Sufferings of Middle East Christians Are A Holocaust

Sufferings  Of  Middle  East  Christians  Are  A  Holocaust   

 A  Review  Of

 Andreas Knapp The Last Christians (Plough Publishing, 2017)

                                      240 pp   $18.00   ISBN: 978-0-87486-062-7

 Translator:  Sharon Howe

 Reviewer:  Forrest W. Schultz

     The author of this book not only shares with us his first-hand accounts of the horrific sufferings of today’s Christians in the Middle East, he also provides us with this interpretation of their significance:  like those in the genocide of the Armenians, they constitute a Holocaust.  AND, not only that, but he also informs us that the term Holocaust was applied by an American missionary, Corinna Shattuck, to the Armenian genocide.  (The term Holocaust was first used to designate the Nazi extermination of the Jews in 1955.)  Little more is said by Knapp about Shattuck, so I went to the Armenian Genocide Museum site http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/Corinna-Shattuck-eng.php  which refers to her as “CORINNA SHATTUCK. THE ARMENIANS LIFE-SAVING AMERICAN” which includes this statement:  The result of her heroic efforts was that she … saved the life of the 240 Armenians (60 men and the rest women and children) in the house allocated to her, risking her own live during the massacres at Urfa in 1895..  It also informs us that she served under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

     Shattuck’s heroism is reminiscent of one of my favorite heroes, the Dutch lady Corrie Ten Boom, who hid Jews in her house during World War II.   I was disappointed that the author did not include this information in his book.

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     Knapp’s book contains helpful information on the history of Islam, especially as it interacts with the history of the Eastern Christians.  There is also discussion of the Eastern Christian attitude toward persecution, which appears to be a continuation of the same attitude found in the first century.  To sum it up, the material provided in this book is very moving as well as very thought-provoking and is very well written.  There are also excellent photographs.  One defect is that there are no footnotes, which should have been provided for many of the items in the text.

Information on the publisher is available at www.plough.com. 

December 22, 2017

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OBJECTION TO THE IDEA THAT TRANSGENDERISM IS GNOSTIC

In re the previous post, N T Wright is wrong.  See this article posted at the website indicated.

OBJECTION TO THE IDEA THAT TRANSGENDERISM IS GNOSTIC:

www.transchristians.org/book/...transgenderism-is-gnostic

Gnosticism (from the Greek gnosis meaning knowledge) is a general idea that divides the world into the Spirit which is good and the Body which is evil. The early Church had gnostic groups which believed Jesus' death symbolized death to both Sin and Body and that the Creator God of Genesis was in fact the devil because he imprisoned all people into body but God the Father sets us free from the flesh. Gnosticism includes some other, important beliefs too, not entirely relevant to our discussion here.  This is heretical to orthodox Christianity because we believe that God created a "good" physical world and our spirits and bodies are two parts which together make us us. The Nicene and Apostles Creeds both renounce Gnosticism by stating, "We believe in the resurrection of the body."

Most objections to transgenderism are twisted or misinformed, but this objection, while not entirely accurate, is not without some accuracy and can serve as a warning. In the trans community, we hear a lot of language that only the mind/spirit matters, not our body. However, while this could be called semi-gnosticism I don't think a gnostic would care for transgenderism at all for a number of reasons.

First, a transexual believes that their spirit is either male or female. A gnostic believes that male and female are bodily and temporary divisions. The spirit which is eternal is neuter, neither male nor female. Consider the Gospel of Thomas, a prime example of gnostic belief that says a person can only enter the Kingdom of Heaven by making the female like the male and the male like the female. I.e., becoming androgynous. 

Second, the goal of a transexual is not gnostic. A gnostic encourages dis-identification with the body. While a transexuals does that partly in denying their birth sex, they also desire a body of the correct sex to enjoy and express themselves. A gnostic would not desire any kind of body because the body is the prison. It is incapable of expressing the spirit, at least not well, and bodily/"fleshly" pleasures are sinful.

For transexuals to be accused of gnosticism is not only incorrect it is hypocritical. One moment they are accused of ignoring and hating their bodies the next they are accused of loving it too much. The latter is shown by criticism of transexuals for spending too much time on their bodies through makeup, hormones, SRS and so on. They are also accused of fetishism which they delegate as a physical and not a spiritual pleasure. Many critics are less interested in assigning correct analysis as they are assigning blame.

