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Was Canada Effective in World War II? ASK THE WORLD

I used to always state that Quora.com was a site where people could ask questions on any topic, and those who feel qualified attempt to answer them. “It’s much like Yahoo! Answers”, I would further explain. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is not a fair comparison. It’s becoming more like a bunch of yahoos WITH answers making up answers. And doing an even worse job with some of the questions. Quora doesn’t make people stupid. It just makes stupid people more accessible to the general public. And as the old adage says – “stupidity is contagious, and there’s no known cure”.

The question popped up a few days ago, and I couldn’t believe it. I also couldn’t keep quiet. How dare the uneducated chatter class insult the memory of the tens of thousands of Canadians who gave their lives for our global freedom (yep, including the freedom of the brainwave that wrote this question, no matter where he or she lives). This writer should be happy to discover that Canada was very effective in World War II, along with their Allied partners. It’s why we aren’t speaking German or Japanese today.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS MY RESPONSE, word-for-word, to this highly controversial question. Photos were later added for this blog article only.

You’ll have to excuse my homeland of Canada – we were amiss apparently by not personally educating YOU on our war effectiveness from 1939–1945. Let’s fix that. There are a few people you should talk to:

Workman John Hawkins of Toronto checks the tags of Bren machine-guns at the John Inglis Co. plant in Toronto. Canada produced millions of arms for the Allied war effort. © Archives Canada mikan-3197327

ASK THE BRITISH how effective we were. Before we even sent a single man, gun, plane, tank or ship – we made sure to take care of the British people themselves. Remember, they live on an island, and risked being isolated by the Nazis, after the war started in September 1939.

Canadian exports accounted for as much as 77% of British wheat and flour consumption in 1941, 39% of the bacon, 15% of the eggs, 24% of the cheese, and 11% of the evaporated milk that the British imported globally.

Abandoned British equipment on the beach at Dunkirk. Although 340,000 troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, the British Army left behind: 120,000 vehicles, 600 tanks, 1000 field guns, 500 anti-aircraft guns, 850 anti-tank guns, 8000 Bren guns, 90,000 rifles and half a million tons of stores and ammunition. (Credit: LIFE Magazine, 1940)

Britain also had to leave 75,000 of their 80,000 vehicles behind in the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940. Virtually defenseless on the ground, Britain turned to Canada – and particularly the Canadian auto industry – to replace what had been lost. Canada not only replaced those losses – we also did much more.

Canada produced more than 800,000 military transport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field, naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000 small arms. 38% of this production was used by the British military alone. The Canadian Army “in the field” had a ratio of one vehicle for every three soldiers, making it the most mechanized field force in the war.

Canada also loaned $1.2 billion on a long-term basis to Britain immediately after the war; these loans were fully repaid in late 2006. That’s the equivalent of about $17.7 billion today.
Canadians landing at Juno Beach. (Credit: Le Conseil Regional De Basse-Normandie / Library and Archives Canada)

ASK THE FRENCH how effective we were. On June 6, 1944, 14,000 Canadian troops stormed Juno Beach, arriving on 110 Canadian ships and supported by 10,000 Canadian sailors, part of 150,000 Allied troops total, who were part of the greatest invasion by sea in world history. Canada was the only nation that captured its beach and fulfilled all Her orders on D-Day. We suffered over 1,000 casualties that day alone.

The French WILL tell you we were effective, by the way – they were occupied by the Germans for over 4 years – but then just 74 days after D-Day, we liberated Paris, and less than one year after D-Day, our little nation had assisted in bringing down the Third Reich completely – an empire that conquered 11 nations on 2 continents with 20 million battle-hardened troops, And Hitler was dead. Were we effective. They would shout a resounding “Oui!”

Dutch Ambassador to Canada, Dr. J.H. van Roijin and Mrs. van Roijin, greeting Dutch immigrants arriving by ship in Montreal, June 1947. (Credit: George Hunter / National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / PA-123476)

ASK THE DUTCH how effective we were. Our country welcomed Queen Juliana, Prince Bernhard and the other members of the Dutch royal family as our guests for 5 years, after the Nazis invaded their Kingdom in June 1940. Dutch Princess Margriet was born in Ottawa Civic Hospital.

Later, Canada almost single-handedly liberated the Netherlands from the Nazis on May 9, 1945, and the Dutch still celebrate Liberation Day (unofficially called “Canada Day”) with Canadian flags flying in Amsterdam on that day, citizens still running to give our aged soldiers flowers as they march or ride in parades there.

In a decades-old Dutch tradition, schoolchildren visit the Canadian War Cemetery in Holten, Netherlands on Christmas Eve every year, where nearly 1,400 Canadian soldiers are buried, and they place candles on every grave. More immigrants arrived in Canada in the 1950s from the Netherlands than from any other nation in the world, including America. In fact, the 2016 Canadian Census reported 1,111,655 persons of Dutch origin living in Canada out of 37 million Canadians. Did they find us effective? They would say “ja!”

In fact, I’d even recommend ASKING THE GERMANS how effective we were. Particularly the German troops that were garrisoned at the town of Zwolle, in the Netherlands. Canadian soldier Léo Major was the only Canadian and one of only three soldiers in the British Empire and Commonwealth to ever receive the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) twice in separate wars. In 1945, he single-handedly liberated the city of Zwolle, the Netherlands from German army occupation. He was sent as a scout with one of his best friends, but he thought the town was too beautiful for a full scale attack. So the next rational option was to clear it out himself. A firefight broke out and his friend was killed, but that didn’t stop him – he put the commanders of each group of soldiers he found at gunpoint, and the entire unit would end up being taken prisoner as a result. He ended up taking nearly 100 Germans prisoner that night, until the entire city was clear of Nazis. He received his second DCM during the Korean War for leading the capture of a key hill in 1951.

Canada declared war in Germany just 7 days after Great Britain and France, and had troops in Europe literally weeks later. It would take a further 26 months before the United States would enter the War. By the time the War was over, Canada had over 1.1 million soldiers in uniform – about 33% of our entire adult male population.

At the end of the Second World War, Canada had one of the largest navies in the world, with 95,000 men and women in uniform, and 434 commissioned vessels including cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes and auxiliaries.

During the 2,159 days that Canadian soldiers fought across Europe, Asia and Africa, 45,000 were killed, and 55,000 were injured. Those total casualties were equal to nearly 1 out of every 10 soldiers that served.

Canadians are not a blunt, brash or boasting lot. We are famous for apologizing for things that aren’t our fault. So let me say ”sorry” to you in that vein – during the War, our armed forces were too busy making scraps to make a scrapbook for posterity. Many of our soldiers were gone for six years and then had to be re-integrated back into society after the War. We were also kind of busy burying our dead, and helping rebuild the world.

We’ll be sure to get it right for World War III – which ironically will likely be started by someone like you, asking ill-advised, inflammatory questions like this.

(Editor’s Note: The answer above certainly struck a nerve, which I’m thankful for! In just the last 30 days alone, nearly 50,000 people on Quora.com read my answer above, and I received dozens of very kind comments. I’ve shared my favorite at the end of this article.

I’m also honoured to have been “upvoted” over 2,900 times, which, according to Quora, means that these readers “believe I answered the question asked and contributed in a meaningful way to Quora’s repository of knowledge”.

If only the ORIGINAL QUESTION had been written with that same goal in mind.

And for the very first time in my life, I believe, something I’ve written has been painstakingly translated word for word into French, by a man I don’t know and have never spoken to before! Merci beaucoup, Pierre Luc Gaudreault de Montréal! You did an amazing job / Tu as fait un travail incroyable!

And it’s comments like these that truly make my blog, Quora, Youtube, Twitter…all worthwhile. Thank you Raymond Li!

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: January 19, 2020
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

Christmas, Calvary and the Coronation

The most important message of Christmas is not so much that Jesus came, but why He came. Jesus was arguably the first and only human to ever be born, with the express purpose, from day one, to die.

There was no salvation in His birth. Nor did the sinless way He lived His life have any redemptive force of its own. His example, as flawless as it was, could not rescue men from their sins. Even His teaching, the greatest truth ever revealed to man, could not pay the penalty for our sinful actions.

But a penalty needed to be paid. Someone had to die. And only Jesus Christ filled the bill.

Jesus came to earth, of course, to reveal God to mankind.
He came to teach truth.
He came to fulfill the Law.
He came to offer His kingdom.
He came to show us how to live.
He came to reveal God’s love.
He came to bring peace.
He came to heal the sick.
He came to minister to the needy.

Yet, Jesus could have done them all without being born as a human. He could have simply appeared—like the angel of the Lord often did in the Old Testament—and accomplished everything in the list above, without actually becoming a man. But He had one more reason for coming…

He came to die. And you can’t die if you were never born.

Here’s a side to the Christmas story that isn’t often told: Those soft little hands, fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, were made so that nails might one day be driven into them. Those baby feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day stagger up a dusty hill with complete determination to be nailed to that Cross. That sweet infant’s head was formed so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it. That tender body, warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be stabbed by a spear to confirm for the Roman soldiers at the Cross that He was dead – after he also had 39 strikes of a cat-o-nine-tails rip that body to shreds.

40 was the death penalty.

In that stable, which may have been surrounded by palm trees, we might have seen a lone donkey standing in a corner, quietly chewing his barley straw and witnessing a historic visit from several kings of the East to this oddly-quiet baby boy. Years later, another donkey, perhaps a descendant of this one in the stable, would carry this same boy, now even quieter than He was as an infant, though a King now Himself, through the streets of Jerusalem – with branches from palm trees carpeting their path.

A star was shining over that birthplace in Bethlehem the night that the shepherds, out tending their flocks, were the first to hear the Good News of the birth of this “someday Saviour” from the announcing angels. 33 years later, even the sun itself refused to shine over the city of Jerusalem, as the man they called the Good Shepherd…

…was nailed to a tree that He grew from a seed, on a hill that He formed as Creator.

Though He had the power to call 10,000 angels – just like the ones that announced His birth – to come and spare Him from a horrible death, He chose not to.

The angels sang “glory to God” the day He was born – but on the day He died, even God Himself hid his face from the unfolding proceedings.

The messenger angel told the shepherds to not be afraid. On the day He died, everyone who believed in Him was terrified.

The public proclamation of those angels at His birth was “Good news of great joy to all the people.” The day He died, His own disciples didn’t even publically acknowledge that they knew Him. It was all bad news and great sorrow on that day, when “all the people” called for Him to be crucified.

And that “good will to men” that was promised on the day He was born was repaid on the day He died with nothing but ill will from those men. The “peace on Earth” that God promised to mankind was thrown into chaos when mankind had the gall to actually kill the Prince of Peace.

Jesus’ parents ended up having to borrow a barn to shelter their newborn baby in. 33 years later, His mother would be forced to watch as real estate was once again borrowed on His behalf – this time the tomb that would shelter His now-dead body in.

And just as she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes on His first day as a human being, Mary also assisted in wrapping His body in burial cloths on His last day too.

As author John MacArthur wrote:

“It’s appropriate to commemorate the birth of Christ. But don’t make the mistake of leaving Him as a baby in a manger. Keep in mind that His birth was just the first step in God’s glorious plan of redemption. Remember that it’s the triumph of Christ’s sacrificial death that gives meaning to His humble birth. You can’t truly celebrate one without the other.

In Billy Graham’s book “The Cradle, Cross and Crown“, he summarizes Jesus’ mission this way:

“The entire saving action of God was:
Inaugurated at Bethlehem,
Achieved at Calvary,
Authenticated by the Resurrection, and
Celebrated at the Ascension”.

We could have had Christmas without Easter. And it would have been meaningless – the birthday of yet another dead religious leader, whose life was cut short too soon, but whose death, in the end, would have meant no more than yours or mine.

We cannot have Good Friday without Christmas. Jesus had to come and be born as a human being, to wrap the eternal and divine in the “flesh suit” of a human being, so that He could take on the sins of the world as a man, pay for those crimes with His death on the Cross. But if that was the end of the story, then ladies and gentleman, we are serving a dead God – no more able to deal with our sinful lives than any other religious figure could have. Buddha, Krishna, Mohammad all have graves that you can visit too.

We cannot have Good Friday without Easter Sunday. Without the Resurrection of Christ, the famous hymn would say “What can wash away my sins? Nothing!”.

The Apostle Paul wrote that “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your

faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

The Resurrection gave Jesus victory over death, Hell and the grave. Without it, He would have been more appropriate to cry “I AM Finished” instead of “It Is Finished”, from the Cross. His death alone had no meaning, if He stayed in that tomb.

At best, He would die a martyr for His cause. While that may have the power to whip up even millions of faithful followers over the centuries, it does nothing to pay the price for their sinful pasts. Christianity would then have been just another meaningless dead religion, perhaps able to thrill and inspire us with the heroic actions and teachings of Christ, but like all the other dead religions, unable to answer the problem of sin. Or raise us from the dead one day as well, as the Bible says we will someday experience.

Whether the disciples actually showed great faith or not after His crucifixion is debatable, but they DID intentionally borrow His tomb, not buy it. Perhaps that was their only option – but if Jesus had in fact never resurrected from the dead, they eventually would have had to come up with a solution that was more permanent.

And one has to wonder what Joseph of Arimathea was thinking in loaning out a tomb for Jesus? On the surface, it sounded like a pretty dumb business decision. The Bible doesn’t say that he rented the tomb out to the disciples. They borrowed the property much like one might borrow a car or an item of clothing or a book.

Joseph of Arimathea would have possibly assumed he was never getting that borrowed tomb back, but the Bible doesn’t say that. After all, Jesus attended 3 funerals in his lifetime that we see recorded in Scripture – for his friend Lazarus, for the Roman centurion’s young son who had recently died, and His own. He interrupted all three with a resurrection. Perhaps the disciples had more faith than we thought?

We are quick to judge poor Peter, not just on that day when he denied Christ 3 times, but starting some time before, when he jumped over the side of a boat he was in, and started walking on water toward Jesus. Reality eventually set in, and he started to drown – needing Jesus to rescue him. “What weak faith”, we may sniff. But Peter actually jumped over the side of the boat and started walking on water. And as the head of the Church, appointed by Jesus as such, Peter also would have some hand in the arrangements for borrowing Jesus’ tomb too.

No wonder the Early Church “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). Being able to return the borrowed tomb of Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea – after Christ rose triumphant from the grave on that first Easter Sunday – would have been all the faith booster that most people would ever need.

The resurrection solidified the faith of the disciples permanently. We never read again that Paul, Peter, or any of the 10 other disciples – even the guy they nicknamed “Doubting Thomas” – ever actually doubted anything Jesus said ever again. And today, there are approximately 2.6 billion Christians around the world – a testament to the power, not only of the Cross, but the Resurrection too.

And Christ has a new position in heavenly places because of the REsurrection too. Ephesians 4:10 expresses the full dimensions of it: “He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.”

Every king is crowned in a coronation ceremony. Jesus Christ is no exception! He too will be crowned as supreme Ruler—as King of kings.

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: December 14, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]asadfz

The Poppy and the Cross

In Canada today, the two most dramatic symbols representing our society, our freedoms – even our very identity as Canadians – are arguably:
– The poppy, which we wear with pride around Remembrance Day (November 11) annually, and…
– The Cross, which we revere every day of the year.

So it should be no surprise that BOTH symbols are under fervent attack by secular humanism and the rise of false religions, more than any other in Canada today. For if the enemies of everything we hold dear simply strike at our foundations, this entire structure we call “Canada”…

…will come crashing to the ground.

*Canadian troops at the Second Battle of Ypres, April 1915, and in Afghanistan, December 2008 (Credit: Canadian War Museum – http://www.warmuseum.ca)*

THE POPPY

We are NOTHING as a country, if we choose to ignore the individual and corporate sacrifices, (in “sweat, blood, toil and tears”, as Winston Churchill once said), of the brave men and women who have served in our Canadian Armed Forces with honour for 152 years and counting.

On Remembrance Day annually (November 11), we pause for a moment at 11:11 AM local time, in whatever part of this HUGE country’s we may be in, to commemorate the moment when, on that date and time in 1918, the Great War – the “War to End All Wars”, the “Seminal Catastrophe”, or the “European War” as it was known, finally came to a close.

