Theology, History, Reformation

Let the heretics contrive something of the same kind. For, after their blasphemy, what is there that is unlawful to them? But should they even affect the contrivance, they will not advance a step. For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for its author neither an apostle not an apostolic man. Because, as the apostles would never have taught things which were self-contradictory, so the apostolic men would not have inculcated teaching different from the apostles… To this test, therefore, will they be submitted for proof by those churches who, although they do not derive their founder from apostles or apostolic men —as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded daily— yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are considered no less apostolic because they are agreed in doctrine. Tertullian (~AD 155-220), Prescription Against Heretics; chapter XXXII. https://t.me/Theology_Today

🇪🇸🇦🇹 Spanish journal La Gaceta: Anti-Christian sentiment increases sharply in Austria: Attacks on Christians increase by 20% and most suspects are foreigners. https://t.me/Theology_Today

…and if they had applied the same treatment to the masonic lodges + hunted down the lodge members and burnt them alive for witchcraft… then that would have been perfection. Who are the freemasons? A bit on that here and here and also here.

☝🏻Remember: I have made the Biblical case here for Christian Nationalism and kinism COUNTLESS TIMES; until I’ve gone blue in the face. I’ve shown how not only scripture, but great minds such as John Calvin, Augustine of Hippo, and several other church fathers would be in agreement. But hardly anyone reads or shares. I also made my case to an OPC pastor (whom I won’t name) who’s a big name among the opponents of Christian Nationalism; but he refused to listen and chose to insult me instead. I can lead a horse to water but I can’t make him drink. These disasters (and others that are coming) are not on me.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Recently, an Evangelical Christian missionary from Scotland was murdered, cut into pieces, and stuffed into a suitcase… by a Muslim Afghan migrant whom she was helping relocate into Europe. The full story here: https://www.jubileecast.com/articles/38400/20260803/who-was-missionary-elisabeth-jane-ross-church-mourns-suitcase-greece.htm Note: There is heated debate over Christian Nationalism and kinism right now, and churches are looking to excommunicate anyone who shows even a hint of being a kinist or Christian Nationalist. But are they right? Or are they in error like the church of Athanasius’ time? I can’t help but feel like what happened to Ross was a moment of clarity for this particular issue. It doesn’t seem logical to think that you could be in the right about something and also end up as a real life example of Galatians 6:7. I have also been seeing anti-Christians pounce on this incident to criticize Christianity as an ideology of contemptible weakness and white self-genocide. That same trend has been happening on a larger scale in the Catholic context, with thousands of people blasting the Roman church for its role in mass migration, and rejecting Christianity as a whole because of it. Think: If your stance and actions cause people to reject Christ and blaspheme God… you might not be in the right. Check out these scriptures: Matthew 12:30, Romans 2:24. https://t.me/Theology_Today

