I just added a “cult news” link to the sidebar. Rick Ross runs the site. I believe he does work for the FBI when they need cult information to crack a case. I searched out a couple of my old evangelical churches on there and found Calvary Chapel to be suspect. If Calvary Chapel is a cult then so are a host of other Evangelical churches. I think it has much to do with their lack of accountability and their self-proclamation…leads to many problems. But then again, didn’t the entire Reformation begin like this? :O

Here is a fun post by my Anglican, Orange County friend, Andrew Matthews. I’m not sure I could hang with the teacup initiative.. maybe if they were extra large sized with bigger handles, but that brings us back to mugs.

Speaking of the Queen… it looks like we may have a mock queen and king in office if Osama Obama does not win the State. Interesting! It seems that we are headed in either one of two directions: Islamic Fascism or a type of ancient imperialism. May God’s will be done! Oh yeah…  and may God save the Queen! Right?

Many think that America - constitutional America, that is - was formed by Christians. Early America was indeed formed and founded by Christians, but late constitutional America was reconstructed by heretics! This is why we have the complete mess of liberalism today. There is no standard that is based on antiquity, but rather the Constitution itself is based on moral relativism and Unitarianism.

“John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States. He was elected second President of the United States (1797–1801) after serving as America’s first Vice President (1789–1797) for two terms.

Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in getting Congress to adopt the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a representative of Congress in Europe, he was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam.

Adams’s revolutionary credentials secured him two terms as George Washington’s vice president and his own election as the second president. During his one term as president, he was frustrated by battles inside his own Federalist party against a faction led by Alexander Hamilton, and he signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts. The major accomplishment of his presidency was his peaceful resolution the Quasi-War crisis with France in 1798.

After Adams was defeated for reelection by Thomas Jefferson, he retired to Massachusetts. He and his wife Abigail Adams founded an accomplished family line of politicians, diplomats, and historians now referred to as the Adams political family. His achievements have received greater recognition in modern times, though his contributions were not initially as celebrated as other Founders’.”

See Wickipedia

I was in J.C. Penney’s the other day purchasing some clothing with my wife when the cashier says, “would you like to donate to…” Corporate America has no right or jurisdiction over who is to receive donations from the public and who is not to receive donations. They are a business and not a Church! They are not the arbitrators of society and its well-being - or in many cases the advocates of evil (McDonalds and homosexuality, etc.).

I once worked for a very large corporation that asks all of its employees every year for donations to United Way, an organization that supports abortion. If you did not give you were hounded by management and viewed as an outcast.

America has become a nation without spiritual authority! Because the Church will not proclaim the fullness of the gospel by taking up the ministry of the state, others take up this ministry through corporations and cults. Prior to the American Revoltion, the separation of Church and State was considered heresy. Today the separation of Church and State is considered indifferent, or at best, unmanageable.

Now that the Church of England seems to be in her final days, we can now finally turn to the ancient church that has weathered the storms with the orthodox flag still flying: Rome! The Roman Church models a true society by running her own state: Vatican City, with her own magistrate: the Pontiff, with intention to mother the rest of the world. Do you have a problem with this? If you do, then who do you think should represent our nation to God the Almighty? There is no spiritual neutrality, and so if you believe that some Unitarian (someone that believes God should be represented without the Trinity) president should represent us, then perhaps you should worship with them. If you believe that our country should follow the paths of the early Christian fathers, then perhaps you should worship as they did…in a Catholic church - a Catholic Church that is not in rebellion with her mother, but is either at home with her or seeking reconciliation with her.

The Latin phrase ecclesia supplet means the Church supplies. The Church supplies the Christian with the means of embracing God. When one embraces tradition one embraces Christ through what the Church supplies. When, for instance, a Christian makes the sign of the cross, they embrace their prayer through what the Church supplies. When a Christian prays his daily office he embraces God through what the Church supplies. In fact, if you really think about it, even when a Christian embraces a simple Bible reading they embrace what the Church supplies!

If one thinks that they can get to heaven without the ecclesia supplet then let him not read the Bible, nor do anything that the Church has supplied. This would leave the person in the hands of Satan’s realm where Satan is ready and willing to devour them.

Next time you use the sign of the cross, the Bible, or anything that gives you access to Christ outside the gathering of the saints yet still through what the Church supplies, remember that this is a divine avenue!  

BTW, the picture above is my desktop pic!

The word Canon comes from a Greek word meaning “rule.” This is an existential concept; a visible formula for the body of Christ to lean on and live by. It fulfills the Lord’s Prayer to have God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” This rule of life is not found in heaven, for in heaven there is no need for rules.

Canonicity is an existential value! The word and very doctrine of canonicity is “earthly” - heavenly power transcendentally transferred to God’s creation. 

