not know that this coming in is not a calling of God leading their lives in another vocational direction?

Apparently God isn’t smart or powerful enough to correct a missionary’s problems without us telling Him about them in prayer.

The Border Patrol is expected to forgo the use of horses since these mounts give agents an advantage over those which laws are being enforced. As such, should the Secret Service be required to relinquish the use of armored SUV’s in protection of the President?

Regime minister of propaganda Jen Psaki remarked in reply to an inquiry that illegal migrants do not need to be vaccinated or show proof attesting to such because border violators supposedly have no intent of remaining in the country for any length of time. But could not the same be said of the unvaccinated seeking entrance into venues where they are banned in dictatorial jurisdictions such as New York City?

Australian autocrats are warning that, once Plague Lockdown ends, those not having relented to alchemical elixirs will still be subjected to punitive isolation measures. Here is the thing. If you are still tyrannized under comprehensive micromanagement of your existence for any reason, lockdown really hasn’t ended. Propagandists have merely altered the terminology to describe the situation and to manipulate the gullible into going along with perennial enslavement.

The media insists upon emphasizing those mangled by the Third World Pestilence in order to frighten the masses into compliance with the Plague Cult Elixir. In one press conference, the Governor of Virginia detailed how the process of intubation is akin to having a garden hose shoved down your throat. Do these propagandists also intend horrify and astound with accounts of festered, oozing genitals in order to warn of the dangers of STD’s?

Former legislator and now propagandist Harold Ford, Jr. on The Five was just about cheering over individuals having lost their jobs over refusing to acquiesce to Plague Cult alchemy.  He giddily announced decisions have consequences. Hopefully a number of these will be the financial crippling of businesses that so easily turn in a tyrannical fashion on otherwise dutiful employees. If Ford is so concerned about decisive responses to errant behavior, does he intend to stand at the forefront of those calling for the stern punishment of Antifa and Black Lives Matter acts of terrorism?

Regime propagandists are attempting to assure those inclined towards individual liberty that average Americans have no reason to be concerned over proposals for the IRS to more closely monitor personal bank accounts. It is claimed the thresholds to trigger this surveillance will be increased from $600 to $10,000. But have most forgotten that it is already a crime to purposefully limit the amount of economic transactions for the purposes of evading revenuer scrutiny? A bigger fuss was made that former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert might have done this than that he might have molested students during his tenure as an educator.

A supply chain crisis has resulted in part over deadbeats refusing to work and vaccine mandates echoing the Mark of the Beast pushing out of the workplace those willing to labor but who refuse to submit to the alchemical violation of their bodies. In response, the Atlantic Monthly is encouraging Americans to cut back on unnecessary purchases. Foremost among those would no doubt rank subscriptions to the Atlantic Monthly.

By Frederick Meekins

Transhumanist Faction Embraces The Borg Imperative To Impose Quality Upon All Life

Transhumanist Faction Embraces The Borg Imperative To Impose Quality Upon All Lifehttps://t.co/UvtxVjQ02Q

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 24, 2025

Naked Lunatic Frolics In Rubber Dinghy

Naked Lunatic Frolics In Rubber Dinghyhttps://t.co/5qFHOkNH1G

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 24, 2025

Bischoff & Hogan Launch New Wrestling Promotion

Bischoff & Hogan Launch New Wrestling Promotionhttps://t.co/rRo3KB3LQN

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 24, 2025

The Psychological Warfare Of Extraterrestrial Contact

The Psychological Warfare Of Extraterrestrial Contacthttps://t.co/U8T6JALvJ9

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 24, 2025

Pyromaniac Jihadist Accused Of Torching Nearly A Dozen Police Cruisers

Pyromaniac Jihadist Accused Of Torching Nearly A Dozen Police Cruisers

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 6:43 PM

Does King Charles Abuse The Garden Staff?

Does King Charles Abuse The Garden Staff?

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM

Apollo Astronaut Embraces Ancient Aliens Hypothesis

Apollo Astronaut Embraces Ancient Aliens Hypothesis

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 6:40 PM

Will Conservatism Be Infiltrated By Transhumanist Subversives?

Will Conservatism Be Infiltrated By Transhumanist Subversives?