If transgenderism were to be accurately accused of gnosticism, it should be the genderqueers who deserve it!  Some genderqueer people (not including myself) believe they are not either female or male. They tend not to have surgery but may take low dosages of hormones to give them a more gender neutral appearance. Even these people can easily hold their gender identity without being gnostic. If they simply value aspects of their body other than their sex - eating, playing, moving, singing, touching, feeling, etc - they are embracing their body. They might believe that the Resurrected Body is sexless and that sex is a temporary phase of the body (like an umbilical cord or breathing water) that we eventually grow out of and they are merely mature for their age

An Update On The Acts Of The Anti-Family Movements -- A Review of Karen Van Til Gushta's "The Assault On Families

An  Update  On  The  Acts  Of  The  Anti-Family  Movements

A  Review  of

Karen Van Til Gushta The Assault On Families (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2017)

                                       (Special Report)   41 pp   ISBN: 978-1-929626-77-9

Reviewer:  Forrest W. Schultz

     For quite some time now the members of the D. James Kennedy Ministries organization have been in the forefront of those who have sought to learn and live out the Biblical world-view in all areas of life.  Their latest publication, under review here, brings us up to date on the various attacks upon American families, all of them being very serious matters.

      The author, Dr. Karen Van Til Gushta, named after her great uncle Professor Cornelius Van Til, has shown herself to be a worthy successor of her famous forebear:  she knows what it means to wield the Van Til Tool, a good example being her latest writing, which not only documents the nefarious activities of the various anti-family groups, but clearly shows how unbiblical they are.

   AND, she also adds a special bonus (on p. 28), something I had never heard of before, namely the thought-provoking idea that the philosophy behind the transgender movement is a form of Gnosticism !!  I have done a huge amount of research into the influences of Gnosticism and Platonism on Western theology and culture, but I never heard of or discovered this one!!  I am going to make this my next theology research project!

     I highly recommend this book as I have the author’s earlier books on The War On Children and Common Core.  Info on D. James Kennedy Ministries is available on their website  www.djkm.org.    

   

       

  

Walter Williams Speaks Out !!

Moral Values and Customs

By Walter E. Williams

December 13, 2017

 

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I’m approaching my 82nd birthday, and my daughter will occasionally suggest that modernity is perplexing to me because I’m from prehistoric times. As such, it points to one of the unavoidable problems of youth — namely, the temptation to think that today’s behavioral standards have always been. Let’s look at a few of the differences between yesteryear and today.

One of those differences is the treatment of women. There are awesome physical strength differences between men and women. To create and maintain civil relationships between the sexes is to drum into boys, starting from very young ages, that they are not to use violence against a woman for any reason. Special respect is given women. Yesteryear even the lowest of lowdown men would not curse or use foul language to or in the presence of women. To see a man sitting on a crowded bus or trolley car while a woman is standing used to be unthinkable. It was deemed common decency for a man to give up his seat for a woman or elderly person.

Today young people use foul language in front of — and often to — adults and teachers. It’s not just foul language. Many youngsters feel that it’s acceptable to assault teachers. Just recently, 45 Pennsylvania teachers resigned because of student violence (http://tinyurl.com/yacmn5dz). Back in what my daughter calls prehistoric times, the use of foul language to an adult or teacher would have meant a smack across the face. Of course, today a parent taking such corrective action risks being reported to a local child protective service and even being arrested. The modern parental or teacher response to misbehavior is to call for “time out.” In other words, what we’ve taught miscreants of all ages is that they can impose physical pain on others and not suffer physical pain themselves. That’s an open invitation to bad behavior.

Time to buy old US gold coins

It has always been considered a good idea to refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage or at least adulthood. During the sexual revolution of the 1960s, lessons of abstinence were ridiculed, considered passe and replaced with lessons about condoms, birth control pills and abortion. Out-of-wedlock childbirths are no longer seen as shameful and a disgrace. As a result, the rate of illegitimate births among whites is over 30 percent, and among blacks, it’s over 70 percent.

American Contempt for ...Walter E. WilliamsBest Price: $8.71Buy New $13.37(as of 08:35 EST - Details)

For over a half-century, the nation’s liberals — along with the education establishment, pseudo-intellectuals and the courts — have waged war on traditions, customs and moral values. Many in today’s generation have been counseled to believe that there are no moral absolutes. Instead, what’s moral or immoral, right or wrong, is a matter of convenience, personal opinion or what is or is not criminal.

Society’s first line of defense is not the law but customs, traditions and moral values. Customs, traditions and moral values are those important thou-shalt-nots, such as thou shalt not murder, shalt not steal, shalt not lie and shalt not cheat. They also include respect for parents, teachers and others in authority, plus those courtesies one might read in Emily Post’s rules of etiquette. These behavioral norms — mostly transmitted by example, word of mouth and religious teachings — represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience, trial and error, and looking at what works and what doesn’t.

The importance of customs, traditions and moral values as a means of regulating behavior is that people behave themselves even if nobody’s watching. There are not enough cops. Laws can never replace these restraints on personal conduct in producing a civilized society. At best, the police and the criminal justice system are the last desperate lines of defense for a civilized society. Unfortunately, customs, traditions and moral values have been discarded without an appreciation for the role they played in creating a civilized society, and now we’re paying the price — and that includes the recent revelations regarding the treatment of women.

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Walter E. Williams is the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.

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