This is war. I’m not peddling hyperbole here, folks. We are in the thick of it. Right now. Everywhere. There is no neutral ground. And the battlefields are primarily our children, our faith, and our homes.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven … a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” — Ecclesiastes 3
“Modern war often deals in abstractions,” writes Father Stephen Freeman. “Modernity is an efficient war machine.” And what drives our ceaseless enemy is nothing short of the apex of post-modern religiosity: nihilism.
In other words, life has no purpose. Existence is meaningless. After all, the stem nihil is defined as “nothing” in Latin. Thus, there is no inherent morality, and reality can be whatever you want it to be. Everything’s fluid. Facts and nature be damned.
According to nihilist guru Friedrich Nietszche, “The highest values are losing values. There is no goal. There is not Truth, no ‘thing in itself.’ There is no answer to the question ‘Why?'” That’s the ethical and existential part of it.
Then there are the political ramifications of nihilism, which posit that the destruction of those archaic social norms and backwards religious orders is necessary for a future “progress.” This creates a “new man” who is “angry for the cause of justice and equality and preaching,” wrote Father Seraphim Rose in his prescient book “Nihilism.”
“Owing its whole energy to its passion to destroy Christian Truth,” the religion of nihilism “comes to the end of its program in the production of a mechanized ‘new earth’ and [an even more] dehumanized ‘new man,'” continued Rose, who allegedly flirted with homosexuality before converting to Orthodoxy in 1962. Subsequently, “the man created in [God’s] image has lost his nature and fallen into sub-humanity,” which then becomes this new man’s “higher humanity.”
Of course, Marxist doctrine finds its home in the godlessness of nihilism. In “The German Ideology,” Marx and Engels wrote that “the alteration of men on a mass scale is necessary, an alteration which can only take place in a practical movement, a revolution.” This will enable the overthrowing class in “ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.”
Nietszche wrote in “Will To Power” that “Everything which was formerly disdained as unholy, forbidden, contemptible, and fatal – all these flowers now bloom on the most charming paths of truth.” With such dark roots as these, it’s easy to understand why LGBT dogma is one of nihilism’s most effective weapons. It’s the perfect catalyst for infinite change, with the T for “transgender” or “transsexual,” and the addition of QIA for “queer” or “questioning” (depending on the source), “intersex,” and “asexual.”
That’s why there’s often a + to denote the ever-increasing letters and definitions within the culturally coveted acronym. It’s best to fold those few “pansexuals” and “polysexuals” into the fold, since the P is being saved for the big cheese: “pedophiles.” It’s coming soon, but society isn’t quite ready for such progress … yet. But when it is, this leap forward will undoubtedly pave the way for other sexual “identities,” like bestiality and necrophilia. Anything’s better than a stodgy ol’ “cis,” says the empowered new man.
St. Augustine of Hippo is thought to be the first person to record applied Christian ethics to the idea of morally justifiable war. In discussing this modern conflict between progress/nihilism and tradition/Christianity, it’s clear that we’re not the aggressors. Unfortunately, we’re on the defense, simply trying to salvage some sanity out of this purposeful chaos.
“You cannot stop progress. The machine is rolling.” — Andrea Tate, female drag queen and certifiable angry grrrrrl
Think how quickly we’ve descended into dystopia. It was in May 2012, just 7 years ago that we in North Carolina voted against gay marriage. And it was in November 2008, just a little over a decade ago, that same-sex marriage failed in leftist California. June 26 just marked the 4-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which pronounced from on high that homosexuals have the “fundamental right” to marry.
Obergefell v. Hodges was the turning point for gay tyrants, who were losing in the court of public opinion, so they turned to their apparatchiks in government. Thus, they ‘d finally succeeded in what they claimed had always been their goal: marriage “equality.”
It’s not a slippery slope, they promised. It won’t affect your religion, they assured us. It’s just about fairness, they said. Oh hon, stop being so paranoid. Lighten up, sweetie, and open wide.
This is what Judith Reisman, former investigator of child sexual abuse, calls the “Kinsey principle of lulling ‘straights’ into a false sense of security,” referring to the famous sexologist Alfred Kinsey, who also happened to be a pedophile and is still a highly influential “intellectual” to this day. Sit back and relax, baby. Daddy Kinsey will make it all right.