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 6:39 PM

The New Apostolic Reformation: The Rise Of New Spirituality

Interdimensional Aliens Are Real Top UFO Disclosure Experts Reveal

The Alien Control Grid Is Real

Grieving The Life You Didn’t Get

Remembering John Warwick Montgomery

Is Liberal Woman Upset She Lost Male Friend Or Access To His Resources?

Why You Should Study Apologetics

Women Outraged The Good Men They’ve Ignored For Years Now Returning The Favor

Is Your Church Becoming A Cult?: Four Flag You Can’t Ignore

What Are Concordant Believers?

How the INFJ Mind Works: A Deep Dive into the Rarest Personality Type

Reinvention After 50 with Seth Godin: Make Life Your Best Work of Art

Why Study Theology & Psychology?

American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. A conversation with Diana Walsh Pasulka

Be Being Filled: Ephesians 5:17-21

Arise Children Of Light: Ephesians 5:8-14

English Majors and Journalism Careers

AI Aliens Exist: What You Need To Know & How To Prepare

Who Was Steve Ditko?

The Secret To Reinventing Life After 50

How Will Space Exploration Reshape Religion?

Patriotic Birdhouse

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by F.B. Meekins (@issacharinstitute)

Would Average American Get By With Wading In Rock Creek?

A photo is circulating of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. wading in Rock Creek in Washington, DC.

This recreational moment was deemed newsworthy because this otherwise picturesque body of water is noted for its fecal and bacterial contamination.

As such, the National Park Service forbids physical contact with these waters.

The regulation raises a number of questions.

On the TV series “Northwoods Law”, game wardens are depicted trolling social media for photos of incidents depicting violations of assorted laws in relation to natural resources.

Such images are apparently sufficient evidentiary witness to at least get a fine levied against the alleged perpetrator.

Such statutes are as much about revenue generation as anything else.

It seems one can be fined for dipping in the waters of Rock Creek Park.

The punishment is for one’s own good of course.

As such, why shouldn’t Robert Kennedy be subjected to such an assessment when a similar snapshot of any other family enjoying nature in the same manner could be used to penalize them financially

By Frederick Meekins

To What Extent Will Digital Eugenics Cull The Human Species?

To What Extent Will Digital Eugenics Cull The Human Species?https://t.co/JXqLjknQHO

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 17, 2025

Newsom Called Out As Plague Cult Tyrant

Newsom Called Out As Plague Cult Tyranthttps://t.co/H22nAv5E8a

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 17, 2025

French Jurisprudence Grapples With Quandary If That Nation’s First Lady Actual Born A Dude

French Jurisprudence Grapples With Quandary If That Nation’s First Lady Actual Born A Dudehttps://t.co/rTkhY7ZmEs

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 17, 2025

Are Extraterrestrials Sniffing Through Earth’s Electromagnetic Leakage?

Are Extraterrestrials Sniffing Through Earth’s Electromagnetic Leakage?

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM

Christian Response To Transhumanism

Christian Response To Transhumanism

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM

Astrotopia: The Religion of Space Exploration

For someone that is so opposed to the mutilatization of landscapes in order to produce mere stuff, isn’t it mere stuff in the form of technology that enables her to spew her ruminations across the Internet?

Is not like she is merely rambling to pedestrians crossing the street.

Interesting how the host so despises America and White people that he does nothing to counter her pantheism insisting that humans are of no greater value than viruses and fungi.

Yet I would wager she was still a fanatic plague cult alchemical enthusiast.

“Things have been going bad since the anthropocene.”

She’s probably not had a physical job in her life.

Doubt she’s the type that would survive very long in a hunter/gatherer economy.

This propaganda is so bent on the destruction of Western civilization that it possesses hardly any rational consistency.

No worldview better than any other but we are obligated to pander to “indigenous wisdom” (the PC term for primitive superstition).

By Frederick Meekins

Why Christians Should Write Stories

How G.K. Chesterton Converted C.S. Lewis

Artificial Intelligence Is Becoming God: The Rise of Transhumanism (returning to telepathy, Darwinism, & CERN)

The Charismatic Cult Of Emotion

Are these disturbed by this as profound moral thinkers or that they have lost access to these men’s material resources?

Boys Called A Waste Of Space If They Don’t Serve Women & The State

Installment Of F.I.R.E Study Series Illuminates Epistle To The Ephesians

In today's world of megachurch entertainment complexes, many featured exegetes phone in their pulpit responsibility in favor of jumbotron concerts and orations that at best give only glancing reference to the Word of God.