This was the first global war in world history. Starting in Europe on July 28, 1914, and carrying on for 1,567 days until November 11, 1918. 70 million troops marched onto battlefields in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It was also the deadliest, claiming 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians, as a direct result of the war, and over 20 million others from diseases like the Spanish flu, that claimed another 50 to 100 million, starvation and scattered genocides that followed.

*Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France – where the names of the 11,285 Canadians who lost their lives in France and who had no known grave are recorded.*

We wear a poppy to commemorate what our soldiers did there because it MATTERED. Our young boys stepped into living Hell on hardened battlefields, that had equally hard names to pronounce and spell – like Ypres, Festubert and Givenchy (1915), The Somme (1916), Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Lens, Passchendaele and Cambrai (1917). In every situation, we did things beyond our training. We successfully completed missions that France and England, who had 1,000 year old military histories, couldn’t do. Canadian soldiers often did the unthinkable – at times, even the impossible – for 1,567 days (from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918), and we assisted the Allies in defeating the Central Powers, which included three Empires (German, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian), as well as Bulgaria.

Little Canada was not even 50 years old when the war started. Only 8 million residents in the whole country then. We grew up into adulthood before the eyes of the world. So foundational was our input in World War I that the last 100 days, from August 8 to November 11, 1918, are known today as “Canada’s Hundred Days”. At one point during World War I, 7% of Canadians were in uniform, one of the highest participation rates by any army in any war in world history. If the US had that size of army based on population, it would number 22 million. If China did, their armies would have number 97 million.

*The installation ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ at the Tower of London, commemorating the centenary of Britain’s involvement in the First World War . (Credit: Geoff Pugh/The Telegraph)*

We wear a poppy to show solidarity with the everyday Canadians who fought for us so long ago. They were us. A total of 619,636 Canadians enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the war, 424,000 served overseas – and 59,544 died during the war (51,748 as a result of enemy action, and 7,796 from “friendly fire” incidents, accidents and disease). Hundreds of thousands more worked in the war effort back home, in administration, factories making munitions, equipment, tanks, planes, ships, uniforms, and growing and packaging food and medicine. There wasn’t a familiy in Canada that was untouched by the war – there were likely few in the country that didn’t know someone overseas. Many also knew someone who died there.

And this war was not as advertised – it did not “end all wars”. In fact, just 21 years later, the world would once again be set on fire, with battles raging on three continents, as Hitler and his Nazi hordes attempted to conquer the world. By the time the final bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki on August 8, 1945, and the two wars had finally ended in Europe, Africa and Asia, over 60 million people had died, including 25 million Russian civilians alone.

We wear a poppy to remember that Canadian soldiers changed the world. And Canada had become a new symbol of freedom and hope in the world. We sent over 1 million soldiers to Europe, many of whom didn’t come home for 6 years in World War II. Tens of thousands didn’t come home at all. We declared war on Hitler just one week after Great Britain and France did, on September 10, 1939. We weren’t forced to – the King had told our government that we had free will to determine if this is was a cause we wanted to send our boys into harm’s way for. We debated it in Parliament, we thought about it, we prayed about it. And we did it. Once we declared war on September 10, we had troops on the ground in Europe just 2 weeks later. And our boys volunteered for it. It took the US another 820 days before they joined the war, and their troops had to be drafted, even then, to do so.

We wear a poppy over our hearts, because we loved these young men, and because they gave all they had, with all their hearts, for us. We honour the heroic contributions of our soldiers, over the last 1.5 centuries, to the building of our nation. And to the freedom enjoyed by the entire Western world. They were literally a force for good that stopped the forces of evil spreading across the globe.

Speaking of which – there are some misguided Cretans who introduced a rainbow poppy this year, just before British Armistice Day – like the gay community wasn’t getting enough attention during commemorations for our war dead? Attempting to turn the poppy into a culturally misappropriated gay symbol is outrageous.

These are likely the same morons that wear a pink triangle as a symbol of connection with the LGBT community – not realizing that the symbol was introduced in the Nazi concentration camp system, along with the yellow star, to help sort out which prisoners were which.

It is also truly disgusting that some in the Muslim community boycott the sale of poppies because they consider it a symbol of “racism”, and some Legion branches in the UK stopped selling them in “certain areas” of Britain to avoid offense, though they have been selling them throughout the UK since 1921. This vocal minority of Muslims try to extinguish the symbol altogether – yet they are hardly the spokespeople for racial tolerance in the world.

THE CROSS

In Canada, our freedoms are only authentically maintained when our people still hold dear to the sacrifices symbolized by the POPPY – and we must “NEVER FORGET” to STAND AND SALUTE those who shed their blood for victories over dictators and despots.

However, that freedom only truly exists in Canada and indeed in EVERY nation on Earth, when the people hold EVEN MORE dear to the Sacrifice actualized by the CROSS of JESUS CHRIST – and we must “BE IN REMEMBRANCE” to KNEEL, BOW AND CLING to the One who shed His blood for our final victory over the Devil and even Death itself.

I STAND to honor the anthem and the flag, and symbolically pin a poppy OVER MY HEART today, with pride and thankfulness.

But first…

I KNEEL and BOW to honor the Cross, and literally invite the Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ, to LIVE INSIDE MY HEART, with humility and thankfulness.

Because of the sacrifices of Canadians – on far off battlefields – many individual freedoms are enjoyed today by the Canadian people.

But without the Sacrifice of Christ – “on a hill far away” – WE HAVE NO FREEDOM AT ALL – either on this Earth or eternity to come.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

“In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” (Ephesians 3:12)

“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” (Psalm 119:45)

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: November 10, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

CANZUK – The Canada-Australia-New Zealand-United Kingdom Free Trade Bloc

Great Britain is now beginning the process of divorcing from the European Union and going on its own – something it’s quite capable of doing, having built an Empire, then a Commonwealth, with impact around the world, that has lasted 1,000 years. Now a new trade deal is being considered between four very old and dear friends – family members actually – and it’s starting to get a lot of interest among the citizenry of those four countries. It might just be the best idea any of the four has ever been part of!
The proposed union even has an unofficial name, already becoming comonplace – CANZUK: the Canada-Australia-New Zealand-United Kingdom trade bloc. There is even a website currently promoting the idea to all four national governments and their citizens – all four of whom are in various stages of development of the idea already:

*CANZUK with insignias of the four Commonwealth countries involved: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. (Credit: Alexander MacLeod)*

I believe strongly that the United Kingdom/Great Britain would indeed be best served by joining with these particular member states of the current British Commonwealth, to form a new trade bloc, like the EU – Australia, New Zealand and Canada (FULL DISCLOSURE: I was born I, and have lived all of my 51 years, as a citizen of Canada).

The personal, professional, business and national connections between these four particular countries are incredibly deep. Of course, this is because we are family, as I stated previously – Great Britain being our mother, and the other three nations (Australia, New Zealand and Canada) being sisters, who to this day very much love and respect one another.

The trust and credibility built between these four nations goes all the way back to our individual founding as colonies of the British Empire, and now member sovereign states of the Commonwealth. The daughter states are all within 44 years of being the exact same age:

New Zealand – May 7, 1856
Dominion of Canada – July 1, 1867
Commonwealth of Australia – January 1, 1901

These four nations fought through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and a host of other challenging times… side by side.

**(from l to r**, *Rt. Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia, Rt. Hon. Teresa May, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, and Rt. Hon.* *Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand)*

We share Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II as our common monarch. A shared monarch is an essential aspect of CANZUK, which represents a global institution which has played an important role as a symbol of a common heritage and parliamentary tradition.

The Crown is the cornerstone of our democratic governments, and the rule of law over a long history of peaceful constitutional development. It is instructive to note that the English speaking countries which have retained the monarchy have been far more successful in avoiding civil unrest than their republican counterparts such as France and the United States.

The four nations have the same Parliamentary governmental system, a similar Constitution, and are all members of the British Commonwealth. We have similarly-ranked and recognized educational institutions, as well as similar trends in the business and financial realms, and similar geopolitical aspirations. The four nations also have, for the most part, the respect and trust of the majority of the nations of the world.

Interest and support is already high in all four nations for such a trade bloc agreement:

Overall National Average Support (in %):

National Support by Region (in %):

We have a similar racial profile, speak the same language (with some various differences that only make things more interesting). Canada, Australia and New Zealand even share a similar currency with a near-identical value – the Dollar. For example, on October 2, 2019 (information provided by Google Finance)

1 New Zealand Dollar equals 0.83 Canadian Dollar
1 Australian Dollar equals 0.89 Canadian Dollar
1 New Zealand Dollar equals 0.93 Australian Dollar

With the United Kingdom “Brexiting” the European Union trade bloc and going on their own, this idea has gained newfound interest in the UK, and across the other three nations as well.

This concept of a trade bloc consisting of the United Kingdom/Great Britain, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand was discussed in a February 13, 2017 Financial Post article, which I will quote verbatim for some excellent updated information. – In the Trump era, the plan for a Canadian-U.K.-Australia-New Zealand trade alliance is quickly catching on:

Erin O’Toole, one of the candidates for the Conservative Party leadership, has made one of the key planks of his campaign his determination to “pursue a Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand trade and security pact.” The idea of creating a “CANZUK” zone of free trade and free movement of labour is catching on elsewhere, too.

In New Zealand, the junior coalition partner in the government, the Act New Zealand party led by David Seymour (who himself worked for five years in Canadian politics), is explicitly in favour of free movement and free trade within CANZUK.

Proposed flag of the CANZUK union, composed of elements from all four national flags. Some with overactive imaginations say this reminds them of a white supremacist flag.

In official party circles within the U.K. and Australia, the wheels are grinding a little slower, but the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is already into most of the idea, proposing a free-trade agreement and free-movement area encompassing Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. And in Britain, Theresa May’s Conservative government has made it clear it wants new trade agreements with Canada, Australia and New Zealand as soon as possible after it leaves the EU.

The idea of CANZUK begins with a free-trade agreement, free-movement area (the freedom to live and work in each others’ countries) and defence-partnership agreement. O’Toole favours all three of these main planks, and he’s right that it all makes perfect sense.

The post-Cold-War alliances are obsolete. NAFTA is dead. The EU is losing a key member.

The CANZUK countries, working closely together, would make a formidable contribution to world affairs. They would have the largest total landmass of any free-trade zone. They would collectively constitute the fourth-largest market in the world, after the U.S., EU and China.

Their combined military spending would be the world’s third largest, well ahead of Russia, and on European Geostrategy’s geopolitical power index, the CANZUK countries collectively have a strength around 70 per cent of that of the U.S. — and nearly twice that of China or France. With a combined global trade footprint nearly twice as big as Japan’s, the CANZUK countries would have substantial influence in opening up global markets and guiding global regulation across a range of issues from banking to shipping to the environment.

What makes CANZUK a natural union is perhaps self-evident. Canada, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand share a similar culture, similar values, and analogous legal, business and social systems that allow us to get along easily and interchangeably. (The term CANZUK was originally a term diplomats used to refer to these four countries because of how frequently they would vote the same way at the UN.)

Most of the main issues our political parties focus upon are instantly comprehensible to anyone from another CANZUK state. Our laws and constitutions share many features, making trade deals and mutual regulatory recognition a relatively straightforward matter. Our citizens enjoy a roughly similar per capita GDP (which is just not true of the other Commonwealth nations with similar constitutions) and face few hurdles in integrating into another CANZUK country’s labour market. Our societies are peaceful and orderly.

CETA is dead? Long live CUKTA. How Canada can save the best of CETA with a U.K. trade deal

From Brexit to CANZUK : A call from Britain to team up with Canada, Australia and New Zealand

And in our modern globalized world, we see that we are much more similar to each other than we are to others. The challenges of dealing with Japanese or Chinese business partners can be overcome, but they cannot be denied. Continental Europeans have different foibles, different goals and different priorities from ours, as well as importantly different legal and constitutional challenges. The arrival of President Trump reminds us of just how different from us many parts of the U.S. really are, and always have been.

Furthermore, while the U.S., the EU and China can all make valuable trading partners in their different regions, each CANZUK state that encounters them is regionally overmatched and, standing alone, will inevitably be dominated. Working together though, exploiting our natural affinities and the world of mass communication, high-value services and rapid transit, CANZUK can allow us stand our ground and project our own values and agendas.

The post-Cold-War alliances and assumptions are obsolete. NAFTA is dead. The EU will soon lose one of its largest members. Trump might downgrade NATO, abandon the WTO and even diminish the UN. It’s tempting, in a world of change, to try to cling to as much of the old certainties as possible. But if we look up and out, something new beckons. Free trade, free movement and a new security partnership between countries of shared culture and natural affinity. CANZUK is the global deal of tomorrow.

Dr. Andrew Lilico, born in New Zealand but based in London, is executive director and principal of Europe Economics, a fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and chairman of the IEA Monetary Policy Committee.

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: December 15, 2018. Updated: October 2, 2019.
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

Landing on the Beaches of Normandy (Paris 2009, Day 09c)

Today, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings at Normandy, France, I am reposting my original travel blog of Paris, and specifically, of the bus tour I took to visit the Normandy region, including all 3 major landing beaches for Omaha (America), Gold (UK) and Juno (Canada) beaches. The article’s wording has not been edited since my original Blogger posting in 2009.

For the events of Saturday, September 5, 2009

1:00 PM – As we departed the Caen Memorial, our tour guide told us the museum is made out of the local stones of Normandy and built on top of an old Nazi bunker! The Germans actually flooded all the roads we are driving on today just before D-Day, to try to slow any potential successful Allies landing, which obviously didn’t work.

AMERICAN SECTOR (OMAHA BEACH)

1:04 PM – We are now on a 45-minute drive to the Coast. As we moved along, I noticed that the houses were all out of a movie set – everything is primarily the same as it was before or during the D-Day landing. I liked this particular house because it had all the historic charm of the French coast, seen for hundreds of years – but with a satellite dish stuck right in front . Also went by a church that had served the community for centuries . Apologies for the blurry pictures at times – I was taking them out of a bus window traveling at a good clip down the little roads.

Our first stop on this historic trip for me is the American Sector codenamed Omaha Sector – it’s not actually known only as Omaha Beach as many know it today, because some parts of it don’t have beaches at all. So far this has been a very high-end trip – the guide talks a lot (15-20 min) of background which is good. She kept saying we’d be a bit rushed in places this AM but I didn’t feel that way. Really impressed so far.

If it weren’t for the heroic efforts of the tens of thousands that died on D-Day, the beaches of Normandy would not have been cleared for more than 2.5 million other Allied soldiers that flooded France by the end of September, halting the German invasion and slowly liberating country after country from the Nazi death grip.

D-Day was without a doubt the greatest military invasion in human history, and the largest amphibious landing of troops of all time. Operation Overlord (as the invasion was codenamed) began just midnight on June 6, 1944 first with an aerial assault of tens of thousands of American, British and Canadian troops behind the enemy lines. What followed at 6 AM was later described by the Germans as a total horizon of ships – more than 5,000 in fact, carrying over 175,000 soldiers to 50 miles of beaches. Operation Overlord continued until the advance to the outskirts of Paris on August 19, and the Battle of Paris began.

The German defenses used an interlocking firing style, so they could protect areas that were receiving heavy fire. They had large bunkers, sometimes intricate concrete ones containing machine guns and high caliber weapons. Their defense also integrated the cliffs and hills overlooking the beautiful view. The defenses were all built and honed over a four year period and were extremely complex. It was like a city made out of concrete, and included guns so huge they ran on rail cars. Those who landed on those beaches faced what was later described as the greatest concentration of firepower in world history.

My Uncle Clayton was one of those young boys that jumped off a boat and faced that horror on Juno Beach. Having seen how open some of these beaches were to enemy fire, I’m actually amazed anyone survived. The Allies were to bomb the smithereens out of the German guns before the landed, but in some cases,the bombs never hit a single target, especially at Juno Beach, and it caused an unknowing Allied landing party to come under tremendous attack.

PM – Our first stop of the tour, situated between Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east was a little jutted-out place called Pointe Du Hoc (see map – the tip of which is the Pointe), where many American soldiers first landed. This is an original map from the invasion, and the Americans erroneously called it Point du Hoe on this map until later corrected.