The sheepfold of Bozrah; part 3: Previously, we examined the location of Bozrah and its role in end times prophecy. But we come up with the question of whether to understand the prophetic Bozrah as the literal location in Jordan (likely not), or even as an alternative location. Authors like Gavin Finley, Dan Starcevich, and Arnold Fruchtenbaum have all taken the literal approach. But are they correct? The first thing to note is that scripture isn’t always to be taken literally: Jesus often spoke in parables (see, for example Luke 8:10), and end times prophecy in particular is often not literal. John, for example states clearly that some things in his book are ‘mystery’ (see Revelation 17:5 & 7) or that they require decipherment (Rev. 13:18). In the case of the prophetic Bozrah, we simply have no clues pointing us to an alternative, spiritual location (the way we have Babylon = Rome, for example). And if the scripture isn’t speaking of the literal Bozrah —which is likely— then the understanding might just lie in a spiritual or metaphorical sense rather than a geographical one. And for that we have an abundance of clues, chief of which is Bozrah’s identity as a nigh impenetrable Edomite fortress where sheep were enclosed. Note that the passage in Micah 2 portrays the divine saviour as a “breaker” who causes a breakthrough whereby the sheep are given deliverance. This implies that their stay in Bozrah is not a situation of safety and protection —as some have thought— but one of oppression, captivity, and persecution. And the oppressor in question would be none other than the Edomite nation. But who are the Edomites? Haven’t they ceased to exist? Well… no. Many Jewish rabbis claim that Christendom —Europe and the United States— is Edom. However… this is a blatant case of projection: As a matter of fact, the Jews are themselves the only literal living descendants of Esau. Classical historians like Flavius Josephus and Strabo told of how the Edomites or ‘Idumaeans’ had abandoned their original homeland and occupied southern Judea at the time that the Jews were in exile in Babylon. Centuries after the Jews returned and gained their nationhood again, the two peoples came into conflict, and it was around 110 B.C. that the Jewish king John Hyrcanus conquered the Edomites and forced them to convert to Judaism and be circumcised. From then on they became Jews and intermarried with the original Jews, so that today modern Jews are a mix, as much descended from Esau as they are from Jacob and Judah. Now some —including the rabbis— will retort that the modern Edom is not Edom by virtue of blood, but spiritually: Esau sold his birthright for carnal things. Therefore America is Edom, because America is materialistic, right?… Wrong: In reality it’s the whole world that’s materialistic, so that clumsy generalization doesn’t work. And if the rabbis would point to Americans as the spiritual Edom, they’d likely find a bigger finger pointing back at them: In their case, like their ancestor Esau, they sold their birthright, the heavenly kingdom promised via Christ —whom they killed— in exchange for an earthly kingdom and a false messiah (see Matthew 4:8 + 21:43 & John 5:43). Today they are relishing their bowl of stew, ruling over and oppressing the entire world, with both America and Europe firmly under their boot. In reality, it is the so-called Jews who reject Christ that best fit the description of Edom, and the end-times prophecies about Israel being in the sheepfold of Bozrah are likely a depiction of the church’s modern reality: In captivity and under the power of the Jews. If this interpretation is correct… then Isaiah 63 (and 34:6 + Jeremiah 49:13 & 22 + Amos 1:11-12) does not bode well for their future. And note how well Amos 1:11 describes them, holding a perpetual and implacable grudge, such that they still take “vengeance” on us today for things that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago (like the Romans destroying the temple) and with which we had nothing to do. https://t.me/Theology_Today

Addendum (Bozrah; pt 1): I had to make a few edits to this. After looking over the geography, it seems many of my sources might be wrongly connecting Bozrah to the concept of a “wilderness”. Nothing in the scripture mentions the vicinity of Bozrah as a “wilderness” and the nearby area known as a wilderness (‘Wilderness of Paran’ and ‘Mt. Seir’) seems to have been farther south, toward the Gulf of Aqaba. I’m therefore inclined to think that we can’t really justify a connection between the Bozrah mentioned in the OT and the woman’s flight to the wilderness in Revelation 12:6. https://t.me/Theology_Today

The Sheepfold of Bozrah; part 2: In the previous episode, we learned that scripture contains prophecy about a role played by the Edomite city of Bozrah in the end times, as a place where God’s people Israel will be gathered. But is this to be taken literally? How exactly should we interpret it? Some people have interpreted the prophecy literally and within a dispensationalist framework, thinking that Jews will literally flee across the Negev desert during the tribulation (Christians, of course, will have been taken up in the rapture by then, according to this view) and hide among the ruins of Bozrah (or Petra for some reason). They link the Bozrah prophecies in Micah 2 with Christ’s warning in Matthew 24:15 for “those who are in Judea” to “flee to the mountains”. But this doesn’t make too much sense, as (1) it would have Jews trekking across the border into neighboring Jordan, (2) Matthew 24 has no mention of Bozrah and verse 15 would seem to be referring rather to the hilly Judean desert, and (3) the Old Testament prophecies about Bozrah speak of Israel / Jacob and not specifically of Judah, the way Matthew 24:15 does. It’s an important distinction when we realize that dispensationalism isn’t the correct or historical understanding of Christian covenant theology. Early church fathers like Justin Martyr and Melito of Sardis stated clearly that Israel prefigured the multinational (i.e. ‘Catholic’) Christian church. In other words, the documentary evidence shows that the covenant theology of the earliest Christians was what we call supersessionism. This means that any Old Testament prophecy that applies to the end times and speaks of Israel / Jacob in a general way —rather than of Judah (i.e. the Jews) specifically— is applicable not to the Jews but to the church. And so, it’s not Jews who will be in Bozrah, but Christians of every nation, tribe and tongue. The next question is whether the prophetic Bozrah is the literal place in what’s today Jordan. The answer is likely NO, as it seems preposterous to imagine this small location in the Jordanian desert housing every single Christian on earth at some point. Remember also that Biblical places don’t always have a fixed spiritual abode. For example, Peter informed us that Rome had become the new Babylon (1 Peter 5:13), while John noted that the earthly Jerusalem had somehow lost its original identity to become both “Sodom and Egypt” instead (Revelation 11:8). Thus, we have to consider the possibility that the prophetic Bozrah refers to something other than the literal location in Jordan, either to another place and / or to a state of being under the power / authority of a certain group or entity. In part 3, we will dig deeper for clues as to what and where the prophetic Bozrah is. https://t.me/Theology_Today