Such is not the case with Pastor Dr. Ken Burge, Sr. who brings a balance of deep reflection to the Biblical narrative as actually presented as divine revelation within its original linguistic and socio-historical contexts as well as how it applies to the Christian living here in the contemporary world.

Rev. Burge delivers this same sense of pastoral care in “Paul's Letter To The Ephesians On F.I.R.E: Apprehending & Applying God's Timeless Truths”.

This volume is part of his ongoing life's opus of construing various books of the Bible through a systematized study summarized by the acronym F.I.R.E..

This methodology consists of Familiarity (a knowledge of the text derived from intimacy with God), Interpretation (based upon a trinitarian understanding focused on Christ), Relationship (treating the Bible with a respect that goes beyond a mere thing to appreciate the text as a source of authentic power), and Employment (the process where students takes these truths that they have learned and incorporate them to their own lives).

In terms of the books of the Bible, none is more suited to this approach than the epistle of Ephesians. 

 Directly addressing the struggles and concerns of the early believers of Ephesus, one of the primary cultural centers of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean, Dr. Burge shows how these contextualized truths span the breadth of history to provide guidance to all believers irrespective of the era in which God has placed them.

A number of the perennial issues addressed include balanced domestic relations in the home, the reality of spiritual entities arrayed against the believer, and the role of servant leadership in the church.

Opening each chapter with an anecdote that draws the reader into the analysis, Dr. Burge's sermonic style provides homiletical seasoning to aide in the hermenutical digestion on the part of laymen perhaps reluctant to tackle the robust doctrinal meal provided by one of the New Testament's most prominent epistles.

By

Frederick Meekins

Is Plague Cult Alchemy Sparking An Epidemic Of Strokes Among The Young?

Is Plague Cult Alchemy Sparking An Epidemic Of Strokes Among The Young?https://t.co/rpJurDY5bb

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

Is Transhumanism Technologized Hinduism?

Is Transhumanism Technologized Hinduism?https://t.co/Sscp2gjcCw

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

Was Gary Coleman Killed By His Wife?

Starseeds Latest Nonsense Invoked To Justify Not Discipling Children

Starseeds Latest Nonsense Invoked To Justify Not Discipling Children

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 2:33 PM

Is Rod Parsley A Deviant Nudist?

Is Rod Parsley A Deviant Nudist?

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 2:31 PM

But even for Bertrand Russell, it was still mostly about getting into someone’s pants

But even for Bertrand Russell, it was still mostly about getting into someone’s pantshttps://t.co/eJLIzetxD5

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

Municipal Functionary Opposed To Whites Recreating With Other Whites Preferably Recreates With Whites

Municipal Functionary Opposed To Whites Recreating With Other Whites Preferably Recreates With Whiteshttps://t.co/TwBkWNnA8U

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

Yet the men more likely to strangle women probably still get more than those that would pitch tender woo

Yet the men more likely to strangle women probably still get more than those that would pitch tender woohttps://t.co/EPMsyGmkmk

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

Tolerancemongers Insinuated Christian Campers Needed To Be Destroyed For Being White Conservatives

Tolerancemongers Insinuated Christian Campers Needed To Be Destroyed For Being White Conservativeshttps://t.co/7ApAbjotWu

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

Platt Heaps Condemnation Against Christians Utilizing Legal System Against Fellow Christians Despite Himself Utilizing Legal System Against Fellow Christians

Platt Heaps Condemnation Against Christians Utilizing Legal System Against Fellow Christians Despite Himself Utilizing Legal System Against Fellow Christians

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 9:09 AM

Can AI Decipher Delusional Gibberish?

Can AI Decipher Delusional Gibberish?

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 9:07 AM

Diversity Hire Accused Of Witchcraft By Transgender Minister

Diversity Hire Accused Of Witchcraft By Transgender Ministerhttps://t.co/TL9qcQp6kZ

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 13, 2025

The Villages, FL vs On Top of the World vs Del Webb Spruce Creek: Florida’s Retirement Showdown?

Faith and Fandom" Talks Preaching At Comic Con

Women Castigating Men For Remaining At A Distance As Requested

Is It Too Late To Change Careers At 60?