Pointe Du Hoc is not a beach, but sheer cliffs rising from the water, making it very difficult to storm. The German guns, housed in 6 concrete bunkers, some with living quarters built into them, were able to reach as far as Utah Beach to the left (west) and Omaha Beach to the right (east), so it was imperative that the Americans successfully neutralize this area.

Though they literally bombed the heck out of the area first, they realized that they would still need to land troops there to ensure all guns were neutralized, and the 2nd Ranger Battalion was ordered to take the Pointe. However, before they could get there, the Germans, alerted by the continuous bombings, moved all the big guns about 1 mile away for safety. Before the Rangers attacked, their leadership knew the guns were moved, but the soldiers didn’t.

Regardless of the big guns being gone, the concrete fortifications were intact, and would still present a major threat to the landings if they were occupied by artillery forward observers. On these cliffs, 75 American troops were shot trying to climb the 100-foot cliffs with ropes, ladders, and grapples, and the troops had no ammunition reinforced to them for two full days after finally taking the Pointe – an eternity when you are being shot at constantly. Because of the price America paid to take this Pointe and ensure the success of D-Day itself, and the future liberation of France, the French gave this particular piece of land to America, and it is now permanent American soil.

1:55 PM – The first thing I noticed when I got to the Pointe, beyond the German bunkers, was how many bomb craters there were – it was like looking being on the surface of the moon. The second thing you notice is that literally nothing had been

touched since the landing – except for the guns, etc. removed. The broken concrete of the bombed-out German bunkers was left completely untouched.

The bunkers themselves were amazing (see photo for the German’s viewpoint), and completely available for you to crawl and wander through, which in hindsight seemed so crazy from a liability perspective, but then, who would you sue? They had open-ended concrete tunnels to connect them and were extremely dangerous to crawl through in places, with concrete half-bombed out and left dangling, etc., crawlspaces made half as big because they had collapsed, etc.

It was neat to see the track where the huge battery gun had been placed and ordered removed by General Rommel before the Americans attacked. It was huge – looked like it could turn 360 degrees on something like a gear set, and about 40-50 feet across, with about 6 stairs leading down on 4 sides.

I guess it was felt that the horror of war should not be put behind glass or barricades, but touched and felt. The blood of German and American soldiers had soaked the concrete in places, and it was left as it had been shed. It was both fantastic to see and horrifying to be near at the same time.

2:27 PM – Had to run to catch the bus back and did exactly on time – I was the last one. Oops! Felt rushed there but I understand there’s lots to see! I literally could have spent hours walking through those bunkers. It was beyond amazing. Definitely would like to come back and wander around more someday.

At this point, the roads are only one lane and very windy – they haven’t been changed since they were first constructed for humans and horses, with big trees on both sides – as it was in 1944. Beautiful old stone houses. And I just saw… a furry pig!

2:45 PM – We stopped for a 5 minute look at Omaha Beach itself, which wasn’t much to see – just a huge flat beach that seemed to go for miles, and some hills overlooking it that now had houses built up. Would be amazing real estate now and a very popular beach in summer time, but horrific on that June day. In that picture, there’s a little memorial at the bottom right hand corner. That is the marker of the first American cemetery in France, right on the beach – a mass grave where they just had to dump bodies for days to get them out of the way. They were later moved to the American Cemetery at Omaha Sector, our next stop.

3,700 Americans and 1,200 Germans died at Omaha Beach from 6:30 AM to noon. That’s 1 soldier every 4 seconds – and it went on for 5.5 hours.

3:00 PM – After a short drive we arrived at the American Cemetery at Omaha Sector, officially named the Colleville/Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer Cemetery. The cemetery was inaugurated in 1956 after four years work, overlooking the beaches of Omaha. Emotion overwhelms the visitor facing the large central viewpoint, the Memorial decorated with a huge Battle map, the Garden of the missing, where are carved the names of 1 557 missing soldiers. At the entrance to the Cemetery, a capsule is dedicated to General Eisenhower which contains his hand-written report of the D-Day fighting, sealed there on June 6, 1969 (the 25th anniversary of the landing).

But it’s the number of crosses that cover over 10 acres of land (and official American territory) that literally brings tears to your eyes and a lump to your throat. 9,386 American men (and 4 women) are laid to rest in this unbelievably beautiful and peaceful place.

I have seem video of this cemetery before (it was shown at the beginning and end of Saving Private Ryan), and thought I was prepared. Had a picture in my mind of my visit to Arlington National Cemetery as well but so wrong. This was like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life.

There are 50 people time staff that do nothing but cut the grass here. Of course they use electric equipment for the most part, but around each grave, the grass is always trimmed by nothing but hand clippers only. The graves are located at random, but are in sections of the alphabet from A-Z, and numbered rows in each section. There are four big sections in four quadrants, which have a central Chapel in the middle of them. While the majority of the Cemetery is filled with crosses, there are 300 Stars of David for Jewish soldiers as well.

As much as this was a nice place, we spent far too much time here. Why we had to be so rushed at the Beach and then spend an hour almost here is beyond me – I thought it was pretty stupid. I strongly recommend not doing a tour of the Normandy region in a bus – take a car from Paris and go on your own.

4:00 PM – We departed from the Cemetery and made our way out of the American Sector to the neighboring British Sector. Here, the roads so narrow and houses right up to the road, so it was difficult to take many pictures from the bus. At some points, you literally could have reached out the window from your seat and touched the walls of the buildings – a large charter bus such as ours could only go at a crawl, and no other vehicles could be coming from the other direction. In a few places some of the buildings were a bit farther off the road, allowing for a good shot, like this beautiful historic church.

The tour guide told us that the best dairy products in France, including Colbert and Camembert cheeses, come from here. There are also a lot of farms here with sheep and cows on them.

BRITISH SECTOR (GOLD BEACH)
4:15 PM – stopped at the British sector (Gold Beach) at Arromanches-les-Bains (or Arromanches as it’s known mostly), at low tide. I fell in love with this adorable little town at first sight – it reminds me of the Rock of Gibraltar on south tip of Spain, where I spent my 16th birthday in 1983. I just told myself I’ll be back here for summer vacation someday. I imagine it would be insanely busy- would like to rent a house or apartment and stay in the area for a week or two. Cute as a postcard with little souvenir shops, restaurants and B&Bs.

The town lies along the stretch of coastline designated as Gold Beach during the D-Day landings, one of the beaches used by British troops in the Allied invasion. Arromanches was selected as one of the sites for two Mulberry Harbours built on the Normandy coast, the other one built further West at Omaha Beach. Sections of the Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches still remain today with huge concrete blocks sitting on the sand, and more can be seen further out at sea.

At a meeting following the disastrous Dieppe Raid, Winston Churchill told his generals he remembered that in World War I, they had sunk old ships for a bridgehead for an invasion in the Danish Islands during World War I. The concept of Mulberry Harbours began to take shape quickly, to build an artificial harbour at Arromanches to make it easier to ship supplies in, etc without rough seas at the landing spots.

By June 9, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbours codenamed Mulberry “A” and “B” were constructed at Omaha Beach and Arromanches, respectively. However, a large storm destroyed the American harbour just 10 days later, leaving “Port Winston” at Arromanches with heavy duty for 8 months— despite being designed to last only 3 months. It was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tonnes of supplies providing much-needed reinforcements in France.

Today Arromanches is mainly a tourist town. Situated in a good location for visiting all of the battle sites and War Cemeteries, there is also a museum at Arromanches with information about Operation Overlord and in particular, the Mulberry harbours.

My second biggest regret on this tour was how much time we wasted at the Cemetery, and how little we spent here. I could spend a week here, however, so another trip is a must!

Got a great coffee-flavored Italian gelato for about 1€ from a street vendor across from the bus.

CANADIAN SECTOR (JUNO BEACH)

5:05 PM – We got back on the bus and again, after only a few minutes were at what I waited for all day – a moment (it seemed, almost literally a moment only) at Juno Beach, where my Uncle Clayton landed and lost so many friends. Canada had the second largest losses at Normandy behind the US – and we were such a little country then. I think that’s when the whole world sat up and took notice of us – and watched as we liberated country after country. People celebrating by the thousands in the streets and throwing flowers on Canadian tanks in Holland, Belgium, and France.

The biggest regret on this tour was that we were only to spend 15 minutes there. Screw that, I thought – there are 8 Canadians out of 23 on this bus, and we’ll hold it up as long as we want. The Americans got hours, we’ll get a few more minutes – and I talked to the other Canadians and we agreed to just drag it out a few minutes longer. The Americans understood later and didn’t complain at all. They all agreed the Museum there is the nicest of them all today.

Juno at the town of Courseulles-sur-Mer was the second most heavily defended (the British Gold beach was the least defended) of the five landing sites chosen. The Germans had 11 heavy batteries of 155 mm guns and 9 medium batteries of 75 mm guns at their disposal, plus pillboxes and other fortifications were present all along the beach, most heavily concentrated in the Courseulles-sur-Mer region. The seawall was twice the height of Omaha Beach’s, and the sea was heavily mined. German troop strength numbered under 8,000 soldiers and was one of the weakest divisions in Normandy. Thankfully, or the Canadian casualties, the second worst of the D-Day invasion, would have been much larger.

In the first day of the invasion alone, Canadian casualties numbered nearly 1,000 killed and wounded, but it was such an unbelievably chaotic day that no accurate record is possible to indicate how many were killed on the beach and how many became casualties inland. Once the Canadians cleared the seawall (about an hour after leaving the transports) they were able to advance towards their objectives farther inland.

Having seen how completely open this beach was, I’ve never been so proud of my country in my life. There were several completely intact bunkers at this beach, that had full living quarters built into them underground. Quite amazing. I didn’t get pictures, but have a bit of video and will show upon request.

The Centre Juno Beach, paid for with individual Canadian donations, was beautiful. Sorry folks, it was so dismal outside, and I had so little time, that I didn’t get great frontal shots of the building. It was a very impressive looking centre, designed to look from the air like a stylized maple-leaf, made with polished copper to shine in the sun. And it had these little posts that had little nameplates of donors from coast-to-coast in Canada, who had given more than $6 million total. Only Canadians would rally together for something like that. I encourage everyone to visit http://www.junobeach.org to learn more about the Centre, and the price Canada paid to free Europe.

5:30 PM – could have spent much more time here, but maybe this would be a great second trip. Beautiful place. But finally we had to get ready to leave. As we left the region, I saw that Juno is right by a pretty little harbor that looked a bit like False Creek. Would be a great place to live, so close to the ocean. They also had an oyster farm there, which was interesting.

7:00 PM – we stopped at a truck stop on the way called Total. It was the most unique thing I’ve seen all day, as it seemed to look best on a Canadian freeway – really different than anywhere else I’ve been to in France. They had a bank of coffee machines against one wall that made expressos, chocolate cappucinos, anything you wanted practically. Really neat. Got a ham and Emmental cheese (which I’ve never had before in my life) sandwich, a Lion chocolate bar (which was really amazing – had Rice Krispies, caramel and covered with chocolate), and a Fanta Tropical juice for the road back. But was so tired I fell asleep right away and didn’t eat any of it!

8:00 PM – Woke up in time to see a high-speed “bullet” train that takes you from Paris to Normandy. I swear it was the fastest thing I’ve ever seen with my own eyes run on land. Amazing – must have been going a few hundred kms/hour.

9:00 PM – we made great timing back, and were back around 9:00 (supposed to be 9:30) back at the station. Before I hopped on the train, however, I ran over to the Louvre (just a block away from the Cityrama office0 to get a great night shot. It’s so beautiful at night, and it was a great night in Paris, so I couldn’t resist. A bit creepy at night there, mind you.

9:45 PM – I quickly took the train back, and got back to the hotel. Found a really nice fruit basket at the hotel that they had left as a thank you gift – nice touch. Going to head to bed around 9:45 PM so I can get up and pack and finish some of my blog in the morning. Good night – loooooooong day, but really amazing.

Was exhausted so ate the supper I bought at the truck stop, some of the fruit, and went to sleep.

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Original Post: September 5, 2009. Reposted: June 6, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

Why Allah Is Not My “Father”… Or My God

I was recently asked on Quora, the question/answer site with over one billion monthly users, why Christians do not simply accept Allah, the God of Islam, as being our “Father”. This, in its entirety, was my answer to that question..

If you watch any amount of mainstream news, or the endless propaganda coming from North American and European Muslims today, you’ve likely been convinced that Muslims believe Jesus was a good teacher or a great Prophet – and that, whie they might have issues with the Church and Christians, it’s all rainbows and unicorns when they think about Jesus.

You’ve likely even heard that “Allah” is just another word for “God”. I would imagine you’ve also heard that when you boil it all down, we all really serve the same God, underneath it all.

If you’ve heard all this and believed it – you’re in for a rude awakening.

There is a popular belief, spread often by non-Muslim Western nations’ readers, and of course by Muslims themselves, that not only is Islam a “religion of peace” (which is so ironic and outrageous, in light of the news we read every day, it’s almost humorous), but that Allah and the God of the Bible, and Jehovah of the Jewish Talmud, are all one and the same Divine being.

That is absolute rubbish, and as you are going to see, from quotes pulled from the Quran itself, not only does Islam believe that Christ is NOT the Son of God, the Quran actually states that anyone believing that Jesus is the Son of God – should be destroyed by God for their perverted way of thinking.

Open your hearts and minds. We are in a war for our very souls. And Islam is the self-declared enemy of the Cross. We cannot allow anyone to tell us differently – for we are being led to the slaughter if we do.

*An Islamic meme which makes no bones about stating that Christ couldn’t be God, as Allah has never been “incarnated in other forms.” BLASPHEMY.*

Before we get to Jesus, we need to focus on Allah in the Quran. He is the central figure of the Islamic religion and the one who apparently created the world, and gave us all life. But if you are being told that He and Jehovah God of the Bible are one and the same, you are going to have to take a second look at the very words from the pages of the Quran themselves. Whoever Allah is, he is not what Christians would recognize as the God of the Bible.

Christianity teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, but the Quran says:

Surah Al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:

And they say, “None will enter Paradise except one who is a Jew or a Christian.” That is [merely] their wishful thinking, Say, “Produce your proof, if you should be truthful.” (2:111)

So, the Quran teaches that it is wishful thinking for Christians to think they will enter Heaven through the work of Christ. That is absolute BLASPHEMY

Yes [on the contrary], whoever submits his face in Islam to Allah while being a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve (2:112)

Continuing from the verse above, we see that only those who believe in Allah will be rewarded. In other words, Christians and Jews don’t get any rewards in Heaven, as they don’t believe in Allah.

The Jews say “The Christians have nothing [true] to stand on,” and the Christians say, “The Jews have nothing to stand on,” although they [both] recite the Scripture. Thus the polytheists speak the same as their words. But Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they used to differ. (2:113)

And who are more unjust than those who prevent the name of Allah from being mentioned in His mosques and strive toward their destruction. It is not for them to enter them except in fear. For them in this world is disgrace, and they will have in the Hereafter a great punishment. (2:114) They say, ” Allah has taken a son.” Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. All are devoutly obedient to Him (2:116) Indeed, We have sent you, [O Muhammad], with the truth as a bringer of good tidings and a warner, and you will not be asked about the companions of Hellfire. (2:119) And never will the Jews or the Christians approve of you until you follow their religion. Say, “Indeed, the guidance of Allah is the [only] guidance.” If you were to follow their desires after what has come to you of knowledge, you would have against Allah no protector or helper. (2:120) Those to whom We have given the Book recite it with its true recital. They [are the ones who] believe in it. And whoever disbelieves in it – it is they who are the losers. (2:121) They say, “Be Jews or Christians [so] you will be guided.” Say, “Rather, [we follow] the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth, and he was not of the polytheists.” (2:135)

The Quran mentions in chapter 3, verses 52-53, that the disciples submitted to the faith of Islam:

Ask the Children of Israel how many a sign of evidence We have given them. And whoever exchanges the favor of Allah [for disbelief] after it has come to him – then indeed, Allah is severe in penalty. (2:211)

But when Jesus felt [persistence in] disbelief from them, he said, “Who are my supporters for [the cause of] Allah ?” The disciples said,” We are supporters for Allah. We have believed in Allah and testify that we are Muslims [submitting to Him. (Quran Surah Al-Imran 52-53)

The longest narrative involving Jesus’ disciples is when they request a laden table to be sent from Heaven, for further proof that Jesus is preaching the true message:

Behold! the disciples, said: “O Jesus the son of Mary! can thy Lord send down to us a table set (with viands) from heaven?” Said Jesus: “Fear Allah, if ye have faith.”