Sure, homosexuals already had civil unions in many states and would’ve gained ground in some quarters. But they and their legal allies convinced the masses that redefining marriage was the necessary reform to right the wrong of gay couple’s supposed second-class status regarding hospital visitation, child custody, health insurance benefits, and tax breaks. Even conservative people who fancy themselves patriotic stalwarts capitulated. I mean, it’s why grandpa fought the Nazis, right?
“Who are we to stand in these Americans’ pursuit of happiness? They’re just citizens who want ‘access’ and desire ‘tolerance,'” the useful idiots clamored.
“It’s none of our business what two consenting adults do,” lectured the libertarians. “That’s what privacy is all about.” Well, it ain’t so private any more, is it?
Forget the fact that the majority of gay people aren’t in committed monogamous relationships. Forget the fact that most homosexual people have lots of promiscuous (to even anonymous) sex with lots and lots of people. Forget the fact that gay couples often mimic the traditional male-female dynamic of marriage, so it’s really like hetero-lite … minus the bio babies.
Really, marriage equality was a big, fat lie that unhinged the gates of hell. And now, for some odd reason, the nihilists who foisted their worldview down the throats of unwilling Americans through judicial fiat now want special legal protections. Supra-rights. Supra-platforms. Supra-speech. Supra-safe spaces.
Recently, presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said she wanted to give homosexual couples reparations. And the so-called Equality Act “would add ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ as protected classes to existing laws banning discrimination in places of public accommodation, employment, housing, and by recipients of federal financial assistance.” What could go wrong?
You won’t spit, citizen! You must swallow and like every minute of it. Central authoritarians and their goons in the Fourth Estate will white-knight for the rainbow-huddled masses till you comply. No complaints, bigots.
Now look where we are. Not only do tax-payer-funded libraries host homosexual indoctrination, but tax-payer-funded police physically remove moms who film these shocking public events and then allow the nihilist foot soldiers to harass them. Courageous people who have the audacity to resist the fashionable sexualization of children have been doxxed by Antifa and predictably threatened by their violent hordes. It’s the ol’ one-two of Maoist barbarism, comrade.
In our twisted culture, the mama bears get called homophobic (a claim that can get you shunned from polite company at best, and canned from a job and made unmarketable at worst), and the sexual deviants are lauded as “stunning and brave” and pegged as victims in an unjust system.
Sure, it totally makes sense to send out a freakin’ SWAT team to arrest a peacefully protesting pastor and have snipers on the rooftop to keep an eye on those trouble-making family-values voters. Meanwhile, Antifa continually takes over America’s city streets. Welcome to Weimerica, y’all.
Heck, when politicians do have the good sense to cancel “drag queen story hour” at the public library, evangeleftists will step in to subvert the will of the local community, as happened in another city. A church, yes, a supposedly Christian church hosted the sexual event aimed at children. If these are our brothers and sisters in Christ, no wonder America’s post-Christian.
If there’s one thing that “pride” month solidified for me, it’s that there is literally no respite from gay-mania in the West. None. Not Lyft. Not princesses. Not Christian music. Not speech therapy. Not sports. Not online dictionaries. Not Oreos. Not children’s cartoons. Not public schools, of course. Not Ikea. Not Mother’s Day. Not Catholicism. Not high-church Protestantism. Not Evangelicalism. And not even Orthodoxy.
I could realistically spend all day and night just linking to the incessant LGBT brainwashing, but you get the point. This unceasing onslaught is by design so that we either (a) stay at home and don’t engage in the public square, thus, becoming refugees in our own communities or prisoners in our homes, or (b) we simply succumb to the madness.
If it’s one thing the enemy is good at, it’s wearing people down. Either way, the consequence is the same: a deracinated culture brimming with atomized individuals. This kind of hopelessness makes for a pliable people, as well as individuals who are hungry for “identity.” Trash family and God, and nihilism becomes the measure of your worth, even though it’s an immeasurable illusion. Destruction is the end goal.
This societal sodomizing (as I like to call it) is pushed on a reconstructed populace who typically play nice but always, always get burned. Ever the altruists, they bend and accommodate and assume the noblest of intentions of the enemy because being called “mean” is apparently one of the worst slights a person can confront. Plus, you know, there’s always Netflix to ease the pain.