The sheepfold of Bozrah; part 1: Image: The town of Busaira, Jordan; ruins of the ancient city of Bozrah in the foreground. 🇯🇴 Bozrah was one of the capitals of the ancient Kingdom of Edom, the nation that sprung from Jacob’s brother Esau. The city is mentioned and alluded to in several end-times prophecies, as (1) a place in which God would gather His elect during a time of tribulation, and (2) the first target of His direct, wrathful intervention. Micah 2:12-13 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold (original text: ‘like the flock of Bozrah’), like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head. The significance here seems to be (1) Bozrah’s name, which in Hebrew means “sheepfold” or “enclosure”, and (2) its status as a “city in the wilderness”. The arid land of Edom is often thought of as a wilderness, often connected with the “wilderness of Paran” and with mount Seir in the south. Thus, some have linked Israel’s gathering in Bozrah to the woman’s flight into the wilderness in Revelation 12:6. However, a perhaps more important factor underlying Bozrah’s significance for the end times saga might be (3) the fact that Bozrah was an Edomite city. The second coming of Christ and His wrathful destruction of the wicked depicted in Revelation 14:19 and 19:11-21 has the exact same imagery —such as a winepress and a white robe stained in blood— as an Old Testament passage depicting the final episode of the eschaton… which interestingly mentions Bozrah and Edom as bearing the initial brunt of the intervention: Isaiah 63:1-6 Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, He who is splendid in His apparel, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” Why is your apparel red, and your garments like His who treads in the winepress? “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” https://t.me/Theology_Today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uMrEg0coNU

Yikes… No. The figure of Babylon described in Revelation 17 is “adorned with gold and jewels and pearls” (verse 4). The garments used by the Israelite priesthood did not have pearls. The ephod had twelve jewels with the names of the 12 tribes of Israel; but no pearls (see Exodus 28). In the same verse in Revelation, Babylon is described as “arrayed in purple and scarlet”. The Greek word for purple is πορφύρα (porphyra). This is Tyrian purple, usually produced by the sea-snail Bolinus Brandaris. The color is a reddish purple, often similar to Burgundy. The garments of the Levite priests are usually thought of as having either (a) a different type of purple, more like violet, or (b) the indigo blue often used by Jews to this day and known in Hebrew as תְּכֵלֶת (tekhelet). The dye to render the colors violet and indigo was also extracted from a sea-snail, but it was a different species: Hexaplex Trunculus. Hebrew texts mention this snail with the name חלזון (khilazon). https://t.me/Theology_Today