They said: “We only wish to eat thereof and satisfy our hearts, and to know that thou hast indeed told us the truth; and that we ourselves may be witnesses to the miracle.”
Said Jesus, the son of Mary: “O Allah our Lord! Send us from heaven a table set (with viands), that there may be for us—for the first and the last of us—a solemn festival and a sign from thee; and provide for our sustenance, for thou art the best Sustainer (of our needs).”

Allah said: “I will send it down unto you: But if any of you after that resisteth faith, I will punish him with a penalty such as I have not inflicted on any one among all the peoples.” (Quran Surah Al-Ma’ida 112-115)

Despite the earliest Muslim traditions and exegesis quoting somewhat conflicting reports regarding death and length of death, the mainstream Muslim belief is that Jesus did not suffer death but was instead raised alive to heaven.

That is a huge problem. If Jesus did not die, then His blood was not shed for our sins. Our sins are therefore not cleansed – we would continue to require the sacrifice of animals, and the shedding of their blood in order to merely cover, but not cleanse, us of sin. The Bible says that Jesus “died (comma) and was buried (period), then ladies and gentlemen, we have a dead religion serving a dead God. And we remain dead in our sins.

Islam would like to perpetuate this myth, because underneath it all, Islam is a false religion, which could only possibly have one source or founder – one who seeks to be as a God, one who seeks to replace God. And Islam cannot accept Jesus in the form that He stated he was, because to do so would be to recognize Islam is a false religion.

Why do I say this? Because Jesus Christ himself said:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life – NO ONE comes to the Father but by me”. (Johm 14:6)

So for a Muslim to say that Jesus was a good teacher, a good man or a good Prophet even would be nonsense, and a lie. Jesus couldn’t possibly be ANY of those things if He was also a LUNATIC OR A LIAR.

Jesus didn’t say He was a good guy. He didn’t claim to be a good teacher – He said He IS truth. He doesn’t just possess truth, or share truth, or understand truth, nor is he one that lives in truth or walks in his Truth or whatever nonsense we hear today. Jesus Christ said that He IS Truth. Period. If you want to know what’s real, who is the one you must serve, who has the backing of God the Father, and who rules and reigns the universe, look no further than Jesus Christ. For either he’s a liar, a lunatic….

Or the Lord He said He was.

The Bible says that “Jesus died (comma), was buried (COMMA), AND THAT HE ROSE AGAIN THE THIRD DAY”. That’s the Good News friend – that tiny little punctuation mark, signifying that the story isn’t over – that there is so much more to Jesus than a dead God.

Today, I can go visit Mohammad’s grave. Buddha’s gravesite is accessible for me to visit. Joseph Smith, Jim Jones, David Koresh – there have been so many men over the centuries who came along and said “look at me, I have the truth”. “Follow me, I know what I”m talking about” – and none of them did.

And in almost every case, they had to do something about Jesus Christ first. They had to write him out of their religion, or write him in as some secondary player. Because keeping Jesus the way the Bible describes Him would be to confirm they are living in a false religion. Creating a false religion is even worse – there is likely a special place in Hell for those like Mohammad, Joseph Smith and more, who have intentionally led millions astray – knowing FULL WELL that they weren’t God, nor His representatives on earth.

They all KNEW they were just mere men, but somehow they convinced millions to go along with them over the centuries, because they may have had some learned truth deep inside. The Devil can tell the truth too – just enough to convince you he’s real. Then, when he has you, you may even start to realize you have been deceived. At that point, you may be in such bondage to the religion chosen – such is the case with Islam – that you can’t break free.

Islam teaches that you must pray 5 times a day. You can’t ever escape it – because in Islam, there is no overall forgiveness of sins. You are bound to a sense of religious duty, or you will die in your sins. It is terribly sad that so many millions of people are so bound by Islam, that they can’t put it down to review another possibility for faith – it is always before them, always surrounding them, and to deny it could even mean death. As long as they are kept busy with the trappings of faith, they can ignore the fact that their religion isn’t changing them positively on the inside, isn’t bringing them hope or peace or assurance of life after death, or health when they are sick.

To be blunt, if they ever had an encounter with the teachings or person of Jesus Christ, they would realize right away they were being hoodwinked where they were. However, most religions have a response for the teachings and person of Jesus – either they discredit Him as being lesser than He is, or they discredit His followers’ weaknesses as proof that He couldn’t possibly be that great of a God.

They don’t explain, however, how they are justified in their faith, when many of them are even weaker than we are.

After all, it is not Christians that are accused the most of terrorist attacks globally.

Mahatma Gandhi said, concerning believers in Christ:

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

But wait – Gandhi never said that. There’s no proof that quote ever came from him. But so desperate are some to discredit Jesus or the Church, they are convinced that making up nonsense about either is better than nothing. A similar quote appears to be from an Indian philosopher named Bara Dada. The full quote from Dada appears to be from the mid-1920s:

“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians, you are not like him.”

With all due respect, the personal opinion of some “philosopher” is of little value to me. Jesus truly IS as ideal and wonderful as the man claimed, and what difference does it make whether man is weak and frail or not, it’s not a reflection on the God we serve, nor can one say “Yah, God’s got some great ideas, but Christians just wreck it for me”.

If you are that weakminded that you can only follow a philosophy or belief that is full of rock solid followers – you must not believe in ANYTHING then. Because there are weak people in every industry, every career, every nation, every religion. The above is much the same as saying “I like the laws around here, but the cops are so bad, they wreck it for me, so I can’t respect the law now.” Well, Good News then – the law doesn’t care whether you respect it, or like its enforcement agencies or not.

Go ahead and break the law, thinking that you are justified in doing so. Jail will be just as small, the food just as nasty, and orange will be just as much the new black. The law doesn’t care if you respect it, agree with it, appreciate it, understand it or accept it. If you don’t obey it, you will be punished by it – and you have no choice in that matter. (Shawn Jorgensen)

The same is true of God – go ahead and deny His teachers or that of Jesus Christ, stating that Christians have wrecked it for you, or “but I’ve got my guy – I think I’ll just continue to go along with him.” Well, that’s entirely your choice, but you’re still going to Hell regardless. Jesus isn’t an OPTIONAL God, like a side of fries with a hamburger.

Jesus is GOD. Mohammad never said he was a God. Neither did Buddha, Confusicious, Joseph Smith or a host of others.

Because they all know He’s the real deal, and His very existence confirms that they are liars and frauds. There aren’t “options” when it comes to religion. There’s Jesus or there’s Hell. Period. He’s not a menu item on the religious buffet of the week. He’s the only game in town. Run after your circus acts all you want to – it doesn’t make them any more real life than before. Watching too many cartoons, even believing they are all true, still won’t make them real, no matter what you think.

The Bible says that “it’s appointed for man once to die, and then the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). You don’t get to come along after the fact and say “oh, I don’t believe in any of that”. 5 minutes after you die, as you stand before God, He’s not going to be concerned about your belief system at that point, because for you, it will then be already too late to change anything anyway. One can not simply take Islam back for a full refund, once you realize you have a dead, defective religion that didn’t save you from your sins and keep you from the wrath of almighty God.

If the Indian philospher mentioned previously believed that Jesus really was so ideal and wonderful, why isn’t he following Jesus Himself? Oh, he’s not following Jesus because Christians are such bad examples? Nice try, but that sounds like fake news to me.

Jesus Christ has taught every man all they need to know to accept Him and live out their lives. The Quran even contains some of the teachings of Christ. In fact, here’s a little known fact – Jesus is mentioned by name much more often than Mohammad is! This “secondary player”, even as a good prophet, gets more play time in Islam than the head messenger Mohammad himself!

The fact that Islam rejects the teachers of Christ as weak or a lie, but still tries to propogate the belief that they admire Jesus is nonsensical. You can’t call Jesus a liar and a Prophet at the same time. You can’t cherry pick the teachings and beliefs you want, and reject the rest. Jesus is ALL OR NOTHING.

Muslims believe that anyone rejecting their faith can be killed. Nearly 100 times in the Quran, it gives them permission to kill non-Muslims who will not accept the faith. They spread their religion, not through love, one person at a time – but through conquering nations by the sword. In a sense, that’s cheating when it comes to creating a religion. Unfair advantage – just gather enough of an army together, and the rest is all down to majority rules.

Why do you think they want to immigrate to non-Muslim countries with some intense volumes of people? It’s an invasion! They want to seek to weaken our flanks and to slowly erode our freedom of relgion.

Here’s the bottom line – Islam came along at least 700 years after Jesus had already left for Heaven again. They don’t get to define terms or who God or Jesus are. They don’t get to decide for the rest of us whether Jesus died and was raised again or not.

They are a false religion in the opinion of the Church, and Mohammad merely tried to respond to the Christian presence throughout the world, by creating this religious system. The religious aspect of Mohammad was quickly lost behind the military actions he took, as the religion at the time never really took root. So he conquered by the sword, spreading his “faith” by force.

Muslims call Jews and Christians “polytheists” (worshippers of many gods) several times in the Qu’ran. Where on earth do they get the idea that either Jews or Christians promote such nonsense – where’s the proof that we influence those type of people?

And Allah is to judge believers in Christ? That’s odd, because the Bible says that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

The Qu’ran of course speaks to the deity and Sonship of Christ in the Trinity as well:

And yet some people assert, “God has taken unto Himself a son!” Limitless is He in His glory! Nay, but His is all that is in the heavens and on earth; all things devoutly obey His will. (2:116 (Asad)

Some assert” that God has taken a son? So in other words, the Quran is debating this? It seems so. And those people “asserting” this are Christians, of course. How convenient that Islam gets to comment on other religions and their followers, trying to have the last word, like it matters to the teachings of the Bible whether Islam comments on them afterwards or not. The Bible says that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever!” (Hebrews 13:8)

An original, such as a work of art, is never at the mercy of a cheap copy. Neither is the person and the teachings of Jesus Christ made lesser than by some invented religion that comes along centuries later, trying to discredit it or assimilate its main characters into their religious fiction.

NEVER let anyone tell you that a Muslim accepts Jesus Christ as He truly is. That is a lie from the pit of Hell. Al-An’am (The Cattle) – 6:101 [read in context] says:

“The Originator of the heavens and the earth! How could it be that He should have a child without there ever having been a mate for Him – since it is He who has created everything, and He alone knows everything?”- 6:101 (Asad)

This is the weakest and most nonsensical statement of them all. God is not limited in his ability to have a Son, who could exist from eternity past until now, just like God does Himself. God is the Creator – He wouldn’t require the same physical methodology of reproducing as man does. HE CREATED the system that man uses to have children – he’s not bound by its principles, any more than God must adhere to the principles of time, space, gravity, and a host of other concepts that man is bound to or constrained by on earth.

And if Jesus is God, He would not be created at all – he simply would exist forever past, present and future as His Father does. The Holy Spirit as well has always been – He was not manufactured by God at some point down the road – He has always been.

Islam is going to have to do a lot better than that.

At-Tauba (The Repentance) – 9:30 [read in context]

AND THE JEWS say, “Ezra is God’s son,” while the Christians say, “The Christ is God’s son.” Such are the sayings which they utter with their mouths, following in spirit assertions made in earlier times by people who denied the truth! [44] [They deserve the imprecation:] “May God destroy them!” [45] How perverted are their minds! [46] – 9:30 (Asad)

So when people try try to tell you the God of the Bible and Allah are one – NEITHER Christianity nor Islam believes that at all, and in fact each believes the other is a FALSE GOD. Islam goes one step further, saying that God should destroy us for believing in Jesus being God’s Son. And when Muslims say Jesus was a Prophet or a good teacher, they lie because Jesus said He was the Son of God and they consider such belief “perverted”.

The Bible says that “you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). I encourage you to read the teachings of Jesus from the Bible, which is the only book that has the legitimate right to speak for Him. And by all means, look at the fruits of Christianity and Islam, as propogated by their members. Christianity has founded more hospitals, social service agencies, schools, universities, and has done more charitable work, even among Muslims, than Islam could ever even claim amongst its own – and Islam has NO charitable works targetting non-Muslims in need. That should tell you everything.

But MOST TELLING of all – Baptists are not beheading people. Catholics are not throwing gays off of buildings. Lutherans are not stoning adulterers to death. Presbyterians don’t cut the hands off of thieves. And NO Christian organization feels the legitimate right to EXECUTE those who walk away from the Church.

Islam will answer for much someday. But for now, let their actions speak for them – over 35,000 terrorist attacks globally since 9/11 and counting. That’s not a character flaw, a statistical anomaly, a mistake or an aberration. That much effort to bring suffering to the world shows the true heart of the religion.

I declare the statement of faith of Joshua, who led the children of Israel into the Promised Land after the death of Moses (from Joshua 24:15):

“Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house…
WE WILL SERVE THE LORD”.

By Islam Rising, Founding Blog Member
Calling Out Community
Posted: June 5, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

“Hypocrites” Keep You from Church? 😂

I am daily asked many questions on Quora about Christianity in general, or some theological tongue-twister specifically.

Tonight, I was asked this question:

The remainder is my verbatim answer. Either this person is trying to excuse sinful behaviour as a Christian, they are possibly mocking a Christian who has pretended for too long that they are perfect, or some other permutation I have not yet considered. As a result, I will let the Bible speak for me on this subject of Christians and sin. I hope it helps someone out there who either is a believer and struggles with their sin nature, or isn’t yet a Christian, but wants to know more about God and His love for us.

Every single person on earth has sinned, except for One – Jesus Christ Himself, because He was the sinless Son of God:

As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God(Romans 3:23)

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord..” (Romans 6:23)

Christ died on the Cross to save all not just Christians, but all of mankind from their sins. Anybody who accepts that sacrifice of Christ for the penalty of sin (that they should’ve paid themselves) receives all the benefits of His death on the Cross:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe it’s in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. (1 John 5:1)

Those who believe in what Christ has done for them and accept it are referred to as “Christians” – which is just someone who follows the teachings of Christ. And the moment we accept Him as our Saviour and Lord, He grants us the ability to have eternal life with Him in heaven.

However, battling the sin nature will continue to ravage us as long as we live on this planet. But now that we are believers in Christ, there are benefits to that – membership has its privileges:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but Godisfaithful, whowill not allowyou to be temptedbeyondwhatyou are able, but with the temptation will also make theway of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact,together with Christwe areheirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. The Future Glory ”(Romans 8:17)

But thanks be to God, whogives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”(1 Cor 15:57)

I do not understand what I do. For whatI want to do I do not do, butwhat I hate I do. …17 As it is,it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but Icannot carry it out. (Romans 7:15, 17-18)

But our sin nature doesn’t have to control us any longer. It doesn’t have to overwhelm us and lead us around by the nose and make us do things we don’t want to do. God has given us the ability to overcome these things. Yes, many Christians have not learned that yet, and it’s a process that takes people their entire lives to be regenerated. A person does not become instantly perfect when they become a Christian – in fact, they don’t reach perfection until they get to Heaven at the end of their life. For the remainder of this life, it is a process of continuous renewing of our minds and hearts, with the help of God:

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”(Romans 6:12–14)

The beauty of the message of Christ and his work on the cross for us is that we can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, and we are never going to be good enough to get it on our own. The sooner Christian learns that he doesn’t have the ability on his own to live the Christian life, and needs God to help him to renew his mind and be restored every single day, the sooner he will see restoration in his life.

I can tell you firsthand from my own family and friends that anyone can be delivered from alcoholism, drugs, smoking, sexual addictions, gluttony, anger, hatred, loneliness, racism and many many more – there are so many things that try to destroy us today:

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving us an example,that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.’ (2 Peter 1:10)

So, dear brothers and sisters,work hard to provethat you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away”

It’s important that we always remember, however, that only God can help you to become a better person – only he can make you more like Christ. You don’t have the ability to do it amongst yourselves if you did you we wouldn’t have needed to see him die on the cross in the first place

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8–10, New Living Translation)

FINAL NOTE:

Sometimes people refuse to associate with the church because Christians may seem to be less than perfect. A frequent excuse among people for not seeking salvation through Jesus Christ is because the church is full of hypocrites.