Toughen up, people. Even though there’s admittedly no escaping (yet), we should not bend over and take it. Not now. Not ever.
societal sodomizing: (verb) having nihilism shoved up our anuses so hard and so many times that we experience uncontrollable fecal leakage due to damaged bowels, and our rectums eventually prolapse, as is the case for many serial sodomites.
synonyms: nihilism, assault, cultural genocide, godlessness, coercion, anarcho-tyranny, globalism
antonyms: freedom, sanity, tradition, decentralization, manners, kindness, respect
Used in a sentence (noun, present participle form): Eventually, you’ll submit to the societal sodomizing and maybe even grow to like it. Relax and enjoy the ride, darlin’.
Sure, we don’t have the systemic power of the “new man,” but we do have the godly authority as sovereigns, citizens, and parents to fight this nihilism. Let’s not give one more inch to the societal sodomizers. They already have enough.
Be sure to check out my follow-up blog, No just peace.
Comments
While you’re pointed in the right direction, you’re just wasting energy with the “nihilism” track.
These Politically Correct Progressives are NOT nihilists–who, as you point out, believe in “nothing.”
They have a very, very clear and very, very strict belief system, with 6 basic tenets.
Their belief system is based on hatred. Hatred of Normal America.
Here it is: They believe America is a:
1. Racist
2. Sexist
3. Homophobic
4. Foreigner-hating
5. Imperialist
6. Capitalist
…hellhole.
And that belief system is followed by their Action Corollary:
Normal America must be changed. (“Change” means “destroyed.)
All the incidents and actions you describe here are perfect examples of both their hatred for Normal America, and their active implementations of Changing/Destroying Normal America.
Please don’t let yourself get sidetracked into non-productive analyses of the PC-Progs.
It is very, very simple. Everything they do is based on one of the 6 beliefs added to the Action Corollary.
Keep up the good work!
Author
Nihilism IS destruction. And that’s the ultimate point. Moreover, progressivism embraces some of the very things you say they claim to hate: capitalism (like Facebook and globohomo corporations), imperialism (a la foreign adventurism and the “spreading of democracy” through endless wars), sexism (when it’s their guys or gals doing the sexism), racism (when it’s their aggrieved minorities doing it to whites), foreigner-hating (when it’s immigration-strict countries like Japan or Hungary), and homophobic (when they must ally with Muslims to push the victim pyramid). In other words, the left does whatever it takes to push the “change” that will lead to nihilism. People often wonder: How can secular Jews ally with Linda Sarsour on feminism? Or how can atheist one-worlders ally with envangeleftists on open borders? Or how can big business ally with AOC on “climate change”? Or how can “conservative” media ally with Antifa on tearing down Southern history? Or how can college administrators ally with campus snowflakes? It’s because the end goal (destruction of the West and the advancement of globalism – and, of course, increased power for the globalists and nothingness for the rest of us) is the game, so all the things you mentioned are simply effective tools used for winning. The don’t have six beliefs, that’s why they call themselves fluid, intersectional, allies, interfaith, and such. The have one belief: godless, nuclear-family-crushing, child-stealing, pedo-grooming, oligarch-growing, freedom-ending, culture-destroying nihilism.
While you are looking for the truth, read some of the labels on the food you are eating.
As producers try to move away from GMO, they are moving to soybean everything.
Soybeans are highly estrogenic. Estrogen makes young girls menstruate before they are teeenagers.
Estrogen twists the hormonally sensitive parts of adolescent boys brains, feminizing them and making them highly receptive to homosexuality.
Author
Yep, soyboy isn’t a term for nothin’. But you are completely correct: soy has definitely had an effect on the feminization of America’s male population and I’m sure does contribute to the effectiveness of globohomo grooming.
My husband and I buy peanut oil (which is the price of gold!) for our cooking since so many other veggie oils have soy. We also switched to Peter Pan peanut butter, since it has no soy, only rapeseed oil, and are trying our best to avoid other products containing any derivatives of the estrogen-soaked legume.
Thank you DM, Great essay. I seriously feel like buying more ammo whenever I read stuff like this.
How do you fit these two scriptures in with how you deal with these people:
“Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou. art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary. deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver. thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.”
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”
I know these scriptures do not suggest acceptance of evil, nonetheless they stick into my mind whenever I feel like punching someone’s lights out.
