I have been fairly reminded that R2 has deviated a bit from our original intent of describing reformations to institutional church that should allow it to attract more of the remnant than it currently does. Despite the deviation, the original postulates remain. That “church” in the western world is not what Jesus designed, nor does it attract many of those that Jesus has called. While some may participate in the activities of these “clubs”, the process of growing to “meat” from “milk” almost necessitates that believers move on. After a period of time moving from club to club, most that grow to maturity in Christ are “done” with institutional church. These people can be referred to as the “Dones” (done with church) as documented by the institutions themselves in various ways. Of course clergy will object to the possibility that all clergy may not be true believers. Yet even mainstream Christian productions attest to this fact, as evidenced by this brief dialogue from a popular recent release called “Do You Believe?”:
Street preacher: Do you believe in this cross?
Pastor: I’m a pastor.
Street preacher: You didn’t answer my question…
The logical conclusion for a true believer from a stint within institutional church is to recognize “The Church” as something much less tangible and much more supernatural than any building with a list of bylaws and political hierarchy. Also – if we’re not careful – we’re left with a significant scar of cynicism.
Our intent has not changed. We look forward to opportunities to continue to dismantle the human corruptions that have been polluting the reputation of Christ’s Church. However attempts to confront this corruption have resulted in a stark revelation that the institutional church is almost identically to the world. So rather than only point out the corruption of churches, we have opted to point out corruption in general. We have opted to focus on the delineation between true-believers and the world and we have opted to ignore the institutional church almost entirely. We don’t bother to mention whether people are members of the VFW, the Elk’s Club, or Sam’s Club. So why bother to mention denominations or any human institution? Institutional churches have attempted for centuries to lay claim to “The Church”, but they remain clubs, usually with less social influence than Costco, not to mention the lack of spiritual influence. In short, the wind and waves don’t obey “elder boards” and “mission committees.”
So we will press on with a more subtle theme of reformation among the more obvious and universally visible evils of the modern times. So with that disclaimer behind me I submit to you what may be the persecution yet to come.
In previous posts we we’ve discussed The Subtleties of Religious Persecution as well as Witchcraft in the 21st Century and today I will lay out the next logical step.
In those prior posts, and many others, we’ve described how society in general already recognizes that it has a major obstacle when it comes to nature’s lack of cooperation with godless philosophy. The “wind and the waves” do not obey society, and this poses a problem for their goal of control. They can manipulate money, they can manipulate corporations, they can fix contests, define popularity, and sway the masses with sound bites. They can even reorganize our academic institutions in ways that will promote godless individuals and ideological opposition to the gospel. They can do all of those things, and they do. Yet still the “wind and the waves” do not obey them. Not for lack of trying either. The barren women of the old testament can be rescued by in-vitro fertilization. Those pregnant with inconvenient children, as Mary was, can end that with abortion. There’s even plastic surgery for those that suffer unattractiveness like Leah. However, talents still come from God. Talents and godly children, despite in-vitro fertilization.
We covered talents rather thoroughly in Witchcraft in the 21st Century so today I will discuss children. A resource of control that Red China identified decades ago, September 25, 1980 to be exact.
Up until they finally outlawed more than one child, the Chinese government campaigned tirelessly for “voluntary” birth control and “discouraged” reproduction. All under the guise of “family planning”.
Does any of that sound familiar? Feminism, the LGBT movement, and planned parenthood all face the same problem. They can’t stop Christians from reproducing. At least not yet.
Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it -Alinsky
For years there has been a concerted effort to polarize large families vs. small ones. Some of that effort has been less sinister in that simple practicality mandates that restaurants and churches and even grocery stores adjust their spaces to accommodate their average family size. Other efforts have been more sinister, those who have trouble having children, those who have no patience for children, and even those who are just convinced that children don’t have a Heavenly Father contributing to their upbringing can be heard saying: “that’s just irresponsible!” In the 21st century some would go so far as to claim a large family to be a form of child abuse. Ironically, the same people that would say that it’s merciful and kind to kill babies before they are born. The contradiction would be baffling if it weren’t for our knowledge of the evil principalities and powers that society is subject to.
The above character from Cheaper By The Dozen from a dozen years ago was a joke herself with her formerly contemptible line: “They’re all going to end up on milk cartons.”
Yet today, “Tina” (from above) represents a lot more of society than we would have believed just a few decades ago. With her godless ideology that proclaims: “Because we wanted one perfect child” and declares those who have a half dozen or more are: “irresponsible.” She represents our future.
Gone are the days of free-range kids. Attempting to allow my children to roam the neighborhood the way I did when I was their age is sure to “catch a case” from some government agency looking to boost its reputation in the sight of society. Again, just like in Ryan’s previous post, it’s because society does not include our Heavenly Father in the “supervision” equation. Godlessness begets more than just control, it begets paranoia. Again (from previous posts), ironically, these are the same progressives that proclaim: “it takes a village to raise a child.” How so, when children aren’t even allowed to explore the village?
Back to the coming persecution. The time is coming, and perhaps has now come. Now that marriage has been corrupted, gender roles decimated, and the role of father emasculated. The next evil step in the destruction of America is to control reproduction. Not just in the “voluntary” way that we’ve already seen from Planned Parenthood and its ilk. Instead in a legislative way. Some tools that have such potential include Common Core, Social Services, even the ACA. Imagine this scenario: “In efforts to stave off irresponsible spending, all health insurance policies in the US are now required to only cover exactly one child. Any family conceiving more than one child will not only pay the full price of delivery, but will be required to pay a ‘Cadillac tax’ on the extra child.”
I suspect this will take a long time to implement, especially if progressives experience backlash in 2016, but precursors to such a move would almost have to include a limit to the child tax credit. As has already been happening, and in stark contradiction to their own “stay out of my vagina” motto, the less progressive practice of home-birth has already come under stark scrutiny as well. Ironically again, while these folks sure promote the murder of babies prior to birth, they hate the idea that just “anyone” can go having children at home without their permission… um, eh… oversight.
It’s no accident that our Heavenly Father made humans to be able to reproduce without help from a doctor. Yet for those that don’t believe in a Heavenly Father, this idea sounds radical, even insane. The membership is growing every day of those that believe that Christians are mentally-ill. Despite the signs of the times increasing too.
Whether or not our Heavenly Father has blessed you with a large family, please don’t fall for the subtle ostracization of them. Even if you’re jealous and tempted to despise them as Rachel despised Leah. Remember that Abraham and Sarah had just 1 child between them, but went on to be exceedingly fruitful. God is still God, and the sooner we surrender to His will for our lives, the less likely that believers will fall into this trap the way we have with the feminist movement.
For those couples that God has not allowed children, please consider carefully His reasons before attempting to turn the tables on Him with medical intervention. I’m not saying that God cannot use medical interventions. I’m saying that if that is the course you choose please do so prayerfully.
Again, no matter your situation, don’t fall for the subtle peer-pressure to frown upon large families. If you truly believe in our Heavenly Father, then you should know full well that His will for us takes different turns.
This issue has potential to be a next big surrender within the institutional church similar to the acceptance of divorce (not Henry the 8th, but the last few decades where it has become almost entirely normalized), and the trivialization of gender roles (feminist movement). Two utterly devastating opponents of the traditional family. Don’t be part of the next big mistake.