Sadly, this charge is partly true. This is an apology, a personal confession, and a statement of fact; Christians are still only people, and people often fail to be at their best. The answer is, yes, there are hypocrites in the church.

But the church is not filled with hypocrites. We should give Christians some benefit of the doubt and assume that, although they are human, they are earnestly trying to live in accord with their convictions.

There is a vast difference between:

those who are trying to live as Christians, but who make mistakes;

those who say they are Christians, but do not try to live better at all;

and those who have nothing to do with God – the majority of humanity – who reject him at every turn

The Church is not the only place where we find hypocrites, however. They are on the golf course, the highway, in business, in government, in school… They are everywhere.

Although you may not attend church because of them, have you given up golf, or driving your car, getting an education or working for a living because of them? Of course not, it wouldn’t be practical.

We overlook the hypocrisy of our golf companion when he cheats on his score, we do not cease to drive our car because the man in the next lane speeds, and we do not refuse our paycheck even though a fellow worker steals and does not give a day’s work for a day’s pay.

And at the end of your life, you will stand before God alone and He isn’t going to allow any excuses for why you didn’t accept His gift freely offered – which His Son voluntarily paid, a tremendous price to give you freedom from Sin, Death, Hell and the Grave – thanks to His death on the cross.

I urge you to accept that free gift of salvation today, that Jesus offers to you. God doesn’t promise anyone tomorrow” anywhere in the Bible – He only promises TODAY…and ETERNITY.

You can choose to not believe that God exists if you want to. That’s certainly your prerogative. But if I live my entire life for the cause of Christ, and I die, and then it is discovered that everything I believed was a lie, I won’t know any different.

But I will have lived a victorious life before I die, free of loneliness and fear and worry, knowing that Somebody out there cares for me and takes care of me and guides me. I have lost nothing if I have traded my doldrum life for one with purpose, meaning, and victory.

Oh, it’s not going to be perfect on this side of the grass – and there will be times where being a Christian will be an incredible challenge for a lot of people. We face a world that hates God and hates the church and will do anything it can to discredit both. And there are a lot of Christians that have certainly helped to make that a lot easier, by some of the most outrageous actions and behaviours.

But there are hundreds of millions of us who have accepted the message of Jesus Christ have claimed his victory over sin and death in our lives, and we echo the scripture that says:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:28)

So again I choose to live my life for Christ. If I end up being wrong and there is no Christ I have lost nothing– I have given up nothing that satisfies more, nothing that gives me more hope, nothing that gives me joy, nothing that gives me peace, that what I believe I have through Christ.

Now, however, if you lived your whole life and you wind up being wrong, and there was a God, you lose everything. We are given no mulligans, no do-overs or second chances when it comes to eternal life – the Bible says that:

It’s appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

20 seconds or less after you’re dead, you’re going to either have a very strong punch in the face of reality – when you quickly realize that there is a God and there is a Heaven and you’ve just stumbled into the very centre of their existence…

…or you will live a less than fulfilled life, feeling that there is something missing – money, popularity, relationships, power – none of which can or will satisfy you.

None give you hope for tomorrow – or even for today!

And the ultimate disaster would be to learn that, after having lived your life for so long for yourself alone, that at the end of life, there is nothing but darkness and finality. You would die at the end of all that and have…nothing.

What a motivating factor THAT would be to live a long life. Or perhaps, more importantly, to pray that you never die.

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Original Post: June 1, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

Jesus: Through Muslim Eyes

Following our popular article “Easter: Through Muslim Eyes”, published Easter 2016, we want to take a look today at what the Quran, and Muslims, say about Jesus Christ himself.

Believe it or not, Jesus is the most mentioned person in the Quran; 25 times by the name Isa, 3rd-person 48 times, 1st-person 35 times, the rest through his titles and attributes. That’s right – Jesus is in the Quran more than Muhammad! Here’s the catch – in the Quran, Jesus is the precursor / John the Baptist figure for Muhammad. And regardless of whether He’s talked about as a Prophet, a “pure boy” as the Quran also states, even born of a virgin – Jesus is most definitely NOT considered to be the Son of God, as you will soon see.

If you watch any amount of mainstream news, you have likely been convinced that Muslims believe Jesus was a good teacher or a great Prophet, and that they may have issues with the Church and Christians, but not with Christ. You’ve likely even heard that “Allah” is just another word for “God”. I would imagine you’ve also heard that when you boil it all down, we all really serve the same God, underneath it all.

If you’ve heard all this and believed it – you’re in for a rude awakening.

There is a popular belief, spread often by non-Muslims, Western nations’ leaders, and of course by Muslims themselves, that not only is Islam a “religion of peace” (which ironic, outrageous and oddly humorous, in light of the news we read every day), but that Allah and the God of the Bible, and Jehovah of the Jewish Talmud, are all one and the same Divine being.

That is absolute rubbish, and as you are going to see, from quotes pulled from the Quran itself, not only does Islam believe that Christ is NOT the Son of God, the Quran actually states that any one believing that Jesus is the Son of God – should be destroyed by God for their perverted way of thinking. Open your hearts and minds, folks. We are in a war for our very souls. And Islam is our declared enemy. We cannot allow anyone to tell us differently – for we are being led to the slaughter if we do.

Christianity teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, but the Quran says:

Surah Al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:

Why is Christ always making Satanic hand gestures with his right hand in almost EVERY Catholic and Muslim painting of Him?

And they say, “None will enter Paradise except one who is a Jew or a Christian.” That is [merely] their wishful thinking, Say, “Produce your proof, if you should be truthful.” (2:111)
- So, the Quran teachers that it is wishful thinking for Christians to think they will enter Heaven through the work of Christ. That is absolute BLASPHEMY
Yes [on the contrary], whoever submits his face in Islam to Allah while being a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve (2:112)
- Continuing from the verse above, we see that only those who believe in Allah will be rewarded. In other words, Christians and Jews don’t get any rewards in Heaven, as they don’t believe in Allah.
The Jews say “The Christians have nothing [true] to stand on,” and the Christians say, “The Jews have nothing to stand on,” although they [both] recite the Scripture. Thus the polytheists speak the same as their words. But Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that over which they used to differ. (2:113)
And who are more unjust than those who prevent the name of Allah from being mentioned in His mosques and strive toward their destruction. It is not for them to enter them except in fear. For them in this world is disgrace, and they will have in the Hereafter a great punishment. (2:114) They say, ” Allah has taken a son.” Exalted is He! Rather, to Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and the earth. All are devoutly obedient to Him (2:116) Indeed, We have sent you, [O Muhammad], with the truth as a bringer of good tidings and a warner, and you will not be asked about the companions of Hellfire. (2:119) And never will the Jews or the Christians approve of you until you follow their religion. Say, “Indeed, the guidance of Allah is the [only] guidance.” If you were to follow their desires after what has come to you of knowledge, you would have against Allah no protector or helper. (2:120) Those to whom We have given the Book recite it with its true recital. They [are the ones who] believe in it. And whoever disbelieves in it – it is they who are the losers. (2:121) They say, “Be Jews or Christians [so] you will be guided.” Say, “Rather, [we follow] the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth, and he was not of the polytheists.” (2:135) Ask the Children of Israel how many a sign of evidence We have given them. And whoever exchanges the favor of Allah [for disbelief] after it has come to him – then indeed, Allah is severe in penalty. (2:211)

The Quran mentions in chapter 3, verses 52-53, that the disciples submitted to the faith of Islam:

When Jesus found Unbelief on their part He said: “Who will be My helpers to (the work of) Allah?” Said the disciples: “We are Allah’s helpers: We believe in Allah, and do thou bear witness that we are Muslims.
Our Lord! we believe in what Thou hast revealed, and we follow the Messenger; then write us down among those who bear witness.”

— Quran Surah Al-Imran 52-53

jesus-muhammad-e1508619013339 — The Muslim Christ is a false god. He is not the Jesus of the Bible, stripped of His deity, and having not died for our sins, this false Christ CANNOT therefore beis not our Saviour – just as Muslims like Him to be. And what is with the feminine-looking Christ and Mohammad, that we see in virtually all Catholic and Muslim representations of Christ and Mohammad?”

The longest narrative involving Jesus’ disciples is when they request a laden table to be sent from Heaven, for further proof that Jesus is preaching the true message:

Behold! the disciples, said: “O Jesus the son of Mary! can thy Lord send down to us a table set (with viands) from heaven?” Said Jesus: “Fear Allah, if ye have faith.”
They said: “We only wish to eat thereof and satisfy our hearts, and to know that thou hast indeed told us the truth; and that we ourselves may be witnesses to the miracle.”
Said Jesus, the son of Mary: “O Allah our Lord! Send us from heaven a table set (with viands), that there may be for us—for the first and the last of us—a solemn festival and a sign from thee; and provide for our sustenance, for thou art the best Sustainer (of our needs).”
Allah said: “I will send it down unto you: But if any of you after that resisteth faith, I will punish him with a penalty such as I have not inflicted on any one among all the peoples.”

— Quran Surah Al-Ma’ida 112-115

In Islam, Jesus is believed to have been the precursor to Muhammad, attributing the name Ahmad to someone who would follow Jesus. Islam traditionally teaches the rejection of divinity, that Jesus was not God incarnate, nor the Son of God and, according to some interpretations of the Quran, the death and crucifixion are widely denied and not believed to have occurred. Despite the earliest Muslim traditions and exegesis quoting somewhat conflicting reports regarding death and length of death, the mainstream Muslim belief is that Jesus did not suffer death but was instead raised alive to heaven.

Jesus_Name_in_Arabic — *The name “Jesus son of Mary” written in Islamic calligraphy followed by “Peace be upon him*

That is a huge problem. If Jesus did not die, then His blood was not shed for our sins. Our sins are therefore not cleansed – we would continue to require the sacrifice of animals, and the shedding of their blood in order to merely cover, but not cleanse, us of sin. The Bible says that Jesus “died (comma) and was buried (period), then ladies and gentlemen, we have a dead religion serving a dead God. And we remain dead in our sins.

Islam would like to perpetuate this myth, because underneath it all, Islam is a false religion, which could only possibly have one source or founder – one who seeks to be as a God, one who seeks to replace God. And Islam cannot accept Jesus in the form that He stated he was, because to do so would be to recognize Islam is a false religion.

Why do I say this? Because Jesus Christ himself said:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life – NO ONE comes to the Father but by me”.
(John 14:6)

So for a Muslim to say that Jesus was a good teacher, a good man or a good Prophet even would be nonsense, and a lie. Jesus couldn’t possibly be ANY of those things if He was also a LUNATIC OR A LIAR.

Jesus didn’t say He was a good guy. He didn’t claim to be a good teacher or a good prophet of truth – He said He IS truth. He doesn’t just possess truth, or share truth, or understand truth, nor is he one that lives in truth or walks in his Truth or whatever nonsense we hear today. Jesus Christ said that He IS Truth. Period. If you want to know what’s real, who is the one you must serve, who has the backing of God the Father, and who rules and reigns the universe, look no further than Jesus Christ. For either he’s a liar, a lunatic….

Or the Lord He said He was.

Today, I can go visit Mohammad’s grave. Buddha’s gravesite is accessible for me to visit. Joseph Smith, Jim Jones, David Koresh – there have been so many men over the centuries who came along and said “look at me, I have the truth”. Follow me, I know what I”m talking about – and none of them did.

And in almost every case, they had to do something about Jesus Christ first. They had to write him out of their religion, or write him in as some secondary player. Because keeping Jesus the way the Bible describes Him would be to confirm they are living in a false religion. Creating a false religion is even worse – there is likely a special place in Hell for those like Mohammad, Joseph Smith and more, who have intentionally led millions astray – knowing FULL WELL that they weren’t God, nor His representatives on earth.

They all KNEW they were just mere men, but somehow they convinced millions to go along with them over the centuries, because they may have had some learned truth deep inside. The Devil can tell the truth too – just enough to convince you he’s real. Then, when he has you, you may even start to realize you have been deceived. At that point, you may be in such bondage to the religion chosen – such is the case with Islam – that you can’t break free.

As long as they are kept busy with the trappings of faith, they can ignore the fact that their religion isn’t changing them positively on the inside, isn’t bringing them hope or peace or assurance of life after death, or health when they are sick.

Jesus-Muhammad-Christianity-Islam-Cross-Crescent-Star-900 — *Jesus is mentioned by name more in the Qu’ran than Mohammad is. But it’s not THE Christ of the Bible. He’s a fraud*

To be blunt, if they ever had an encounter with the teachings or person of Jesus Christ, they would realize right away they were being hoodwinked where they were. However, most religions have a response for the teachings and person of Jesus – either they discredit Him as being lesser than He is, or they discredit His followers’ weaknesses as proof that He couldn’t possibly be that great of a God. They don’t explain, however, how they are justified in their faith, when many of them are even weaker than we are. After all, it is not Christians that are accused the most of terrorist attacks globally.

Mahatma Gandhi said, concerning believers in Christ:

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

But wait – Gandhi never said that. There’s no proof that quote ever came from him. But so desperate are some to discredit Jesus or the Church, they are convinced that making up nonsense about either is better than nothing. A similar quote appears to be from an Indian philosopher named Bara Dada, brother of Rabindranath Tagore. The full quote from Dada appears to be from the mid-1920s:

“Jesus is ideal and wonderful, but you Christians, you are not like him.”

With all due respect, I call BS here. Jesus truly IS as ideal and wonderful as the man claimed, and what difference does it make whether man is weak and frail or not, it’s not a reflection on the God we serve, nor can one say “Yah, God’s got some great ideas, but Christians just wreck it for me”. If you are that weak minded that you can only follow a philosophy or belief that is full of rock solid followers – you must not believe in ANYTHING then. Because ISLAM IS FULL of weak followers – as well as crazed ones that won’t think twice about blowing up a crowded market full of women and children in the name of Allah.

There are weak people in every industry, every career, every nation, every religion. The above is much the same as saying “I like the laws around here, but the cops are so bad, they wreck it for me, so I can’t respect the law now.” Well, Good News then – the law doesn’t care whether you respect it, or like its enforcement agencies or not.

Go ahead and break the law, thinking that you are justified in doing so. Jail will be just as small, the food just as nasty, and orange will be just as much the new black. The law doesn’t care if you respect it, agree with it, appreciate it, understand it or accept it. If you don’t obey it, you will be punished by it – and you have no choice in that matter.

The same is true of God – go ahead and deny His teachers or the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself. Tell Christ that Christians have wrecked it for you, or “but I’ve got my guy – I think I’ll just continue to go along with him.” Well, that’s entirely your choice, but you’re still going to Hell regardless. Jesus isn’t an OPTIONAL God, like a side of fries with a hamburger. Jesus is GOD. Mohammad never said he was a God. Neither did Buddha, Confucious, Joseph Smith or a host of others. Jesus did. Several times in fact, and you MUST face what Jesus said about HIMSELF, before you can ever buy into what others say about Him.

maxresdefault — *Islam allows Jesus to ascend to Heaven at the end of His ministry – but He didn’t die on the Cross first, according to them. So He’s not our risen Saviour – if HE NEVER DIED.*

Oh but Jesus? Yah, they all have a replacement, a crisis actor all trained up and ready to go to try to replace him. It’s Jesus all the religions of the world are gunning for. It’s Jesus they cannot just allow to exist, nor can they allow His teachings to spread very far. Because they all know He’s the real deal, and His very existence confirms that they are liars and frauds. There aren’t “options” when it comes to religion.

There’s Jesus or there’s Hell. Period. He’s not a menu item on the religious buffet of the week. He’s the only game in town. Run after your circus acts all you want to – it doesn’t make them any more real life than before. Watching too many cartoons, even believing they are all true, still won’t make them real, no matter what you think.

The Bible says that “it’s appointed for man once to die, and then the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) You don’t get to come along after the fact and say “oh, I don’t believe in any of that”. 5 minutes after you die, as you stand before God, He’s not going to be concerned about your belief system at that point, because for you, it will then be already too late to change anything anyway. One can not simply take Islam back for a full refund, once you realize you have a dead, defective religion that didn’t save you from your sins and keep you from the wrath of almighty God.

