IS AMERICA ON THE CUSP OF A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING?

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David Closson, director of the Centre for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, thinks that the measurable rise in popularity of religious and Bible apps is a sign that America may be on the cusp of a spiritual awakening.

At the same time, America is deeply divided, yet there is no single conflict at the core of the discord. Instead, an ideological divide is widening at an alarming pace. We have seen “cancel culture,” which initially aimed to suppress opposing voices, evolve into an “assassination culture,” where some openly call for the violent elimination of adversaries. Perhaps this is the reason why young people are looking for something better: hope in a world consumed with hate.

“I’m encouraged by the growing popularity of faith-based apps like YouVersion and Hallow,” Closson told TWS. “As someone who works closely on cultivating a biblical worldview in the next generation, I see this as more than a digital trend — it could be a sign that something deeper is stirring. The political and cultural ‘vibe shift’ we’ve all sensed might actually point to a spiritual awakening. People are looking for clarity, truth, and hope in a confusing world, and many are turning — or returning — to faith as the foundation for that. I believe this hunger for meaning could very well be connected to a deeper worldview shift that could signal the beginning of revival in our nation.”

The surge in religious app popularity is coinciding with a marked rise in the sales of print Bibles, with sales up 22% as of last fall (compared to the same period the previous year), which is being partially attributed to a jump in first-time buyers.

Observers say the resurgence in faith can be partially attributed to — of all things — the ubiquity of phones and the increasing popularity of religious apps like Hallow. In a profile on the explosive growth of the Catholic app published Saturday on The Free Press, 39-year-old “Sarah,” a fallen away Catholic, says she had hit rock bottom after she embarked on an affair and found herself estranged from her husband and three children. Alone in a Chicago hotel room after binging on drugs and alcohol, she offered a desperate prayer to God for help. Days later, she happened upon an Instagram ad for Hallow featuring Hollywood actor Mark Wahlberg, inviting people to pray the rosary. After downloading the app and listening to morning prayer routines, short sermons, a guided “examination of conscience,” and a multitude of other resources, she sensed a change beginning to happen in her.

Months later, Sarah had moved back in with her family and began therapy with her husband. Sarah is now a cantor at her church and regularly goes to confession. “She is convinced God used Hallow to save her soul, her marriage, her career — perhaps even her life.”

As of now, Hallow has been downloaded 23 million times since its creation in 2018. In February of last year on Ash Wednesday, Hallow became the first religious app to ever reach the number one spot in Apple’s App Store. The app once again reached number one on Ash Wednesday this year. Sarah told The Free Press that the reason for the app’s massive growth is because there are a multitude of people like her who are “starved for connection, for meaning” and “starved for God.”

Hallow is far from the only religious app to see unprecedented growth over the last year. Bible Chat, “an AI chatbot trained exclusively on the Bible,” has been downloaded seven million times since 2023 and was second only behind Google Translate in the Reference category. On January 5, the first Sunday of this year, almost 800,000 people installed the Bible app YouVersion, with 18.2 million people opening the app that same day.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out as persecution of Christians increases as we enter the tribulation and extreme tribulation of the last seven years before Jesus returns to restore righteousness.

GODLESSNESS IN THE LAST DAYS

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Like many others in the O.T. and N.T., the following Scripture warns us about what will happen before Jesus returns to restore righteousness. We cannot say that God has not told us what is ahead

“But understand that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” 2 Timothy 3:1-17

The Bible lists several events that will lead to the great tribulation period. Humanity will increasingly adopt a negative attitude toward God’s laws and reject keeping them. This lawlessness will cause people to greatly lack mercy, forgiveness, and love..

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14

It will be a trying, testing time but note the gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed throughout the whole world so God has His disciples doing the work they’re called to do right up to the time God raptures the Saints to heaven and pours out His wrath upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet (Revelation 8) and Bowl judgements (Revelation 16).

CRAZY GOVERNMENTS PRIORITIES

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The world is in a state of chaos. Government debt is spiraling out of control in the U.S.A. and most Western countries. War in Gaza has been raging for months. War in Ukraine has been raging for years. And Russia has even threatened to use nuclear weapons. Terrorist groups brazenly attack American shipping vessels. Iran keeps stirring the pot by shipping weapons and cash (most of which has been provided by the US) to belligerents around the world. China continues to insist that it will “reunify” with Taiwan by force if necessary, and demonstrates its resolve for war by bombing mock-ups of US ships.