Five Shocking Truths About Career Change For People Over 50

Why Christians Are Getting Tired Of Church

Comics & The Bible

The Jim Shooter Tribute

After Retirement: The Challenge Of Finding Purpose

Ten Great Jobs For Seniors & Retirees

Critical Race Theory Adjacent Rod Parsley Conspired To Keep His Fieldhands On His Ecclesastical Plantation

The Most Evil Christian Denominations

How Did C.S. Lewis Fight For Living & Learning In Wartime?

Rethinking Retirement: Living With Purpose Now & Later

An Introduction to the Psychology of New Religious Movements

Three Dangerous “Christian” Cults You Must Avoid

Diana Walsh Pasulka on Levitation, Redaction, and the Ontological Shock of Contact

Discover The Villages: Top 10 Websites Every Potential Resident Should Know

How To Make A Career Switch After 50

The spread of extremism in the digital age

Hot Topics: Aliens & Extraterrestrials

Understanding The Progressive Religion To Understand Their Next Moves

Did Fauci’s Greed Result In Crimes Against Humanity?

Did Fauci’s Greed Result In Crimes Against Humanity?https://t.co/FpK70GauOA

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 3, 2025

Woketopian Apostate Dons Robocop Costume In Celebration Of Rapine Illegals

Woketopian Apostate Dons Robocop Costume In Celebration Of Rapine Illegalshttps://t.co/kti3PueDPU

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 3, 2025

Southern Baptist Megachurch Outraged Documentary Dare Warn About Convention Elite’s Tendency To Highjack Ecclesiastical Real Estate

Click On The Headline

Taco Tuesday: Cannibal Feeling Like A Hankering For Some Mexican Began To Consume Himself On Deportation Flight

Taco Tuesday: Cannibal Feeling Like A Hankering For Some Mexican Began To Consume Himself On Deportation Flighthttps://t.co/zj0VaIqbBy

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 3, 2025

Islamist Refugee Calls For Jihad Against White Men

Islamist Refugee Calls For Jihad Against White Menhttps://t.co/IXK2SyUilf

— epistolizer (@epistolizer) July 3, 2025

Marxist Delusions Grip Woketopian Cooperative Baptists

Marxist Delusions Grip Woketopian Cooperative Baptists

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM

Those Attending Bezos Bacchanale Would Deny You Beef

Those Attending Bezos Bacchanale Would Deny You Beef

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 2:17 PM

Elon Tantrums Over Loss Of His Welfare Teat

Elon Tantrums Over Loss Of His Welfare Teat

[image or embed]

— Issachar Institute (@issacharinstitute.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM

Transhumanists Claiming To Be Christian Conspire To Replicate Resurrection Without Christ

Click On The Headline

How to Create a Webcomic Website - Build Your Own Custom Webtoon or Webcomic Site

The Ethics Of Star Trek

Summit Church Responds To The Faith Baptist Documentary

Woman Refuses Coffee Date, Now Ticked He Found Another Woman

Women Panic Now That Men Are Ignoring Them At Work

How To Ge Get Rich Quick Flipping Comics

Self Publishing For New Authors

Why bother when it’s been made known multiple times you are not wanted or good enough?

Five Theses On Apologetics

Peter Thiel On Transhumanism & The Antichrist

Modern Women Hate MGTOW Because They Can’t Exploit Men Anymore

How Can Fantasy Fans Dispel Occult Darkness?: On Magic & Miracles

Women Are Panicking As Men Keep Avoiding Them In Public

Women Are Begging For Men They Used To Ignore

Women That Drone On About Body Shaming Insist No Man Handsome Enough

She Demanded White Men Rise Up & They Said F-Off

Is DNA Testing Banned To Protect Families Or Whorish Skanks?

How To Get Your Comic Noticed

Men are Refusing to Help Struggling Modern Woman as Society Collapses

The Creator Of Spider-Man: The Life Of Steve Ditko

Episode 2: THE FIGHT FOR FAITH: Faith Baptist Members Fight for Their Church

What Is A Monastic Theologian?

Is Formal Church Membership Biblical?

