Maybe you’ll see me on the evening news
Maybe you’ll see me with a bag over my head
If that’s the case, then I’ve met my doom
If that’s the case, then my comrades are dead
And I don’t hate my enemy
I hate the cloud he’s brought over my land
There’s no virtue in killing a man
Neither is there virtue in being afraid to stand
But I saw the black coats forming lines
They hit our beaches running
We’re on our knees but not to pray
You’re the only reason I stayed
In this coward’s melee
I’d rather die than live without mercy and love
Sing while the city decays
We’d rather go up in flames
Lest we betray thy names of dignity and love
Last month I pre-ordered the vinyl of one of my favorite albums, The End Is Not the End from House of Heroes. This album has consistently been in my playlist for nearly seven years. It is kind of crazy to think it’s been that long and it still ranks as one of my favorites. Last year they crowdfunded another album and one of the stretch goals was to do a vinyl runoff this album. Kind of a brainless choice for me.
This album contains a lot of songs set in World War II and the Cold War era, including Code Name: Raven, By Your Side, Journey Into Space, and Baby’s a Red.
Sitting here this morning, I cannot help but think of my Christian brothers that were just beheaded in Libya by ISIS. “I don’t hate my enemy, I hate the cloud he’s brought over my land. There’s no virtue in killing a man, neither is there virtue in being afraid to stand.” These men stood by their faith until they could kneel before His eternal throne. So many in the American leadership and media are afraid to stand for those that died in the Paris shooting last month or the Denmark shooting this month. Too afraid to stand for the freedom of speech. Heck, while Jesus was on trial, Peter denied any association with Christ.
Sometimes our wish to appease those that hate us— so as to not be hated, or to just survive— prevents us from standing for something good and true. When the nation of the crescent comes for our heads, will you stand for something or take knee before them to keep your head?
Song Ratings
★★★★☆ If
★★☆☆☆ Lose Control
★★★☆☆ Leave You Now
★★★★☆ Dangerous
★★★★☆ In the Valley of the Dying Sun
★★★★★ Code Name: Raven
★★★★★ By Your Side
★★★★★ Journey Into Space, Pt. 1
★★★☆☆ Sooner or Later
★★★★★ Baby’s a Red
★★★☆☆ Drown
★★★☆☆ Faces
★★★★★ Voices
★★★★☆ Field of Daggers
★★★★☆ The Young and the Brutal
★★★★☆ New Moon
★★★★★ Ghost
★★★★☆ If (Acoustic)
★★☆☆☆ Serial Sleepers (Acoustic)
Always love this channel’s content, but this one and the first part are absolutely awesome and full of nerdery. What’s awesome about this one, to me, is how clear the One Ring and Sauron are an image of Satan. The Ring tells it’s bearer lies, trying to convince them that they can overthrow Sauron and be a great hero. A temptation that almost no one can resist, though the Hobbits, in their humility, are as close being able to resist it as possible.
As America shifts into a multi-plural, post-modern society, many are finding it hard to deal with and understand those that aren’t shifting. There is a push for everyone to be more “tolerant,” but the definition of that term has shifted to mean something else. What’s worse is that the new definition doesn’t work with the biggest two religions of the world.
Tolerance
“showing willingness to allow the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with”
This is the definition of “tolerance” according to The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. There is a key difference between it and what the media and many Americans believe it to mean. The definition espoused by them is:
“showing willingness to accept opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with”
You see the difference? We have gone from the expectation that people will allow the existence of differing opinions to the expectation that people will accept differing opinions. And not just opinions: philosophies, “truths,” religions, and more. This is post-modernism in a nutshell, actually. That each person defines their own truth, their own right and wrong.
So how does this new definition not work with the biggest religions of the world? The two biggest religions are Christianity and Islam. These two represent half of the world’s population. Christianity believes in the Ten Commandments, the first of which is “you shall have no other gods before Me.” Christianity adds, beyond that, that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. Islam says this in the Shahada creed, “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
The new definition of “tolerance” stands in the face of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and calls them bigots, a term that is tied directly to “tolerance” meaning “a person who is intolerant toward those holding different opinions.” You change the definition of “tolerance” and the definition of “bigot” changes too.
According to Patheos, the Crow people are taught to “respect all religions,” which is why it might be strange to some outsiders that Crow Nation have chosen to identify Jesus as the sole messiah. — The Inquisitr
Ignorance is why “it might be strange” that a people that claim to “respect all religions” chose to “identify Jesus as the sole messiah.” One cannot be a Christian without believing Jesus to be their only salvation from the death that is due them by their sin. But one can also respect and tolerate all religions while embracing Jesus, because of the acceptance that we are all sinners, that even we were once without Christ. Disrespecting those that don’t know Jesus isn’t what Christ taught. But He did teach us to go and make disciples of the nations, to spread the Gospel, to rebuke those that spread false Gospels, and to fight the philosophies of our day.
If you believe that all religions are equally true, you must believe that Christianity is equally true to your own belief. And Christianity says that all other gods are false gods and that Jesus is the only way to salvation. A Muslim cannot believe this and their own faith. The two cannot be equal. Because 1 does not equal 0. 2 + 2 does not equal 5. Unless you are tolerant of all views. But if you were, you wouldn’t have a problem with Christians believing their own view to be the only true truth.
The true Gospel and true Sword of the Word are inherently confrontational and corrective.
And if there’s anything that this world and the modern American mindset hates, it is… confrontation and correction.
The plastic, world-friendly, harmless counterfeit sword is marked not by it’s ability to properly confront and correct, but by its aversion to the same.
I have long said that the biggest problem in the American church is a lack of apologetics teaching, largely stemming from the seeker-friendly movement that touched much of evangelism. The last church I belonged to fell into this badly, where they didn’t want to offend or confront false teachers within the body, even if the false teachers were leaders of small groups.
Adam4d is easily one of my favorite web comics. Today, Adam shows the inconsistency of those that cry “closed-minded,” “intolerant,” and worse at Christians. There is no absolute truth except the absolute truth that there is no absolute truth. Word.
If I can glean anything from these open letters, it’s this–maybe people (my people, Millennials) are leaving the Church because we are spoiled, selfish, uneasily satisfied, hypercritical, consumeristic and socially enlightened but biblically light-weight.
So many good points in this article. As a Millennial, I love hearing humbling things from other Millennials. That we are often biblically light-weight is a major problem today. Without solid apologetics or even a historical understanding of arguments against — or for — our faith, many fail to fight against the evil that is gripping our country today.