Now, the world has been in far worse shape in the past. World War 2 is a prime example. History shows that it is possible to pull back from the brink of almost certain conflict— the Cuban Missile Crisis is a great example. But putting out all these fires requires serious, experienced professionals who can be laser-focused on achieving their nation’s diplomatic priorities from a position of strength. Yet the US State Department has a far higher calling than achieving peace through strength: gender neutrality.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently sent a memo to State Department employees entitled,“Modeling DEIA [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility]: Gender Identity Best Practices.”

The memo informs State Department employees that they should use “gender-neutral language whenever possible” because gendered terms such as “manpower”, “you guys”, “ladies and gentlemen”, “mother/father”, “son/daughter”, and “husband/wife” can be offensive.

Offensive to whom, exactly? Does the US Secretary of State honestly believe that the word “father” is in any way offensive to the people with whom they have to negotiate?

Are Hamas terrorists triggered by the term “husband”? Will Ukrainian soldiers be outraged for praising “the brave men and women” who are fighting on the front lines? Obviously not.

Terms like “father” and “mother” are only offensive to a tiny, tiny group of silly extremists in the US who have nothing better to do than wake up every morning and find an excuse to live in a state of perpetual victimhood. But apparently, the State Department is teeming with these whiny perpetual victims… which is pretty terrifying given the state of the world today.

Rather than focus on promoting strength, peace, and stability, there are ostensibly American diplomats who are more concerned about not being triggered by gender-specific words that have existed in the English language for more than 15 centuries.

Now, bear in mind that the entire purpose of the State Department is to interact with officials in other nations, who obviously tend to speak different languages. Yet many of these gender-neutral terms don’t even translate.

In Spanish, for example, mother is la madre and father is el padre. And if you’re referring to both parents, or you’re not sure which one, native speakers say padre, i.e. father. There is no genderless word for parent in Spanish. It simply doesn’t translate. So what exactly is the point of using this new genderless woke newspeak when it cannot even be communicated to foreign diplomats?

A good example of the stupidity of gender-neutral language is the story of Fran Itkoff who worked as a volunteer with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The organization recently implemented a new Diversity and Inclusion policy in which staffers must include their pronouns, i.e. she/her, at the end of an email. Fran didn’t understand the policy and asked why putting ‘she/her’ was inclusive? It’s certainly a reasonable question.

But “why” is the most triggering word of all to Diversity & Inclusion fanatics. They have no answers, they have no logic. So they respond with rage. 90-year-old Fran Itkoff was fired— as a volunteer— for asking why.

Her story started making the rounds online, so the National Multiple Sclerosis Society subsequently issued a bizarre apology, which stated that, even though “Fran has been a committed champion of [the Multiple Sclerosis] cause” for six decades, they fired her “with the best intentions”.

The Multiple Sclerosis Society cares more about pronouns than they do about eradicating Multiple Sclerosis! How does this organization expect anyone to take them seriously?

But the same question applies to the State Department. By publishing this memo, the Secretary of State has made it very clear what his Department’s priorities are. How does he expect Iran, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, etc. to take him seriously?

Remember, we’re not talking about a mid-sized non-profit or some random Congressman. This woke newspeak is now official guidance at the US Department of State.

The United States faces a mountain of extraordinary challenges, from geopolitical threats to the southern border crisis to the looming national debt catastrophe. These problems are not unsolvable. Unfortunately, the Inspired Idiots in charge keep making things worse. And this is a perfect example: by publishing this memo, the Secretary of State weakened America’s position in front of its adversaries. He made things worse, not better. Obviously, they don’t believe they’re making anything worse. They think their crusade for justice makes the world a better place. But they’re clearly out of touch with reality.

The State Department’s Newspeak memo states that you should not “pressure someone to state their pronouns” because it is “problematic” and sends a “harmful, exclusionary message”. Wait, so which is it? Are we supposed to demand people state their pronouns or aren’t we? It’s all so confusing… pronouns cannot be simultaneously “inclusive” and “exclusionary” at the same time, can they? And that’s part of this 1984-style newspeak. Nothing has any fixed meaning. Everything is arbitrary and open to interpretation. There is no structure, there is no order. It’s all fluid and ever-changing… just like their definition of gender.