“Why Christianity and Why Orthodoxy”

Are You Vulnerable To A Cult: Anti-Intellectualism A Discernment Killer

Scanners Set To Discernment: The Progression Of Worldviews Leading To The Acceptance Of Extraterrestrials (Part 4)

The Renaissance was sparked through a reacquaintance with the Greco-Roman sources of antiquity brought about through increased contact with the Muslim world. Through the study of this literature, its enthusiasts came to question the enforced dictates of an ecclesiastical hierarchy that had grown too concerned with maintaining a hold on its own status and prestige in the name of preparing the greatest number for the next life, which for most people came considerably sooner than to what those now living in the developed world are today accustomed. To adherents of the Renaissance perspective, this world and life in it were worthy of consideration as ends in themselves. This emphasis upon man, his endeavors, and improving upon these to the greatest extent possible was known as Humanism. And though at that time the term was not quite the synonym for a militant and activist form of unbelief that it is today, the wheels to a degree were set in motion by this movement that would ultimately result in Western civilization being less explicitly Christian in terms of its overall prevailing orientation.

Though the Italian Renaissance is recalled in the public consciousness for its more earthly manifestations such as art and poetic literature, the so-called Humanistic academic methodology of seeking inspiration by going back to original sources took a different route in the northern parts of Europe. For whereas the Italian part of the movement tended to look towards the Greco-Roman background of the Mediterranean past, scholars in the North tended to get back to the Biblical roots of the Christian faith. By reemphasizing Scripture rather than the organizational traditions that had accrued onto the religion in the centuries since its founding and textual codification, thinkers such as Martin Luther, Phillip Melanchthon, and John Calvin realized that the church was in serious need of reform if the Bride of Christ was to be made upright, forgiven once more, and prevented from taking additional steps into what they considered spiritual adultery.

What the Reformers did for the Christian faith was to reprioritize the emphasis back to the individual’s direct relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ with good works serving as evidence of salvation rather than a necessity in order to be granted it. This idea was fraught with a number of implications in terms of worldview. For starters, though the institution would still play a pivotal cultural role as the assembled body of believers and often the venue through which the Christian learned the specifics of the faith, in the minds of those adopting this renewed perspective, the church institutional would no longer be viewed as the dispenser of the means of grace. As such, whether for good or ill, other institutions such as the state and nation were elevated in terms of prestige and power.

Granted, a door had been reopened with the possibility of granting man more freedom than he could have ever before imagined while bringing him closer still to a truer and more direct relationship with his Creator and Redeemer. The thing of it was, when there was so much riding on the line in terms of sociocultural power (as well as formidable intellects and personalities psychologically vested in insisting upon that something so fundamental as their respective conceptions of God were indeed the right one) it became very easy for each side to lose sight of the loftier principles for which each originally stood up to defend. This resulted in what historian Glenn Sunshine wittingly refers to in “Why You Think The Way You Do” as "Killing For The Prince Of Peace" (103). It is easy to take sides in regards to these conflicts if one is devout dependent upon where one comes down along the Protestant/Catholic divide. However, if one strives to retain a sense of historical objectivity in regards to the total scope of this period, one has to admit at times the response on either side of this dispute was not exactly always the finest hour of the Bride of Christ.

For example, in Protestant settings where early founders made appeals to the sanctity of individual conscience to decide matters of faith, it was not uncommon to legally penalize those refusing membership in formalized state churches. The situation within Catholic lands and territories was pretty much the same as authorities there also felt it was a Christian obligation to make those unwilling to recant as uncomfortable as possible. Eventually, both sides would come to blows in a series of conflicts known as the Thirty Years War where, in the name of international intrigue and rivalry all wrapped up in the veneer of enthusiastic religious devotion, nearly a third of the population living within the Holy Roman Empire was wiped out. To this day in Germany, the conflict is remembered as being more devastating than World War I and World War II despite the heavy losses suffered during those particular conflagrations that would cast their respective shadows across the geopolitical face of the twentieth century (Sunshine, 107).

This particular spilling of unfathomable gallons of human blood at the commencement of the Modern Era would have a profound impact on the intellectually sensitive and astute of that time as well. Thinkers in the years following this historical tragedy wanted to avoid the same thing from happening again in the future but were not quite ready to turn their back on God or at least the acknowledgment that God got the cosmos started. Intellectuals of this particular philosophical inclination came to be known as Deists. Having seen their world shattered as a result of a heated dispute over insistence as to what side had the minutest details regarding God the most correct, the European intelligentsia set out in the hopes of establishing a number of assumptions or principles that all rational men could agree upon. At first, this did not necessarily result in blatant unbelief or an outright denial of fundamental Christian doctrines.

By Frederick Meekins

Extraterrestrial Priests