Whether you believed in it or not. He really was so ideal and wonderful, as this man suggested, then why isn’t he following Jesus Himself? Oh, he’s not following Jesus because Christians are such bad examples? Nice try, but that doesn’t justify you staying where you are. Whether or not he truly had legitimately terrible treatment by Christians or not, no one is going to be able to use that as an excuse when they stand before God.

66853411-1000x50we — “Christian” mosaic icon in the Hagia Sofia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. And here we go again, Jesus stuck as a baby on Momma’s knee. Powerless, yet somehow able to make a Satanic symbol with his right hand. And who are grandma and grandpa in this picture?

Jesus Christ has taught every man all they need to know to accept Him and live out their lives. The Qu’ran even contains some of the teachings of Christ. They fact that they reject those teachings as weak or a lie – but somehow still try to propogate the belief that they admire Jesus is nonsensical. You can’t call Jesus a liar and a Prophet at the same time. You can’t cherry pick the rules and teachings and beliefs you want, and reject the rest.

They believe that anyone rejecting the faith can be killed. They believe that they have permission to kill non-Muslims if they will not accept the faith. They spread their religion, not through love, one person at a time – but through conquering nations by the sword. In a sense, that’s cheating when it comes to creating a religion. Unfair advantage – just gather enough of an army together, and the rest is all downhill from there.

Why do you think they want to immigrate to non-Muslim countries with some intense volumes of people? It’s an invasion! They want to seek to weaken our flanks and to slowly erode our freedom of religion.

Here’s the bottom line – Islam came along at least 700 years after Jesus had already left for Heaven again. They don’t get to define terms or who God or Jesus are. They don’t get to decide for the rest of us whether Jesus died and was raised again or not.

What do Muslims mean by the “polytheists speak the same as their words“? Polytheism is the belief in many Gods. Where on earth do they get the idea that either Jews or Christians promote such nonsense? Because we believe in the TRINITY in Christian circles. And Allah is to judge believers in Christ? That’s odd, because the Bible says that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom 8:1)

“And yet some people assert, “God has taken unto Himself a son!” Limitless is He in His glory!” [2:116], the Qu’ran states.

Some “assert” that God has taken a son? So in other words, the Quran is debating this? It seems so.

Nay, but His is all that is in the heavens and on earth; all things devoutly obey His will. – 2:116 (Asad)

Al-An’am (The Cattle) – 6:101 [read in context]

“The Originator of the heavens and the earth! How could it be that He should have a child without there ever having been a mate for Him – since it is He who has created everything, and He alone knows everything?” – 6:101 (Asad)

This is the weakest and most nonsensical statement of them all. God is not limited in his ability to have a Son, who could exist from eternity past until now, just like God does Himself. God is the Creator – He wouldn’t require the same physical methodology of reproducing as man does. HE CREATED the system that man uses to have children – he’s not bound by its principles, any more than God must adhere to the principles of time, space, gravity, and a host of other concepts that man is bound to or constrained by on earth.

And why would have had to create Jesus at all – why couldn’t Jesus have existed as long as the Father had? The Holy Spirit as well has always been – He was not manufactured by God at some point down the road – He has always been.

Islam is going to have to do a lot better than that.

At-Tauba (The Repentance) – 9:30 [read in context]

AND THE JEWS say, “Ezra is God’s son,” while the Christians say, “The Christ is God’s son.” Such are the sayings which they utter with their mouths, following in spirit assertions made in earlier times by people who denied the truth! [44] [They deserve the imprecation:] “May God destroy them!” [45] How perverted are their minds! [46] – 9:30 (Asad)

So when people try to tell you that the God of the Bible and Allah are one – NEITHER Christianity nor Islam believes that at all, and in fact each believes the other is a FALSE GOD. Islam goes one step further, saying that God should destroy us for believing in Jesus being God’s Son.

So, in conclusion, when Muslims try to define Jesus, recognize they are doing so without any direct connection to Him when He was alive. They created a religion 700 years later and conveniently made the central figure of the human race a cheerleader for their false religion. Who could deny it – Jesus was long gone. Yet they also re-defined who Christ even was at that time. Explain how they would be able to do so, when not a single Islamic follower in world history was anywhere near Jesus when He walked on the Earth Everything they state then is hearsay.

Matthew 16:13-17 says it all, better than I ever could:

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

By Islam Rising, Founding Blog Member
Calling Out Community
Posted April 25, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

Victim Value = 1 Muslim > 7+ Christians

There is an uncrossable gulf that separates how much value the Western media and leftists hold for Muslim victims of terror, that were not caused by the Church, and Christian victims of terror caused by Islam. That has been made painfully clear in the last month, and especially after the horrific terrorist attacks on worshipping Christians on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.

It’s time to speak up about it.

*The US State Dept has warned of the possibility of more terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka following Sunday’s deadly Church bombings. | Source: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha*

One only has to look at the coverage this week of the Islamic terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka versus the insufferable barrage of inane nonsense that came out of New Zealand after the so-called mosque shooting there, to see just how much the media and leftist jackasses overvalue the death of a Muslim at the hands of non-Christian extremists, over the death of many more Christians at the hands of Muslims.

The mosque shooting in New Zealand was met with national mourning and a pandering prime Minister that wore Islamic clothing more than she wore her own pants suits that week. Giant ceremonies were held where the whole country could come together, as long as they were weeping and gnashing their teeth because of the Muslim “victims” there.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern seems to be looking to see if the media are watching her weeping performance? What an insufferable witch – only days after this shooting, her government would claw back many categories of previously legal firearms, which wouldn’t have changed anything in this situation..

Fast forward to the disaster in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, when Christians were brutally murdered by the hundreds while they sat in church on our holiest day of the year – their only crime being their celebration of the resurrection of the living Saviour.

And what was the public’s response around the world? All I heard was crickets chirping. I DON’T RECALL SEEING ONE WORLD LEADER SPEAKING OUT ON THIS AT ALL.

And in the most outrageous slight possible, ABC News ran one constant video clip in Sri Lanka of a Muslim woman kneeling on the street weeping about it afterwards. That’s it – that was the sum total of their reporting of public response.

Frankly I don’t give a damn what their responses to this event are – those Islamic pigs COMMITTED THE CRIME.

*A mass funeral on Wednesday near St. Sebastian’s Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka. About 100 people were killed at the church on Sunday. (Credit: Adam Dean/New York Times*

While 359 people were killed and over 500 were injured by Muslim terrorists in 8 separate attacks in Sri Lanka, including hundreds of Christians killed in Church only, the liberal elite continues to pander to the poor little Muslims in this so-called NZ mosque shooting. Tonight, as we speak, Prince William of the royal family is in New Zealand to support the victims there.

Meanwhile, to add insult to injury band slaughter, the media continues to report that these ISIS butchers perpetrated these attacks as retaliation for the mosque shooting – though NO Christian, NO church and NO Sri Lankan had anything to do with that fake news gun grab committed by the libtard government in New Zealand.

*An image released by Isis’s propaganda agency Amaq of a group of men it says carried out the Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka (Credit: AFP)*

LET ME SAY IT AGAIN – The media and leftists have the unmitigated GALL to actually try to STILL get public sympathy for the Muslims shot in the New Zealand mosque … by painting the Sri Lankan attacks as REVENGE KILLINGS.

THAT WOULD BE THE SAME THING AS THE UNITED STATES LAUNCHING AN ATTACK ON VENEZUELA IN RETALIATION FOR THE JAPANESE BOMBING IN PEARL HARBOR. The two events do not have a damn thing in common, other than Muslims were responsible in one and supposed victims in another.

NO Christian pulled the trigger in New Zealand, NO church was responsible for the attacks in New Zealand, and NO Sri Lankan had anything to do with the attack in New Zealand. To have the gall to paint the attacks in Sri Lanka as some kind of revenge for New Zealand shootings cheapens the deaths of hundreds of people who were even more completely innocent than their Muslim counterparts.

*For an unplanned event, there was certainly a quick graphic design response across Western media.>/small>*

Hell, liberals and media are even trying to justify the attacks on Sri Lankans as if they deserved it for the attacks in New Zealand.

If the truth be told, and I’m not even going to bother being sensitive about this, Muslims died in the mass shooting in New Zealand because they have committed 35,899 terrorist attacks around the world since 9/11 and people are fed up with them. The Muslims who were killed in that shooting in New Zealand were perhaps innocent victims, though we don’t know what kind of impact they have had on the terrorist attacks around the world by financing some of these organizations or what their support for Islamic terrorist groups is.

However, the Sri Lankan victims were all absolutely innocent parties that had no ties to any other attacks like this anywhere in the world.

*Crocodile tears coming from demons shouldn’t be such a surprise.*

Frankly I no longer feel one bit sorry for any so-called victims of the mosque shooting in New Zealand. With no due respect, the score is now 35,889 Islamic terrorist attacks to 1 attack back at them. In fact the very week of the New Zealand shooting, which was perpetrated by a white supremacist NOT claiming to be a Christian of any kind, Nigerian Muslims attacked several churches there and killed at least as many Christians…

… and no one gave a damn.

Now, ABC news reports that the Sri Lankan attacks represent the largest attack by ISIS ever in the world. In fact it is rivalled only by September 11th as one of the largest terrorist attacks in recent memory. Certainly the media are reporting the Sri Lankan story now for several days, just as they did with the New Zealand shooting.

But they have to, don’t they, because it’s the largest terrorist attack by ISIS in history.

The difference? Where’s the public outcry?

I don’t see that insufferable shrew of a New Zealand prime minister weeping about this situation, even though SEVEN times more innocent people died on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka then died in the mosque shooting in New Zealand. 7 TIMES MORE. Apparently, 1 dead Muslim is worth at least 7 dead Christians, according to these idiots.

That could very well be due to the fact that there been so many Christians killed in churches and Jews killed in synagogues by Muslim butchers around the world… In France, Egypt, Israel, Indonesia, Kenya, the Philippines, Nigeria, India, and many more – and now Sri Lanka… everyone just shrugs now.

Well I sure as hell am not shrugging. I boldly declare that I HATE ISLAM WITH A PASSION. I didn’t say I hate Muslims, but DO NOT push me on it, while Christian blood runs through the streets of yet another innocent country because of Muslims.

I wish we could outlaw Islam – the blood cult, demonic false religion, and scourge on society – as the international terrorism group they are. I would love to see the Pope declare a return to the Crusades and a reinstatement of the knights Templar – but he’s such a weak-as-water little delicate socialist princess in full collusion with Islam, that would never happen.

However, if Muslims think they can continue to slaughter Christians around the world by the thousands, they shouldn’t be surprised when some of us in the Church begin to FIGHT BACK. Jesus may command us to “turn the other cheek” – but Muslim mongrels should not take that as a sign of weakness. We may just be avoiding looking at them as we LOCK AND LOAD to defend ourselves against them.

Muslims should have no doubt about our resolve to defend our families, defend our Brothers and sisters in Christ, defend our churches – no matter WHAT that means. And it won’t be a “measured response” either, if we are forced to retaliate. ISLAM HAS DECLARED WAR, and if they want to be martyrs for their cause, and the Church is attacked again – we’ll WIPE THEM OUT and let God sort them out after.

“Over the top, you might say”? How about you just SHUT UP, who pandering TRAITOR, grab a mop, make yourself useful and start cleaning up all the blood on the street in Sri Lanka. When you finish there, you can start in the streets of Egypt, France and a host of other countries that these Muslim butchers have been shooting and killing people in.

And then you can walk over to the neighborhood mosque and tell the illiterate imams there to stop preaching violence against our people – or suffer the consequences when their equally mentally retarded congregations do as they are encouraged to.

By Islam Rising, Founding Blog Member
Calling Out Community
Posted April 25, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

The Cross And The Grave Are Both Empty

I am asked many questions on Quora about Christianity, in general, and specifically about the story of Jesus Christ. Many ask where Jesus is buried, or if one can visit his gravesite. I am so thrilled to say that NO, you cannot – for His tomb was only borrowed for a few days, and today is empty… Here’s my response to one of those Quora questions.

Happy Easter – Christ Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

It has struck me often of late that, if you were to visit almost any Catholic Church on earth, as well as many Anglican, United or other traditional mainline churches – you would find images of Jesus Christ proudly displayed in them all, usually displayed in one of three scenes or poses:

PERPETUAL PAMPERS: Jesus is often seen as a baby under the age of 1, sitting on His mother’s lap. Incidentally, only ONE of these works of art is confirmed to be of Mary and the baby Jesus. Can you tell which one?

(Hint: It doesn’t matter – ALL of these images depict Jesus either gesturing a Satanic symbol or with some pagan symbolism, especially the tridents you see above, or the globe in His hand). It’s outrageous – these images are also believed by some to be Semiramis (the mother) and Nimrod or Baal (the Baby), or other variants of divine feminine and baby, of which there are over a dozen other pairs. The Devil clearly knew the prophecies of Jesus being born of a Virgin, and so He had false gods coming out of the woodwork, from virtually every major empire or significant culture of the day, including:

VIRGIN MARY	JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God
Semiramis(Goddess Mother or “Queen of Heaven”) (Babel)	Nimrod (Babel)
Ashtarte or Ishtar (Babylon) (This is where Catholics get EASTER from)	The Winged One or Baal the Sun God (Babylon)
Cybele (Goddess Mother) Asia	Deoius (Asia)
Fortuna (Pagan Rome)	The Boy Jupiter (Pagan Rome)
Isis (The Queen of Heaven) Egypt	Osiris or Horus (Egypt)
Isi (Goddess Mother) India	Iswara (India)
Venus (Rome)	Cupid (Rome)
Ashterath (Phoenicia)	Tammuz (Phoenicia)
Aphrodite (Greece)	Eros (Greece)
Irene (Goddess of Peace) Greece	The Boy Plutus (Greece)
Rhea (Mother of Gods)	Orion (Constellation)
Diana (Ephesian)	Bacchus (God of Party going) of Ancient Greece
Shing Moo (Holy Mother of China)	The Centaur (Greece)

MILQUETOAST MESSIAH: Who or WHAT is this milk-white-skinned, halo-enhanced, androgynous, suspiciously-transgendered looking creature, that is once again making the Satanic symbol of the trident? And he looks like he’s wearing lipstick, and what happened to the majority of the beard on his face? Jesus is often depicted as an adult like this – a weak-kneed pantywaist who looks like he can barely hold up both arms.

That “sacred heart’ of Jesus doesn’t really relate to Jesus at all. In fact, if you look above, you’ll see that another Roman deity is also often portrayed as either having a heart or trying to pierce ours with an arrow – on Valentine’s Day. Yep, Cupid is a false god. And by including this pagan symbol on Jesus as a “sacred heart”, pagans of the Roman world could continue their blasphemous worship of their gods, by dressing up Jesus to look like a Ken doll (that clearly looks like he’d rather be Barbie).

HANGING AROUND: Most common of all – Jesus is permanently hanging on the Cross in Catholic churches. Catholic so-called “leadership” wants us to believe that this is a much more spiritual and respectful representation of Christ, than they believe an empty Cross represents – because it apparently “reminds them more of what Christ did for us”.

Which is frankly nonsensical – Christ’s death alone would have done NOTHING for us. He’d be of no more significance than a dead Mohammad, Buddha or Joseph Smith. ALL of us die – that’s not an accomplishment – in fact, it’s an incredible DEFEAT when the dead one also happens to be the SON OF GOD, killed by MEN – the Creator killed by His Creation?

No matter how horrible the death may be, or the noble mission that caused the death to take place – only His Resurrection granted Him (and us) victory over sin, hell, death and the grave. Which is something that the spirit of antichrist does not want to highlight at all. And contrary to the Exorcist and other related demonic portrayals, the Devil is not afraid of your crucifix. Holding it up in front of the demon-possessed won’t do any more to move a demon out of a person than holding up your driver’s license would. If the demon puts on a show that he’s being “cast out” – I would be very concerned being that exorcist, because he’s about to get a new demonic tenant living in him.

DEMONS AREN’T AFRAID OF YOUR CRUCIFIX (Sorry!)