The world has discarded God and His commandments/laws as Jesus said they would before His return to restore righteousness. In God’s Word, we are given incredibly detailed prophecies about the state of the world before His return so we can prepare.

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them… And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains... “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:3,6-13

There are many ministries God has raised up to prepare Christians for the approaching end times events. One I can recommend is http://www.lastdaysovercomers.org with Nelson Walters, Marquis Laughlin, and Jake McCandless. It is imperative Christian prepare for the coming tribulation.

ANOTHER PROPHESIED END TIMES SIGN

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“Up until recently,” mass shootings were “almost exclusively men. But something’s changed,” said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, host of “Washington Watch.” “Something’s changed,” agreed Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, director of the Center for Family Studies at FRC, “and it’s been in conjunction with the rise of transgenderism.”

“This is an alarming trend,” Bauwens added, “that we’re seeing these young women who don’t fit the profile … commit these heinous acts.” On Sunday, a 36-year-old woman opened fire at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. In March 2023, a 28-year-old woman killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn. A female shot nine people at a Colorado charter school in May 2019, and another female shot three people at her Maryland workplace in September 2018. In all four cases, the female shooter identified as transgender.

“A good researcher would say, ‘What is going on here? And why is it that these women are also connected in some way to the transgender ideology?’” suggested Bauwens.

One factor is the presence of mental health issues. Bauwens acknowledged that there was “a mental illness issue with shootings across the board.” Police revealed almost immediately that the Lakewood Church shooter was mentally ill, and the Covenant School shooter wanted to die.

However, Bauwens added, in the case of the Lakewood Church shooter, “You have to wonder, was there more going on than just her baseline mental health distress?”

Mental health issues are often caused by “adverse childhood events,” said Bauwens, and as a result they have unprocessed trauma. As a former clinical researcher of trauma patients, Bauwens has studied how trauma can manifest in other areas of a person’s life. Whether recognized or not, childhood trauma can often lead to the mental health issues so often linked both with people with gender dysphoria and those with a propensity toward mass shootings, Bauwens explained.

Another overlap between the two groups is a “susceptibility to suicidal ideation or committing suicide,” Bauwens continued. She was “not saying that everyone who has a suicidal ideation is going to commit mass murder,” she clarified, but anyone with suicidal ideation is already fantasizing about “committing murder of yourself,” making the leap to contemplate the killing of others that much more likely.

While these relationships have been well established by research, Bauwens contended, the recent change, which corresponds to the rising trend of trans-identifying female mass shooters, is the advent of cross-sex hormones and a worldview of victimhood. If “there’s already mental health distress, and now you’re going to throw the wild card of hormones into the mix,” Bauwens observed, “it’s a recipe for disaster.”

“We’re not talking about, in some cases, [a female] just identifying as a male,” Perkins agreed, but the increasingly widespread “experimental use of drugs and surgery. So, if you’re a female and you are wanting to identify as a male, you take male hormones. And if you have an underlying mental illness, … this is like a concoction that is just so volatile and dangerous.”

Even a healthy person would be negatively impacted by hormone treatments, Bauwens contended. “If you take someone who has great mental health, and then you pump them with higher levels of male or female hormones,” she posited, “how can you expect a good outcome? … That’s not rocket science. It’s not normal.”

If you “take a woman and you pump her full of testosterone,” Bauwens argued, it would introduce even more psychological variables. “Now she’s having to socially adjust to the fact that her body is changing to look more like a male,” she said. “That’s introducing all kinds of other mental health issues with the possibility of greater levels of bullying, etc.” On top of that, Bauwens added, the woman would “have all these new emotions to deal with,” such as rage, an increased sexual drive, and other effects of testosterone.

Bauwens pointed out the absurdity of mental health professionals affirming a woman that this volatile situation is normal. If a woman takes testosterone because she wants to identify as a man, said Bauwens, she will “have a mental health community that’s surrounding her saying, ‘This is great. This is the answer to all your problems.’”

Bauwens also warned about the influence of Marxist ideology that encourages a person with gender dysphoria to adopt an identity of victimhood as a member of an oppressed minority. “You have this framework that says, ‘You are a victim, and there are these other people — Christians, others who believe that sex is binary — [who] are keeping this vital treatment from you,’” said Bauwens.