History of the Scottish Covenanters; part 5. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Image: Scots gathered in a Conventicle in defiance of the 1664 Conventicle Act; art by J.R. Skelton. In the aftermath of the English Civil Wars, things seemed to return to normal when Oliver Cromwell died and Parliament suddenly decided to invite Charles II Stuart back to England and its throne. Scots of all walks supported the 1660 Stuart Restoration, including the Covenanters, who were happy to see their old ally’s luck improve. The new regime in London prosecuted several people who’d been involved in the killing of Charles I Stuart and had them tortured to death by hanging, drawing, and quartering. Cromwell and two associates were also exhumed and posthumously tried as traitors, their bodies hung in public and beheaded. But if the Covenanters imagined that the king’s change in fortune bode well for them, they were grievously mistaken. Charles proved to be a petulant child with no regard for their religious concerns. He betrayed them and again imposed Episcopalianism on Scotland by force. Hardliners resisted this by gathering in secret, illegal church services known as Conventicles. State persecution pushed the Covenanters into several armed rebellions between 1666 and 1680, during which they drafted the famous Rutherglen and Sanquhar Declarations. These revolts were brutally crushed by the Scottish government, and persecution intensified with property confiscations, imprisonments, and judicial murder, during what became known as the Killing Time (1679-1688). Notably, while Presbyterians were murdered in Scotland for not wanting to acknowledge the king as a sort of new pope, Jews were allowed total religious freedom by both Charles II and his Catholic son and successor, James VII & II (1685-1688). The latter would eventually be overthrown by his English subjects in the so-called Glorious Revolution, in which the Scots had no involvement. Those events gave rise to the Jacobite Movement, and the first such rebellion broke out in both Ireland and Scotland in 1689 to try and restore James to the throne. Having been persecuted during his reign and that of his father, most Presbyterians had no reason to support James, so the Jacobite rebels tended to be mostly Catholic or Episcopalian. The majority of Scots gladly accepted the new king, Dutch prince William III of Orange. William restored Presbyterian polity in Scotland in 1689, and the Covenanters more or less ceased to exist as a movement after that. Still, many hardliners continued to mistrust the new government and congregate in Conventicles. One faction left over from the 1679-1680 Sanquhar rebellion —known as the “Cameronians”— even formed a movement that eventually separated from the Church of Scotland to form a new congregation, known as the “Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland”. A similar trend has continued to this day, as the Scottish Kirk sadly came increasingly under the influence and control of the British government and increasingly liberal. Hardliners and the sincerely religious have broken away from the Church of Scotland for that reason, starting with the Great Disruption of 1843, and forming many new and smaller churches (i.e. like the “Free Church of Scotland” and the “Free Church of Scotland [Continuing]). This then concludes the history of the Scottish Covenanters. https://t.me/Theology_Today

Cologne Cathedral, Germany. 🇩🇪 Not many people know this, but one of Germany’s largest and most iconic Catholic churches was built (in its current state)… by Protestants. The original Gothic cathedral had never been completed, being started in the 13th century and left unfinished for hundreds of years. In 1842, renovation and construction resumed after about 300 years of inactivity. This was done at the direction and cost of the Lutheran Kingdom of Prussia. The Protestant government was in large part motivated by a desire to improve relations with its Catholic subjects and foster a sense of nationalism and solidarity between Catholics and Protestants. Construction was finished in 1880 and the completion celebration was attended by emperor Wilhelm I. It was the tallest building in the world at the time, being surpassed four years later by the Washington Monument. To this day it remains the tallest cathedral and twin-spired church in the world. https://t.me/Theology_Today

https://faithandheritage.com/2014/02/kinism-in-the-early-church/

https://t.me/Theology_Today

…when talking about the subject of mass-migration, we can forget that there are many Christians in our western countries, and that they are being personally affected by the phenomenon. Even in nations like France, Germany, and Sweden that have undergone widespread apostasy, there remains a faithful remnant. It’s not just apostate atheists who are being victimized by hordes of Muslims and other vile pagans… it’s Christians. Just yesterday I saw a woman from Spain —a devout Catholic— telling of how she’d been chased down the street by some Moroccans wanting to rape her, and that she’d been able to deter them by grabbing her phone and pretending to call police. The people flooding our nations with criminals and freeloaders know this, they are doing it deliberately to target the church: Revelation 12:17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And while Christians are being subjected to violence and persecution at the hands of both the invaders and their own governments, some folks in the church are focusing all their energy on condemning the kinists and Christian nationalists that are raising the alarm and calling for action. A Muslim army is battering down the gates and instead of taking up sword and shield like a man, you’re sitting around arguing with your fellow Christians about something that’s arguably a tertiary issue. Ask yourself if you’re practicing Christian love —as articulated in 1 John 3:16-18– toward the Christian victims of this evil. https://t.me/Theology_Today

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Un2eR8iwU