Author
Well, I think you can do both: love your enemy and want to punch his lights out. We are called to hate evil, hold fast to what is good, and do good to those who hate us. Resisting societal sodomizing not only calls out the great, dangerous, and godless lie that it is, but it also perpetuates the truth that nihilism is good for no one, including my enemies. That’s why trans people commit suicide at a rate of over 40%. It does no good for the children who are groomed into it. It does no good for the physical and spiritual ramifications of its cultists. It does no good for the nuclear family or for culture as a whole. We must not love in word and speech, like the weak-kneed rainbow-waving virtue-signalers do, but in deed and in truth. Genuine love is expressed in action and is manifested in concern for others. We can pray for those who persecute us while also praying for victory over our adversaries. As my priest once affirmed to me, Christianity is not a suicide pact.
Thanks so much for reading, SB, and for asking the thought-provoking question. Hope to hear from you again soon. 🙂
This is exactly what happened in Germany before Hitler came to power and put a stop to it and locked up the people responsible for it. Most people don’t know that the Nazi book burnings included mostly pornography and Marxist propaganda.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2847643/Berlin-liberal-hotbed-homosexuality-mecca-cross-dressers-transsexuals-male-female-surgery-performed-Nazis-came-power-new-book-reveals.html
When people call Hitler a tyrant, they refer to his effort to stop sexual debauchery.
Author
A friend and I were talking about this the other day, that it wasn’t “And then suddenly for no reason Hitler came to power. Poof!” That him fighting against the perversion and degradation of Germany (as the article explains well) at the hands of communists (and their capitalist backers) was one of the reasons he was democratically elected and why seemingly normal people clamored to his message. They didn’t want to live in Cabaret; they wanted their country to return to its pre-WWI greatness and smashing the runaway debauchery was part of the lure. People like saying “never again,” which is fine. Concentration camps are stupid. But what they should really be saying “never again” to is people allowing the unfolding of a nihilistic society which will inevitably end up producing a reactionary like Hitler. Crazy times for sure.
I appreciate you reading and taking the time to share your insights, Gv. And thanks for the article, too!
The WW2 (and by extension WW1) narrative is the greatest lie foisted on the world in the last 100 years. It was the last true battle. Nearly every war or conflict since has been manufactured by a relatively small group of mega wealthy internationalist bankers.
Dont take my word for it. This is backed up by a great deal of evidence. For example, who financed Lenin and Trotsky?
http://www.wildboar.net/multilingual/easterneuropean/russian/literature/articles/whofinanced/whofinancedleninandtrotsky.html?fbclid=IwAR3fhqAIXhV1fjz8XQNL_JdJ7unixhrNGsen5zXnb_jK0YSZUKASA81bozk
Woodrow Wilson openly admitted himself what was going on:
“However it has come about, it is more important still that the control of credit also has become dangerously centralized. It is the mere truth to say that the financial resources of the country are not at the command of those who do not submit to the direction and domination of small groups of capitalists who wish to keep the economic development of the country under their own eye and guidance. The great monopoly in this country is the monopoly of big credits. So long as that exists, our old variety and freedom and individual energy of development are out of the question. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. This is the greatest question of all, and to this statesmen must address themselves with an earnest determination to serve the long future and the true liberties of men.This money trust, or, as it should be more properly called, this credit trust, of which Congress has begun an investigation, is no myth; it is no imaginary thing. It is not an ordinary trust like another. It doesn’t do business every day. It does business only when there is occasion to do business. You can sometimes do something large when it isn’t watching, but when it is watching, you can’t do much. And I have seen men squeezed by it; I have seen men who, as they themselves expressed it, were put “out of business by Wall Street,” because Wall Street found them inconvenient and didn’t want their competition.”
The New Freedom – A call for the emancipation of the generous energies of a people (1913), Chapter VIII
“This war, in its inception was a commercial and industrial war. It was not a political war.”
Speech at the Coliseum in St. Louis, Missouri, on the Peace Treaty and the League of Nations (5 September 1919)
“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
Section I: “The Old Order Changeth”, p. 13
The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”
Section II: “What is Progress?”, p. 35
“If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it; what we have to determine now is whether we are big enough, whether we are men enough, whether we are free enough, to take possession again of the government which is our own.”