“So, you can see,” Bauwens concluded, “just how some of the circumstances in our society have set up the belief system that Christians are the problem.” Police have not officially released the motive for the shootings at either Lakewood Church or Covenant School, but both incidents involved female shooters who identified or may have identified as transgender, and who attempted to inflict mass casualties associated with Christianity.

“There is a convergence of transgenderism, drug treatments, and violence,” Perkins summarized, at a time when “both mental health [problems] and attacks on churches continue to rise.”

This is just another confirmation that we are living in the prophesied end times before Jesus returns.

“But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5

GODLESSNESS = LAWLESSNESS

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George Washington. In his farewell address, he says, “Of all of the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” He continues, “And let us with caution, indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion …” In other words, the very thing the USA needs is being driven out, and that is a recognition of God and religion — allowing people to live out their faith in such a way that it affects the world around them. That is the answer to incivility, lawlessness, and division. What is happening in the USA is the opposite at the highest levels of government.

High-ranking officials like former Attorney General Eric Holder seconded Hillary Clinton’s call for incivility, telling a rowdy crowd to start roughing up conservatives in 2018 — two years before the supposed genesis of all political violence. “Michelle [Obama] always says, ‘When they go low, we go high,’” Holder told the audience. “No. No. When they go low, we kick them!”

This is the same party who told Americans to get up in people’s faces. “You have to be ready to throw a punch,” former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said. “Push back on them,” Democrat Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) coached the crowd. “Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!” “[We’ll] fight Trump… in the streets,” Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) vowed. “Get up in their face,” Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) demanded. Even the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, encouraged the Left to loot, burn, and torment their opponents. “I support them,” she said.

And what about the hostility toward the newest members of the Supreme Court? Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) openly declared that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “will pay a price” for not supporting abortion. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions,” he fumed, escalating tensions that were already evident outside the justices’ homes. But sure, it’s Trump supporters who “embrace political violence.”

As God is jettisoned from governments and the lives of the majority of what were previously nations that upheld Judaeo/Christian values, Christians are coming under increased persecution. Thank goodness God told us in advance that this would happen.

When the disciples asked Jesus about the time when He will return, what was His response?

“Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus gave the disciples a lot of information about what the world will be like before Jesus’ return.

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” Matthew 24:6-8

Jesus makes it clear that for Christians it will be a time of intense persecution and great tribulation.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.” Matthew 24:9-11

We are fast approaching this time when lawlessness will abound as it did in Noah’s day before God poured out His wrath upon the Earth for the first time. Let me assure you, God will as prophesied, pour out His wrath a second time on this unrepentant world with the trumpet (Revelation 8) and bowl judgements (Revelation 16).

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:12-14

THE BIBLE’S PROPHESIED SIGNS OF JESUS’ RETURN SHOULD BE OBVIOUS TO ALL BORN-AGAIN CHRISTIANS

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Preaching shortly after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, Peter tells his Jewish listeners that if they repent, God will send the Messiah back to earth, since heaven must receive him “until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago”. Note, Peter says that all of the O.T prophets “proclaimed these days“.

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago... Moses and all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.” Acts 3:19-20, 22, 24

And so, in one clear sentence, Peter tells us that everything the prophets spoke of in the past, including all the promises to Israel about the Messiah’s glorious rule on the earth, will come to pass when King Jesus returns. So much for the New Testament “spiritualizing” away the promises of the Old Testament.

What the Bible repeatedly states will happen in the future will happen in the future. It’s that simple.

Jesus is coming to Earth a second time and all the Biblical prophecies about that return are playing out in our world today. The return of the Jews to their promised land which occurred over 70 years ago now in 1948 was the KEY sign. The rest of the prophesied signs such as God shaking things with earthquakes, pestilences, and famines, godlessness and lawlessness, apostasy with much of the church compromising with the world on gay marriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, increased persecution of Christians who are upholding the authority of God’s Word and God’s commandments, all of these prophesied events are occurring with increased frequency. Jesus warns us that endurance will be required during this time of tribulation: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

“Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you,” Luke 21:10-12

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:9-13

“Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 37:21-23

“I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” Ezekiel 37:26-27

THE TECHNOCHASM AND BIBLICAL END-TIMES PROPHECIES

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“But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Daniel 12:4

This is just one of the amazing end-times prophecies given to Daniel. The 70 Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27) is the standout as it summarises Israel’s entire future including the last seven years before their Messiah returns to restore righteousness. Moreover, as I have posted here often, many of the end times prophecies are playing out in our day.