Let’s get real for a moment – crucifixes or crosses don’t scare demons – and how DARE Catholics use such a powerful symbol as the Cross as some kind of spiritual lucky rabbit’s foot. In fact, the horrid practice was spread throughout the world. If demons are scared of crosses, they sure liked to use them a lot to brutally kill people around the world:

Crucifixion was invented by the Persians in 300-400BC
Crucifixion (or impalement), in one form or another, it was used by Carthaginians and Macedonians
Alexander the Great is reputed to have crucified 2,000 survivors from his siege of the Phoenician city of Tyre, as well as the doctor who unsuccessfully treated Alexander’s friend Hephaestion. Some historians have also conjectured that Alexander crucified Callisthenes, his official historian and biographer, for writing disparaging things about him.
In Carthage, crucifixion was an established mode of execution, which could even be imposed on generals for suffering a major defeat.
Romans developed it as a form of capital punishment for serious crimes. The upright wooden cross was the most common technique, and the time victims took to die would depend on how they were crucified. Historian Josephus stated that the Roman soldiers would amuse themselves by crucifying criminals in different positions.
The rebel slave Spartacus and 6,000 of his followers were all crucified along the highways into Rome – to show everyone what happens to traitors.
During the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, it was written that many Jews were crucified to the walls of the city.
Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in 337 out of veneration for Jesus Christ, its most famous victim.

Regardless, I believe this is a form of idol worship, for:

It obscures the glory of Christ – it hides the fact of His deity, His victory on the Cross, and His present kingdom.
It displays His human weakness, while hiding from the viewer His divine strength;
It depicts the reality of His pain, but keeps out of our sight the reality of His power.

In all 3 depictions of Christ above, they share one common theme – regardless of which one you’re looking at, Jesus is portrayed as powerless and impotent in all of the scenarios.

If Jesus never grows up, then Mary can be (and has been) introduced as a co-mediator to help the little guy out – which is what the Catholics did at Vatican Council II in 1959, bestowing the titles of Mary as Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix (#62) in official documents. In its basic definition, a mediator is one who serves as an intermediary between two other parties. Oftentimes, the mediator assists in reconciling differences and bringing the parties to an understanding. It’s like Catholics are wanting to intentionally go against the Scriptures, that state, in 1Tim. 2:5: ““For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”

Co-Redemptrix is also used by some Catholics, referring to Mary’s role in the redemption of all peoples – a highly controversial theology that isn’t official church theology, but still held by millions to be true. Co-Redemptrix refers to a subordinate but essential participation by the Blessed Virgin Mary in redemption, notably that she gave free consent to giving birth to the Redeemer, which meant sharing his life, suffering, and death, which were redemptive for the world. That’s like saying Abraham Lincoln’s mom freed the slaves, and Adolf Hitler’s mom was responsible for the Holocaust. Good or bad, our mothers do not claim responsibility for our actions simply because they may have given birth to us.

Jesus’ death alone on the Cross is not the power behind the story of Easter. Anyone could die on a cross, as calloused as that sounds. In fact, 2 other thieves died on crosses flanking both sides of him that very day.

1 Corinthians 15:3 says:

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried…

Now, if we were to note a period (.) after the word “buried”, and that was it – then ladies and gentlemen, you’re serving a dead God in a dead religion. Which, sadly, is where the majority of the world finds itself tonight.

Muhammad, founder of Islam, is dead, and you can visit his grave at the Al Masjid an Nabawi mosque, also known as the Green Dome, in Medina, Saudi Arabia – where he was buried on June 8, 632 AD. They added the mosque over his tomb in 1279 AD.

Gautama Buddha is also dead, and his body was cremated in Kushinagar, India around 483 BC, and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. Ramabhar Stupa in Kushinagar was built over a portion of the Buddha’s ashes on the spot where he was cremated by the ancient Malla people. The cremated remains of what an inscription says is the Buddha, also called Siddhārtha Gautama, have been also discovered in a box in Jingchuan County, China, along with more than 260 Buddhist statues

Cremated Remains of the ‘Buddha’ Discovered in Chinese Village

Confucius is also dead and you can visit his gravesite at the Cemetery of Confucius, in his hometown of Qufu, in Shandong province, China. At his gravesite, where he was buried in 479 BC, today 70 generations of his family are also buried – 100,000 people in all!

Gurdwara Kartarpur (meaning “The Abode of God”) was established by Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism in 1522. When Guru Nanak died in 1539, Hindus and Muslims disagreed on how to perform his last rites. A samadhi (according to Hindu tradition) lies in the gurdwara and a grave (according to Muslim traditions) lies on the premises as a reminder of this discord. The gurdwara is located in a small village named Kartarpur on the West bank of the Ravi River in Punjab, Pakistan.

Taoism was founded by Laozi, the author of the Tao Te Ching, who is very much dead today. According to Taoist legend, Laozi transmitted the Tao Te Ching at the request of a border guard before departing from China (i.e. from known civilization). He is believed to have lived out the rest of his days in communion with Nature. No one knows where he was buried, or even if he was, after he departed to the West from China in 531 BC.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) is dead, and was buried at the Smith Family Cemetery, Nauvoo, Illinois. After destroying a newspaper that printed negative material about him and his church, Joseph was arrested for “suppression of freedom of the press” and imprisoned at the Carthage Jail. On June 27, 1844, a mob of 200 men stormed the jail where Smith was being held, and murdered Joseph and his brother Hyrum.

The Cave of the Patriarchs is located in the ancient city of Hebron, West Bank, Israel – and is generally considered by Jews, Christians and Muslims to be its spiritual center. All three major Abrahamic world religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) have factions that believe that the compound encloses the burial place of: Adam and Eve; Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebekah; Jacob and Leah.

The founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science) – Mary Baker Eddy – is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after dying on December 3, 1910.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, or the Unification Church, in 1954 (also known as the “Moonies”). On September 15, 2012, he was buried at his house in Cheongseongsan, in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

On January 24, 1986, L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, died in Creston, San Luis Obispo County, California, and was cremated – his ashes then scattered on the Pacific Ocean, per his wishes. He has a simple gravestone at the family home in Hubbardsville, New York.

CHRISTIANITY…AND CHRIST…ARE INCOMPARABLE

What sets Christianity apart from all the other religions is that according to 1 Corinthian’s 15:3-4:

:3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, AND THAT HE ROSE AGAIN THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures

That’s the good news, friend! The Gospel, in a nutshell, is forever enshrined in four words:

The Cross (Jesus died)
The Crypt (Jesus was buried)
The Comma (that little punctuation mark that tells us that story didn’t end there, that there was more to come, for on Sunday morning there was…)
The Comeback (Jesus kicked the end out of His tomb and rose from the grave, triumphant over Death, sin, sickness, Hell and the grave).

I call on Catholics around the world to take our Saviour down from the Cross. To leave Him there is blasphemous and depraved – it acknowledges His Death without His Resurrection – meaning He is NOT GOD and has no power to forgive sins, set us free or give us eternal life.

There is no greater testimony of the power of God today than an EMPTY Cross and an EMPTY TOMB – For He is not on it or in it any longer, nor did it have power over Him. He cried from the Cross: “IT IS FINISHED” not “I AM Finished”.

Take Him down off the Cross, off His mother’s lap – and out of the tranny make-up bag.

I echo the powerful words of Alfred H. Ackley – credited with writing 1500 hymns, gospel songs and children’s songs – but likely his most famous is also his most powerful:

“I serve a risen Savior,
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
and just the time I need Him
He’s always near.

He lives! He lives!
Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me
and talks with me
along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives,
salvation to impart!
You ask me how
I know He lives?
He lives within my heart!’

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: April 19, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

Easter: Through Muslim Eyes

Christians – do not be deceived. The war on Easter has begun in earnest. The end goal is nothing short of the complete eradication of the celebration of Easter from the Western, including Canada and the United States.

Let’s examine a quote and photo from a blog named Stand Up For Islam , which we found very revealing concerning Islam’s view on celebrations like Christmas and Easter. (Note: While we have supplied the link to the material for verification, visit their site sparingly. Blogs may receive financial support through adviews, number of visitors, etc. and we do not want to see these funds go into Islamic hands.)

Christian parents of school-aged kids are witnessing the slow removal of any signs of celebrating the true meaning of Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. They can be forgiven – even admired – for suggesting that they don’t care whether Jewish or Islam holidays are recognized in public schools, as long as Easter and Christmas continue to be celebrated unabated as well.

Sounds reasonable – but you’re out of touch with Islamic reality. Here’s the ugly truth. They don’t want to work with you and they HATE Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. They also believe that your willingness to be so open-minded is a disgusting sign of weakness. They are taught to believe that you are a reprobate infidel as are your children, and our religious holidays to them are like Hallowe’en to many Christians.

Don’t believe me? Fair enough. I present unedited (except to add definitions for Arabic words) the first 1/2 of a posting, and accompanying meme, entitled Easter and Islam from the above-stated blog. The author is clearly upset:

“It saddens me to think that we are living in times when the Muslims are being misled, not only by the Christians and Hindus and Buddhists and those from other faiths – they are being misled by other Muslims! Celebrating festivals like Easter is haraam. [Refers to anything that is prohibited in the Qur’anMuhammad or would result in sin when committed by a Muslim].

by Photos8.com

Although it may be viewed as harmless fun, having an Easter egg, sending Easter greeting cards, wishing Christians a Happy Easter, you are (as a Muslim) doing more harm than good. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) never adopted the ways of Jahiliyyah (ignorance) to try and bring people to Islam. And even if you’re just trying to be polite and neighborly, you are actually undermining the principles of Islam and keeping people in misguidance.

Other than that, there is the added problem of imitating the kuffaar [derogatory word for we infidels or unbelievers]. We are Muslims and we distinguish ourselves as being Muslims and following Islam. There is no need to follow the tradition of another religion, especially if we have been Commanded by Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him) not to. Allah Has Prescribed for us the festivities we should follow and there is no need to add to this by following something else. If celebrating Easter or any other festival was allowed, it would have been stated in hadith or the Qur’an.”

Friend, a Muslim will never accept Easter as-is and will feel morally obligated to shut it down. Church, you need to wake up. We are not protecting chocolate bunnies and Easter egg hunts here. The commemoration and celebration of the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, and how they changed, and will always continue to change, humanity for the better, are at stake. Easter is Christianity’s Good News – if that is silenced, the very foundation of our faith is blocked from society. Which is exactly what Satan wants to see.

By Islam Rising
Founding Calling Out Member
Posted: March 28, 2016, Updated: April 19, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

The Magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral and Louvre (Paris 2009, Day 08b)

Tonight, in honor of the great Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, heavily damaged in a tragic accidental fire, I am reposting my original travel blog of Paris, specifically of the day I visited this landmark Cathedral. The article’s wording has not been edited, since its original Blogger posting in 2009.

For the events of Friday, September 4, 2009

10:15 AM – After going down to breakfast, I came back to the room to see that the rain clouds had seemingly weakened, and the sun was starting to come out. I quickly finalized my final plans for a big a day of travelling. Today I plan to see all of the biggest icons of Paris in one day – it’s a bit of a stretch whether I can actually make it happen or not, but will definitely try!

I took the RER C train to the Saint Michel-Notre Dame station. As I exited, I could see a big crowd was starting to already gather about a block away. I had to cross a small bridge over the Seine river, which was frankly unmemorable, and as I crossed the far end of the bridge, I was actually on Île de la Cité or “Island of the City”.

This little area is actually the first site of the 2,000-year-old city of Paris, and right in front of me, in all of its 840-year-old glory, was Notre Dame (“Our Lady”) Cathedral – the seat of the Archbishop of Paris (see picture left, click for larger). This beautiful cathedral, which took over 200 years to build, was just opened a few minutes before, and already seems to have busloads of tourists in its big open courtyard in the front of the building.

The building itself is amazing – you are immediately drawn to all of the incredible statues of saints and sinners that adorn it’s walls and buttresses (see picture right, click for larger). A man close to me said “it looks like the rain is gone” and his wife said “hallelujah”, and for some reason, I thought I could trust them to take my picture with my camera, so came up and introduced myself. They were really friendly, and we got a few good shots for each other in front of the massive Cathedral.

A minute or two later, a lady came up and asked if I spoke English, and when I said yes, she held up a weird sign talking about how she was from Bosnia and had all these kids to take care of blah blah. She looked like a stereotypical image of a gypsy and I was immediately on guard. I knew something was up here – why not just talk to me if you spoke English too? And if not, how did you write the sign in English? She kept getting closer, and I laughed and said “sorry honey, my pockets are zippered closed” and walked away – she looked a little stunned at being found out, but quickly scurried on to the next sucker. And to think she was trying to pickpocket me in front of a Church!

I followed a big group of what sounded like Italian-speaking people into the church, and heard the massive bass of the pipe organ playing as my eyes adjusted to the darkness for about a minute or two before it stopped – it was really amazing to hear it! And for the next hour, that was the only time it was played, so it was a real treat. I caught some of it on video to capture the sound.

I spent about the next hour walking around and looking at statues of Archbishops and others who were buried within the walls, and spent a bit of time at the front altar of the church. I have to admit, not being Catholic, that the Cathedral, beyond its architecture, wasn’t of much interest to me anymore, and it was unbelievably crowded. Big tour groups of Italians (not sure why there were so many) were literally filling all of the corridors to the point you couldn’t walk around them. I was starting to feel claustrophobic, so decided to get back outside.

*Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris – September 2009 (Credit; Shawn Jorgensen)*

11:30 AM – I crossed back over the bridge and away from the crowds, to get a few pictures of the backside of the Cathedral (see picture left, click for larger), and got some nice shots. The rain clouds seemed to be getting darker and closer as time went on, and I was getting concerned that my whole day was going to be wrecked. It was by no means hot outside, but whatever, I wasn’t going to quit unless it literally was pouring.

I made a call to the tour group I was going on tomorrow, and I’m glad I did – found out that the Metro stop they had stated in the brochure was best to go to (Palais Royal/Louvre) was in fact a 10 minute walk. I needed to go to Tuileries station, and it was only a 2-minute walk. I was to look for a courtyard with a gold statue, and the Cityrama office was apparently right there. I found out I was confirmed for tomorrow morning and was to be there at 6:45 AM. I’m getting excited now – hope the weather improves!

11:45 AM – Found a great little souvenir shop and spent about 20 minutes finding some Eiffel Towers, keychains, etc. for folks, friends and work colleagues back home. In hindsight, it wasn’t the smartest thing I did all day, but stuff was cheap. Now I have to haul it all around with me! I have a schedule to keep and I don’t want to go all the way back to the hotel to drop stuff off, but was tempted to after I carried everything out.

I was walking up the street, parallel to the Seine River, and saw a few little booksellers (see picture right, click for larger) that I’d read about that were open and selling things. Apparently, they have been doing this exact same thing for over 400 years in this area. The booths almost look like big green garbage bins – they flip open a lid that’s locked down to the street and up pops a bunch of tables with books, etc. on them.

In case you are tempted to bypass this area of the city as being cheap tourist junk, think again. These are real genuine antique bookstore owners who sell some amazing nostalgic stuff – I bought a bunch of litho copies of a painting of the Eiffel Tower for people back home, and continued to head down the street back to the Metro.

1:15 PM – To get the to the Louvre, I had to first transfer to the Châtelat Metro station. I got on the RER B train and was there in just a few minutes. I was stunned at how enormous this place was – it is clearly the Grand Central Station of Paris. It’s named after Grand Châtelet – a castle destroyed by Napoleon in 1802 after the Revolution. It was so big it had about 6 or 7 stores in the main atrium area, which was like the spoke of a wheel, with all the corridors leading down to the various trains branching from it. This particular station is the connector for 7 Metro stations and 4 RER stations, and was already incredibly busy.

I had to walk all the way down from one end of the station to another, which according to Wikipedia – is more than 1 kilometre long! In fact, I had to go down two different moving sidewalks (see picture right, click for larger) to get to the last platform for Line 7 – which was to take me to the Louvre Metro station. It took nearly 15 minutes to walk all the way through the station, getting lost a few times and finally getting on Line 7 train, which is again one of the little LRT style trains that are so old and over-used.

2:00 PM – after about a 20 minute ride, I was at the Louvre station, and exited to a beautiful art deco exterior which I had to stop and take a picture of (see picture left, click for larger). I was clearly in the artsy section of the city. It was located in a little park, that had a comedy theatre beside it.