Section XII: “The Liberation of a People’s Vital Energies”, p. 286
Did you know that the allies used the German concentration camps for longer than the Nazis did for forced labor after the war? Millions were purposely displaced and hundreds of thousands died.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-European-Atrocity-You/132123
The Treaty of Versailles was designed to rape and pillage Germany. When Germany could no longer pay reparations, France invaded in 1923 and killed innocent civilians. That’s a little story nobody teaches you in school.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr
I could go on, but see the full story by watching the documentaries, “Europa: The Last Battle” and “Adolf Hitler: The Greatest Story Never Told” using the links below.
https://archive.org/details/EUROPATheLastBattlePart1_201802
https://archive.org/details/youtube-21hHM9hAJvw
Look up the facts presented in these videos. Do your homework. I’ve done so and its changed my paradigm completely.
Author
Indeed, the military-industrial complex only benefits those at the top, especially the bankers and financiers. I made the link between Western backing of the Bolsheviks when researching this 5-part series a while back, not that I was shocked, but still. I was familiar with the Allies using the concentration camps, but did not know about the Occupation of the Ruhr. Fascinating but, again, not at all shocking. Yes, the Treaty of Versailles was pure political treachery and certainly set the stage for WWII. I’ve learned a lot about it myself from Pat Buchanan and Hunt Tooley. But still, there always seems to be another new sinister detail that must be learned. Truly the stuff of leftist tyrants and blood-thirsty oligarchs.
Now, as far as the Greatest Story Never Told, I’ve never seen it, but I do know the gist. And even though I understand why Hitler came to power, I am still adamantly opposed to national socialism. After all, it was Hitler who looked to Lincoln and his “unionism” by force as a model for government and eventually for conquest. To me, anyone who is for centralization and against subsidiarity – whether it is in the name of a German people, the USA, the EU, or the Bilderberg Group – is an enemy. It’s all globalism at the end of the day. Simply different stripes of puritanical progressivism.
In principle, I don’t support Hitler’s version of National Socialism either. Ideally I would prefer to go back to something very similar to what our God-inspired founding fathers set-up. Voting rights should be restricted only to people who have skin in the game. Women shouldn’t vote, period. And our country’s overwhelming racial make-up and immigration policy should be restricted only to “whites of good character” (Naturalization Act of 1790).
But realistically we are not going to get back to that system in any shape or form any time soon. The establishment left/right paradigm is already setting up a permanent dictatorship right now where we’re losing our rights, and people like us will be extinguished, one way or another. If it comes to that (which, by all measures, it appears to be) and my only choice is their tyrants VS my tyrants, I’ll take mine any day.
Let’s just say I now understand exactly how Hitler rose to power. When your enemies have deliberately and cunningly cornered you into a wall from all sides, it’s either fight on your feet or perish on your knees.
Makes me think of a quote from Pastor Doug Wilson regarding some among our esteemed evangelical “leadership” in this fight:
“This is how our learned leaders have managed the process so far, in four easy steps.
1. There is no fight.
2. There might come a time when we might have to fight.
3. It’s too soon to fight.
4. It’s too late to fight . . .
We are here because our respected evangelical leadership specializes in indistinct bugle blowing”
– (Same Sex Mirage, pp. 155-156).
Who can know for sure what would have happened if we and our leadership had mounted a more vigourous opposition farther back upstream? However, it’s just possible we could have prevented a good deal of the violence they so abhor, but that I’m afraid is now inevitable.
Instead, let’s just concentrate on personal salvation, blood moons, the potential for the rebuilding of the Temple, pre-trib/post-trip Rapture, etc., cuz, ya know, it’s all gonna burn anyway!
Just to be clear, I’m a HUGE fan of personal salvation! It’s an absolutely vital beginning, but one that results in how one conducts one’s life in EVERY area, including the care and stewardship of one’s family, kith and kin, home, and the greater community. Essentially, we evangelicals have settled for one huge, non-stop camp meeting, that never results in anything meaningful beyond being born again (Again, an essential first step!) and conforming to whatever version of “Don’t drink, don’t chew, don’t go out with girls who do” the local sub-culture deems acceptable. Go along, get along, be tolerant and seeker-sensitive (and remember Romans 13, y’all!), and just know that all this persecution is necessary before we’re all Raptured!