Considering the number of people flying here there and everywhere, and knowledge has increased in our day as never before, this prophecy given to Daniel about the time of the end is accurate and should increase our confidence that God’s Word is inspired by Him and He is in control of all events that happen in His world.

The speed with which new technology is changing our world is mind-blowing; Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, the Internet of Things to name a few. Also, godless debt-ridden governments are taking more control over people’s lives using Covid and climate change as reasons why they need this control. The WEF/UN great financial reset is next with digital money the only way transactions can be made. This is the first step to everybody being required to take the prophesied Mark of the Beast (Antichrist).

“Also, it (the Antichrist) causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.” Revelation 13:16-17

We are fast approaching the prophesied return of Jesus Christ (2000 prophecies). A time when Jesus will take His Saints to heaven before pouring out His wrath upon an unrepentant Earth.

Look at this video of Waymo’s fully driverless vehicles doing passenger trips in the suburbs outside Phoenix, Arizona. Evidence that we are in that time, Daniel prophesied 2600 + years ago. Fulfilled Bible prophecies and http://www.creation.com provided the proof I needed that what the Bible reveals about God and His World is true. What about you?

DRUMGOLD IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF CRITICAL THEORY PLAYING OUT AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL

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I have written two posts on Critical Theory and its devastating impact on our world. In particular, three days ago, How Critical Theory is Destroying Western Civilisation. This was made possible because our political and educational establishments jettisoned God and His values many years ago.

I am quoting from an article in the Weekend Australian 06/08/2023 by Janet Albrechtsen

Amid all the reactions to the extraordinarily damning findings by Walter Sofronoff KC about the behaviour of ACT Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold, one question stands out. Why? Why would a man at the pinnacle of the Australian legal profession behave so badly?

It is hard to comprehend why someone in that esteemed position could possibly think it was acceptable to try to conceal crucial evidence from the defence and, in doing so, lie not once but several times to a court, make numerous allegations he knew to be baseless, throw his staff and colleagues under the bus, and in critical respects ignore the protocols and etiquette of his profession?

The deafening silence in response to the Sofronoff report from most political and media quarters – starting with the ABC, which appears more concerned about how this important report was leaked – tells you they regard this as an irritating glitch that will slow but not stop their campaign to right social wrongs by whatever means necessary.

For these people, more convictions for sexual assault and rape are an absolute necessity if we are to mitigate what is undoubtedly a historical evil. If, in pursuit of more convictions, the occasional innocent man goes to jail, so be it. You can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs. So, this reasoning goes, a little collateral damage to principles such as the presumption of innocence, due process, and natural justice and the traditional rules of evidence is an acceptable compromise in the big scheme of things.

While we all share the aim of eliminating or reducing sexual assault, a little knowledge of history tells you that being prepared to sacrifice the odd innocent person to do so is not a trade-off a civilised society can accept. It is trite but true to say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Serious questions need to be asked of the ACT government, too. How did Drumgold get appointed to his role? Was he the best candidate? What kind of vetting took place? And this: does the ACT criminal justice system prioritise convictions over justice? Has the ACT government allowed the criminal justice system to be overrun by the most zealous members of the #MeToo movement? What other ideological obsessions of the ACT government infect the justice system?

What we see being played out is prophesied by God in His Word, the Bible, lawlessness will abound because God and His values have been jettisoned by the world. God is allowing Satan and his minions to have one last seeming victory to refine His church before rescuing it with the Rapture and then pouring out His wrath upon an unrepentant world.

DRAMATIC FALL IN BIBLE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANS IN THE U.S.A

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These findings come from The American Worldview Inventory 2023, conducted by the Cultural Research Centre at Arizona Christian University under the supervision of George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Centre. While born-again Christians make up about one-third of all U.S. adults and are considered “the backbone of local church activity because of their higher level of commitment to the Christian faith,” the study shows that between 2020 and 2023, the share of those who say they believe Jesus did not commit sins during his lifetime on Earth fell from 58% to 44%.

Jesus being sinless is central to the hope Christians have in Him as Saviour explains the apologetics website Got Questions because, “If Jesus were not sinless, there would be no sacrifice for sin.” The apostle Peter stated it clearly: ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ (1 Peter 2:22) Indeed, as Jesus Christ is God, He has no capacity to sin,” the Christian website explains.