The Church is also an exsenstential doctrine such as canonicity. Now my point: This doctrine/rule of living known as the Canon cannot be juxtaposed with the doctrine of the Church. One cannot be pitched against the other! You cannot say for instance, as Protestants say, that the “Canon formed the Church, not vice-versa.” This dichotomy creates a heavenly definition of the Canon and a mere earthly/existential definition of the Church. But we know both the Canon and the Church to be existential realities with heavenly foundations. Neither doctrine is purely heavenly such as the doctrine of aangels or the doctrine of heaven itself. The Church is rooted in the heavenly kingdom of God as is the Canon. Ultimately both the Canon and the Church are existential values. It is the logos that is purely divine not the written text in and of itself or the Church in an of itself. In order to get to the the Canon, eschatologically speaking, the logos must pass through the Church: Logos>Church>Canon

The fundamentalist argument is to quote John 1:1, “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.” The word “Word” here doe not mean Canon or Bible. The Greek word is logos which means much more than just text, or even divine text. The word logos has many cultural roots but it seems fairly obvious that it has to do with God’s revelation, but not just his revelation as through text but his complete divine revelation of wisdom and power - beyond mere words.

In the beginning was the logos and the logos had to become readable. It became readable through the body of Christ, transcribing and authorizing through various study and council - at first local councils and then later larger councils such as Carthage, the largest council of ancient Africa in which Augustine of Hippo helped lead.

The logos/word could never have become text without the Catholic Church. In order to believe in the very existence of the Canon/Bible one must believe that the Church is capable of completing such a transmission. The cults and radical sects will say that the Church was able to transmit the Canon only for a short time and then the Church fell away until the sect was established. Some may say that those before the Reformation had a limited knowledge of God and his Word and are therefore not held as accountable as we are held. Such people that say these things are warped, mislead and clearly unlearned in the writings of the early Church.

Some will go as far as stating that the authority of the text was transfered to the Protestants in the medieval ages as if for the first 1500 years of the Church the Bible was corrupt. Where was this prophesied? Who came down from heaven to transfer authority to a new group of men who were attempting to take out books such as Revelation and James? along with many of the Old Testament Books?

Protestant Scholars such as R.C. Sproul will go as far as stating that this history is all “divine providence” and that the Protestants were able to redefine the Canon and take authority of the text. After all, isn’t it logical that such-and-such a thing is now in place (i.e. the new formation of the Bible and the Protestant Church)? Such a claim is not based on any authority but that of rationalism, which is the foundation of liberalisn, and in turn is what most of all the Reformed (Protestant) Churches have become: liberal (PCUSA, ELCA, etc.).

The Canon was formed by the Church which was formed by God’s logos. You cannot have the Bible unless you first have the Church!

Heresy involves many temptations, but one that I wish to log into this site is the temptation of intellectual simplicity! Simplicity is a double-edged sword. We need simplicity when referring to the Gospel and its theology but we need this simplicity to be orthodox. This is not “simple.” Really, the simplicity that we need is not so much simple as it is concise. There is a huge difference. When one is simple in theology one overlooks many suppositions in order to arrive at the simplistic plain. This is what heresy does! It paints a picture without prepping the canvas. The paint will not hold up under time or examination and thus peel right off. But being concise means prepping the canvas while painting the picture, a skill reserved for those with experience and calling in a particular spiritual field.

Heresy many times speaks to the undereducated and lower classes - or, simply put, people without proper resources (many times even the “educated” do not have proper resource). Heresy makes a theologian out of just about anyone, giving them quick access to ”theology” through a minimal amount of study. An exception to this rule would be heresies that demand extensive linguistic studies which seem to be primarily designed to replace the Church itself.

Heresy usually involves denying much of the Church’s teachings throughout history in order to show how some type of modern - even in the medieval sense - prophet or teacher has suddenly found the truth. They tend to imply that the Church was hiding for the past thousand or so years and this person or group has suddenly found it in the form of new doctrine and practice. Some will even attempt to prove that this new-founded theology was practiced in the first century - a very bold move considering the fact that the vast majority of First Century documents were destroyed during persecution.

Heresy spreads very fast due to the despondent crowd that is targeted by the master heretic. These hopeless and uninformed people will eat the heresy straight from the palm of their new master’s hand desperately panting for intellectual status.

When the desperate soul is found by the heretic and proselytized to they usually feel very enlightened and enriched, at first, believing that they have finally discovered what God has intended for them. The propositions begin to hit them very fast and hard, leading them to feel overwhelmed yet also joyful due to the nature of what is being pitched. It is overwhelming because of many reasons but it is joyful because it has just the right amount of historical revelation - usually in the form of Bible verses - sprinkled throughout the recipe. It’s laced with “truth.”

This supposed truth that the heresy is laced with is usually very easy to understand and speaks to the flesh in many ways. Instant supposed sanctification through knowledge is many times the culprit. The ancient heresy of Gnosticism was like this. It appealed to people because it stimulated their intellect. It appeased their need for secret knowledge and smarts.

The Gospel does not sanctify like Gnosticism or its contemporary counterparts. The Gospel works through humility, submission, pain, and even turmoil. One must become “childlike” to receive the Gospel. After one receives it one can or may begin to exhaustively study its implications, but for the most part the Gospel involves just a lot of hard work and discipline - hard work in the sense of dying to one’s self!

God said in Matthew that nothing would EVER penetrateHis Church. We all know by looking at history who the Church is, but some insist that there “is more” than what the Church can immediately offer them and thus begin to revert to some sort of reformed model where the Church is being reinvented every couple years - ultimately excommunicating itself - sometimes unknowingly - from the historical Church. The Church is the safe-house for God’s elect. It is the “pillar of truth,” as St. Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:15. The Church will indeed let you down at times but it will never kill your soul. Only your arrogant desire for “truth” will do that.