AARRGGHH!!!
Okay, today’s catharsis complete! End of rant!
Author
Yes, mainline American Christianity is part of the problem. In my opinion, Evangelicalism is too soft. Too emotional and touchy-feely. Too once-saved, always-saved. Too individualistic. Too Sola Scriptura. Too lacking on liturgy. Too dispensationalist. Too not focused on the Eucharist. Too short on history. Too not traditional. Too shiny and corporate. Too not interested in the continuing labor and fine tuning and falling down flat on your face and getting back up for the long race.
This isn’t a sprint. Being a Christian takes work, and risk, and sacrifice, and part of that training may require being unpopular. Or being persecuted. Or may even require a fight. But all we need is the Sword of Truth, which IS love, but it cannot participate in a lie, just like God’s goodness cannot coexist with evil. They are mutually exclusive. Without truth, there is no charity. There is no kindness. There is no love. All that fake “bugle blowing,” as you call it, is exactly that: hot air. But one that burns everyone it touches, Christian and non-Christian alike. It’s time we put it to a stop. And if “faith leaders” won’t do it, we must.
I’m so glad you feel like you could rant here, DD. As a former Protestant, I get your grief. I pray that you find what you need at your church – not the camp meeting with Jesus as the perpetual boyfriend, but true healing by God the Almighty Father through the Son and with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Im a little late to the party I’m afraid as I just discovered this site after listening to Michael Witcoff.
I’m turning 64 in a month, and I’m a late in life convert to Orthodoxy from cradle evangelicalism (former Southern Baptist). Today I serve as a Subdeacon in an Antiochian parish.
I saw the writing on the walls years ago and saw how evangelicalism was going woke.
The SBC is going off the rails. Once the heavy hitter of evangelicals, you have two camps at play now. One are the rise of progressives (code word for liberals), and the other is Calvinism. The joke where I live is Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (once the most liberal of the SBC’s seminaries before the conservative resurgence) is called jokingly by some evangelicals today as “Midwest Reformed Seminary”.
The PCA is close behind with the encroachment of progressivism as well.
I predict the SBC will yet again split, but the schism will not be favorable to the traditionalists this go around. The conservatives don’t have the muscle now. I also predict the Southern Baptist will be performing same sex marriages and ordaining women clergy within 5 years. Same for the PCA.
The polity, the once saved always saved, Sola Scriptura, the proliferation of mega churches popping up like weeds (at least where I live), saying the sinners prayer for “fire insurance” of the soul, feminized music/worship/clergy in skinny jeans, egalitarian and feel good sermons, and the “I’m not concerned, I just trust Jesus to make it all good” makes evangelicals easy marks and canon fodder for the SJW woke crowd. One light at the end of the tunnel.
We’ve been seeing a sharp increase of inquirers and catechumens over the past 1-2 years, mostly among young disaffected evangelical men, and some NONES, at my parish. Im hearing other Antiochian parishes are seeing this, as are OCA, ROCOR, and Serbian jurisdictions. I can’t speak for the Greek parishes. We’re not doing some hip trendy outreach (like I saw back in my Southern Baptist days), but I believe it’s the work of the Holy Spirit (despite marginalizing from some evangelicals when I state this).
Author
It’s never to late to come to the party, Antonio! Everything you say is spot on. Due to Protestantism’s reforming ways, I (like you) don’t think there is any way for even the most conservative of denominations to withstand wokeness. Heck, I think the progressive onslaught may even gobble us some jurisdictions within Orthodoxy in the West. We shall see.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, which mirrors many of my own thoughts. I look forward to getting to hear more of your insights and am just so thrilled that you have found my site, especially through the uber-kind Brother Augustine! I pray you find my content thought-provoking and edifying. God bless!
The idea of love from the Bible has been so horrifically perverted by modern Christians, it has literally taken on the opposite meaning.
The love of God is not unconditional, free or automatically given. We have to obey God’s commandments first in order to receive it. John 14: 21-24 and 15:10-14 makes that clear. In psuedocode, these are literally conditional statements that have requirements before an outcome is appropriated.
Jesus then commands us to love others “as I have loved you” requiring their effort and obedience before that love is given.
What is the love of God? It is the Living Waters described John 4, which is eternal life. It is not a free gift, it requires fruit, which represents faith and repentance in Christ.