This shift in belief among born-again Christians was among six that showed a significant decline in the past three years that Barna characterized as “indefensible.”

Fewer than half of born-again Christians also now believe they have a unique, God-given calling or purpose. The share of those who held that belief fell from 88% to a staggering 46% during the pandemic.

A downward trend was also observed among those who say the Bible is unambiguous in its teaching about abortion. That belief fell from 58% to 44%. Those who say human life is sacred fell from 60% to 48%.

The number of born-again Christians who say God is the basis of all truth fell from 69% to 63% over the period. The share of born-again believers who say they are deeply committed to practicing their religious faith fell from 85% to 50%, while the share of those who say they read or study the Bible at least once a week fell from 60% to 55%. When it comes to the general population of U.S. adults, Barna said the share of the population that claims to hold a biblical worldview fell from 6% to 4% in the last three years, while less than half now claim to be “deeply committed to practicing” their religious faith. That measure fell from 60% to 48%. Barna also found that only 33% of adults now say they attend church service during a typical week which shows “a decline representing the loss of about 15 million churchgoing adults each week.”

The veteran researcher said the findings on the drastic shift in Christian belief over such a short period of time are “highly unusual” because “religious beliefs and behaviors have typically been a hallmark of consistency.” “Most religious beliefs change over the course of generations, not a few years,” Barna said.

Barna noted that a significant driver behind the decline in Christians holding on to a biblical worldview is syncretism, an ideology described as “the worldview that merges otherwise incompatible philosophies of life, particularly evolution and a Cosmos that has existed for billions of years, into a made-to-order worldview that incorporates enough biblical elements to be minimally Christian in nature.”

These statistics highlight how successful Satan’s strategy to undermine the foundations of God’s Word has been. Thankfully God has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries International (CMI) and Answers in Genesis to show that evolution and its history of billions of years for this Cosmos is not defensible. In fact, the audacious claim by secular scientists in the New Scientist book How Evolution Explains Everything About Life (2017) cannot be substantiated. On page 69 they claim ” The only thing we know for certain is that life must have popped into existence sometime between Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago and the appearance of the first undisputed fossils about 3.4 million years ago.” Living cells require information (DNA) and decoding machinery. Even the simplest living cell has an enormous quantity of information on its DNA (about 600,000 letters) and it has the decoding machinery to read these letters. Also, the instructions to build this decoding machinery are encoded on its DNA. DNA can’t be decoded without the machines, but the machines can’t be built without the DNA coding for them. An impossible vicious circle for chemical evolution. There is simply no way “life must have popped into existence“.

PARENTS DEMONISING THEIR CHILDREN

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Children as young as 8 years old were dressed in drag and Teletubbies danced with a man wearing a skirt at a Los Angeles drag convention this past weekend.

Thousands of people were estimated to attend the DragCon LA event May 12-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which featured over 180 drag performers, along with dance performances, wig and sewing workshops and, yes, even the popular children’s TV characters.

Sponsored by Teletubbies, Paramount+, Los Angeles Public Library, Postmates, Cash App and others, DragCon’s organizers described the convention as an “all ages event,” with children ages 8 and younger allowed in for free if accompanied by an adult with a paid ticket.

Videos posted on social media showed several underage drag performers on stage with adults, including one performer whose parent shared a video showing him wearing makeup and dressed in women’s clothing while he danced on stage.

The caption for the video reads in part: “To think ANYONE would say this child is FORCED to perform. ❤️ Your child wants to be an astronaut, mine wants to be an entertainer and she has said that from the moment she could formulate a sentence ❤️ PURE HAPPINESS ❤️ Thank you Drag Con for opening up the stage for a short time, so the kids could show the world their joy!”

Another video from the event included an interview with an independent journalist Right Now Views and a mother and her 8-year-old son dressed as a girl. When asked how he became interested in drag, the boy said “accidentally” before his mother explained, “I was watching drag and she kinda just got into it.”

We live in a world that is increasingly rejecting God and His values and they scoff at any suggestion that God has judged the world previously with the worldwide flood of Noah’s day and that God’s Word clearly spells out for us the judgement in store for the unrighteous.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.” 2 Peter 2:4-10

“Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” 2 Peter 3:3-6