When you exit the station, you come up into a little square, with the Hotel du Louvre behind you, something like looked like an embassy to the left, an antique mall across a little courtyard, and to the right, the magnificent, several-block-long Musee du Louvre.

2:50 PM – I spent a bit of time wandering around the neighbourhood, which seemed to be full of people but empty of sights, so I walked back to the courtyard, walked up to the Louvre. There was a walkway that went through the outer ring of the Louvre to the inner courtyard and main entrance. As I did, I walked by huge floor to ceiling windows that were showcasing some beautiful sculptures and statues inside. I wasn’t planning to go inside the Louvre at all, because I had a lot I wanted to do today, and I wasn’t really into art to that degree. But this was a neat little treat (see picture right, click for larger).

Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre – or simply “the Louvre” — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (neighbourhood). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 652,300 square feet.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which was a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II – and parts of the fortress are still visible. In 1672, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation’s masterpieces.

The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being confiscated church and royal property. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After his defeat at Waterloo, many works seized by Napoleon’s armies were returned to their original owners. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; and Prints and Drawings.

3:00 PM – I exited into the inner courtyard of the Louvre, which features the Pyramid. Suddenly the sky’s opened up and it just started pouring rain. The courtyard had been just full of people and they scurried to all sides of the courtyard to escape the rain, including myself. I hadn’t brought an umbrella because I didn’t really think it was going to rain in the afternoon – this sucked. I thought it would last forever, but a major wind came up out of nowhere all of a sudden, and within minutes the sky’s temporarily cleared – long enough for me to a get a few dismal shots in front of the Museum. Sigh.

3:30 PM – soon it started to rain again, and I lost patience. I was tired, had been hauling the souvenir bag around for hours and was ready now to get back to the hotel. I had actually had seen most of the sights today on my list. I crossed the street back to the courtyard, and walked down a block-long area with souvenirs, restaurants, etc. It was crowded, noisy and irritating.

I came up to a restaurant called Rivoli Cafe and bought a quiche that looked like a pizza (see picture left, click for larger). It was really quite awful – very greasy, but it was only about 2,50€ so I couldn’t resist. I was pretty irritated to see a McDonald’s a block away, however – I should have eaten there instead. I was already feeling a bit upset before I even left the area.

Then I had an extremely irritating follow-up trying to find a bank or currency exchange that would break my 50€ bills, because they were sticking up outside my wallet, advertising to everyone who wanted to see, and made me nervous. First I went to two different currency exchange places, and asked where a bank was at both. Both said they didn’t know where one was. Turned the corner, there was a bank. Good lord.

I waited in line at the bank for over 20 minutes and they wouldn’t break my bill, and the currency exchange places wouldn’t either. One actually told me to go to a supermarket and buy something. I told him to drop dread and stormed out.

4:04 PM – This was the Paris that sadly many warned me about – ignorant, unhelpful, rude barbarians. But I do not believe these are true Parisians, just as I don’t believe this tourist nightmare is a real cross-section of the wonderful city. I admit I was starting to get really sick of the city at this point, and wanted to go home, but knew I was just overreacting and tired, so headed back to the hotel to relax before heading out tonight.

As I left the area of the Louvre, it was really starting to rain again by now, so I was getting discouraged that I wouldn’t get to go out tonight, but I was going to go on the boat cruise whether it was nice out or not.

More adventure to follow!

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Original Post: September 5, 2009. Reposted April 15, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

31 Presidential National Emergency Declarations Still In Effect

According to the Federal Register, 58 national emergencies have been declared since the National Emergency Act of 1976 was signed into law by President Gerald Ford.

And 31 have been annually renewed and are currently still in effect, as listed in the Federal Register. And 18 of those – 58% of the total – were enacted by Democrat Presidents, Take THAT, Nancy Pelosi.

Here’s a list of the presidents who declared still ongoing national emergencies.

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER

Nov 14, 1979:
The National Emergency With Respect to Iran, in response to the Iran hostage crisis.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

Nov 14, 1994:
The National Emergency With Respect to the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, that combined two previous national emergencies focused on weapons of mass destruction.

Jan. 2, 1995:
The National Emergency With Respect to Prohibiting Transactions with Terrorists Who Threaten to Disrupt the Middle East Peace Process placed economic sanctions in response to the Jerusalem bombing.

March 15, 1995:
The National Emergency With Respect to Prohibiting Certain Transactions with Respect to the Development of Iranian Petroleum Resources was an effort to prevent potential deals between oil companies.

October 21, 1995:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions with Significant Narcotics Traffickers Centered in Colombia was declared after increased reports of drug cartels laundering money through American companies.

March 1, 1996:
The National Emergency With Respect to Regulations of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels with Respect to Cuba was after civilian planes were shot down near Cuba

November 3, 1997:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Sudanese Government Property and Prohibiting Transactions with Sudan implemented economic and trade sanctions.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

June 26, 2001:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Persons Who Threaten International Stabilization Efforts in the Western Balkans imposed sanctions on those aiding Albanian insurgents in Macedonia

Aug 17, 2001:
The National Emergency With Respect to Export Control Regulations renewed presidential power to control exports in a national emergency since the Export Administration Act of 1979 lapsed.

Sept 14, 2001: The National Emergency with Respect to Certain
Terrorist Attacks was in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

Sept 23, 2001:
The National Emergency With Respect to Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism was in response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

March 6, 2003:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Zimbabwe was an effort to punish associates of Robert Mugabe.

May 22, 2003:
The National Emergency With Respect to Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq has an Interest was issued following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

May 11, 2004:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons and Prohibiting the Export of Certain Goods to Syria was in response to Syria supporting terrorist activity in Iraq.

June 16, 2006:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus was in response to charges of fraud in the Belarus presidential election.

Oct 27, 2006:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was in response to violence around the Congolese presidential election runoff.

Aug 1, 2007:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon was in response to a breakdown of the rule of law in Lebanon.

June 26, 2008:
The National Emergency With Respect to Continuing Certain Restrictions with Respect to North Korea cited the risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material. President Trump renewed this June 22, 2018 citing the “existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material on the Korean Peninsula and the actions and policies of the Government of North Korea continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat.”

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

April 12, 2010:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in Somalia was in respect to threats posed by Somali pirates.

February 25, 2011:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya froze the assets of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

July 25, 2011:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Transnational Criminals was in response to the rise in crime by specific organizations: Los Zetas (Mexico), The Brothers’ Circle (former Soviet Union countries), the Yakuza (Japan), and the Camorra (Italy).

May 16, 2012:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Persons Threatening the Peace, Security, or Stability of Yemen addressed political unrest within the Yemen government.

March 16, 2014:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Ukraine was in response to the Russian invasion of Crimea.

April 3, 2014:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to South Sudan was in response to the ongoing civil war.

May 12, 2014:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Conflict in the Central African Republic was in response to violence towards humanitarian aid workers.

March 8, 2015:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property and Suspending Entry of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Venezuela was in response to human rights violations.

April 1, 2015:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities was in response to Chinese cyber attacks on the U.S.

Nov 23, 2015:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Burundi was declared after a failed coup.

PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

Dec 20, 2017:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption imposed sanctions on the Myanmar general for his role persecuting Rohingya Muslims.

Sept 12, 2018:
The National Emergency With Respect to Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election attempted to prevent any meddling with the 2018 midterm elections amid the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Nov 27, 2018:
The National Emergency With Respect to Blocking Property of Certain Persons Contributing to the Situation in Nicaragua was declared by President Trump in response to violence and the Ortega regime’s “systematic dismantling and undermining of democratic institutions and the rule of law” that constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: February 16, 2019
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

I’d Never Want To Be US President…Even If I Could

I cannot imagine today a more thankless job than President of the United States of America.

While I do appreciate all of the kind words and comments of encouragement for me to seek the highest office in the land (and there have been exactly ZERO of those so far), I feel I simply must decline the opportunity (though such a chance does not exist, as I was born and live currently in Canada). And I wanted to share with the millions of you out there reading this (well, there might be 50 if I’m lucky) why I cannot be your President (hypothetically, as again, it’s not actually possible).

Dear reader – hold your tears, your shouts of disappointment and your calls to reconsider, until I have finished explaining why. It just might encourage those in the United States who can fix such things to begin making repairs to the US political system, so that highly-qualified people like myself (which is probably categorically untrue) would consider applying for the job – rather than the same tired old raging pinheads that often find this type of role exciting and meaningful …to them. And they are tired and old – they’ve been running on this hamster wheel far past their expiration dates. Which is why they always have such dead eyes.

I get it, you’re disappointed that I don’t want to become a future President – or Prime Minister somewhere – if that opportunity also came up somewhere.

But take no offense to my words, unless of course I meant to offend, and in that case, I’ll point it out to you, so that you may be properly triggered as you see fit. I want to be an equal opportunity irritant. And “Being An Irritant” is in fact my established goal for this piece. Thank you for therefore for being triggered as you see fit, if you felt so inclined at some point.

I take it as a high compliment indeed. But no need to tell me about it in the comments – just know that I would be delighted to hear of it if you did tell me… and if I cared to read about it. Did that sound insensitive? Oh yes, I should mention – I can be a bit insensitive. Though if you did know me at all, by now you’d also know that this blog isn’t a safe space for liberals, the triggered, social justice warriors, whiners, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, or other vaious snowflakes in all their shapes, sizes, colors and genders. So you read it at your own discretion.

Coming back to my main point – there is not a chance in Heaven or Earth that I would want to be the president of United States of America, even if it was given to me by accident or I inherited it without having to campaign for three minutes. Because that is literally about my limit of interest in trying for same position.

Oh I know some people would say: yeah right! As if you would give up something like living in the White House, and all of the trappings of the presidency – the limousine, Air Force One, all the opportunities to meet famous people that you would have, getting to travel all over the world and speak to huge crowds everywhere you go. Being adored by at least 50% of the population that elected you (unless your “approval rating” fell below 50%).

And I could never have a job that had an approval rating that was determined by some very unstable people at times out there. Nor would I want to have to apply for my job and have 110 million people or so deciding on whether I get the job. And then having to reapply for it again in less than 4 years – paying up to a $1 billion to run for a job that I would make about $400,000 a year doing. Return on Investment (ROI) seems a bit off there.

Having the power to make a real difference in your country – your words having the ability to actually help heal people, give people jobs, give people hope, inspire future generations, protect them against the threats of natural and man-made disasters, and defend them in a time of war against hostile enemies. Now that would be cool. But the President of the United States rarely gets to do any of that stuff, except in the movies, before we go to kick butt with some alien invasion force.

True, your words would muster and command a combined armed forces with;

The nuclear launch codes that control over 6,800 nuclear missiles strategically placed around the world
Control over the operation of 800 military bases in 79 countries around the world including the United States itself, of course, which would be staffed by:
- 170,000 soldiers on active duty in 150 countries around the world, with another 40,000 on classified missions that no one has ever publically heard about in undisclosed locations
- 384,544 soldiers/officers in the Army
- 273,192 sailors/officer in the Navy
- 146,638 Marines
- 255,181 Air Force personnel
- 36,900 Coast Guard officers
And all that amazing equipment, like those on the sea:
- 20 active aircraft carriers, including the brand new USD Gerald R Ford, commissioned in July 2017, and the George HW Bush, at about $5 billion each. Getting your name on something like THAT would be pretty cool, as just seeing it approach on the horizon would most likely cause your enemies to wet themselves with fear – and I’ve always thought that kind of power to be rather addicting, should one possess it.
- 10 frigates
- 65 destroyers
- 66 submarines
Over 4,000 Abrams tanks parked in the desert, excess from current needs. (Credit: WN.com )

Those on land, including:
- 9,000 tanks, including 4,000 brand-new M1 Abrams tanks sitting in the Nevada desert that are entirely unnecessary excess, as a result of having one factory that makes them, and they don’t want to ever shut it down, for national security reasons.
- 38,822 armored personnel vehicles
- 950 self-propelled artillery
- 795 towed artillery
- 1197 rocket launchers
- 2,830 attack jets
- 1,962 fighter/a
- 973 attack helicoptersAnd in the not-so-friendly skies above, like:

Having that kind of firepower around would certainly make one’s job easier as President, but it’s a lot of pressure to pay those kind of bills for gas, groceries and guys! Ok there are girls too…

It’s a thankless job to have to be leader of the Free World. Because the world is not Free, it has cost an awful lot in dollars, blood and time to build it over the centuries. And the problems a President faces – a $20 trillion debt? I have had moments worrying about paying my $300 Mastercard bill at times. That’s just beyond ridiculous to know that you will start the PResidency buried in debt, and just keep adding to it until the end of your term – because America just can’t pay its bills. And some day a President is going to have to deal with THAT too, or countries like China, that hold about $7 trillion in US debt, will deal with it for America.

And Americans are often sick without health care, go through natural disasters without insurance, are often send to war without adequate troops and resources, and usually are n the sights of some terrorist who hates America. Because it’s cool to hate America today, it seems. Who wants to be leader of a country that no one likes? That makes international meetings like the United Nations feel like being on the school yard as a kid, and never getting picked to play sports, though you are the gargantuan kid in class who grew 2 feet faster than anyone else.

And you’d be President over a lot of people that you frankly find a hard time stomaching. The hatred in these Divided States of America is quite shocking. And no, I’m not talking about your standard Right-wing hatred, which the media seems to be completely stuck on, though it’s frankly not a “thing” as much as they want it to be. Though the Right does hate the MEDIA, so I guess there’s some truth to it.

It’s the Left that’s vandalizing Bank of America branches and smashing windows, then looting Starbucks. it’s Black Lives Matter that’s burning cities down – that they later realize they actually LIVE IN as well. Being President over stupid people, no matter what their politics, is really a downer.

Now add to that a crowd of 20,000 people in a stadium, and the president comes out to a sea of people all around him, the lone object on a stage and often with light dimmed through the building, while spotlighting him at the same time.

*“The President? No…we work for the guys who tells the President what to do.”*

My goodness, it’s like the Secret Service is trying to make such an attack as easy as possible. Certainly they must realize that they cannot protect him completely – and that when he is potentially involved in a shooting, for example, that jumping on him doesn’t stop an attack be or protect him from all of those people. It just hurts to be hit where you were hit. LOL

There is no way that they would even be able to see an event like that unfold before. That just screams “assassination” to me.

The fact that so many would want to even attempt to kill him and also have this open freedom to express their opinion about it online, Giving some other less stable individual ideas they shouldn’t normally have, is frightening. And in most cases the people that killed a president didn’t even pay for the crime in jail – they were killed themselves or something else before that happened. So there really isn’t much of her justice for the murder of a President.

People rarely contact you at your office when your President because they like you. It’s usually to express sorrow to you on behalf of their government, which means you’re already dealing with some hardship that you don’t really want to hear about from anybody else.

Or some president or prime minister who has the balls to complain to you about the things that they don’t agree with you on from other governments – People that you often or even financially supporting through for federal aid of some kind and yet went to chips fall they’re nowhere near to help you when you need it

US presidents have fans too, I guess but most of the people that gather outside of the stadium or five meeting that you’re attending aren’t there because they like you. Often, those people wouldn’t be that motivated – it’s because they actually literally hate you. I consider myself to be fairly able to handle criticism, but to never be able to read in the newspaper or watch TV or go online without without seeing some negative story about you online or in print or on video would suck the life out of me

Then there’s family – I’m a be mentally or emotionally or physically ready to be president and go through all the scrutiny and all the unfair criticism and all the negative press and all the lies and Tristan up the words – I need to prepare for that emotionally, physically or mentally – but not all of your friends or family members have signed up for that.

Then there is your image before you became president. People want to vote for you for reason and usually it’s because you’re a good communicator and you say things that they resonate with. My problem is that I have a very active Twitter account with over 34,500 tweets, read by my 7000+ followers and over 8,000,000+ some other people total over four years. Some of those are highly controversial, to be sure, And they were meant to be. I am proud of my belief system because I feel I’m on the right side of history and it took me years to get there. I wouldn’t be editing any of that just so I don’t trigger someone in Iowa.

But in order to be president, you have to have such a sanitized belief system and all, that you no longer are who they knew in the first place. Or if they’ve just met you for the first time, they think you are something that you absolutely don’t agree with under the tables. But suddenly you believe in gun-control because you want to New Hampshire female vote, or you suddenly feel led to support the tobacco industry because you want those South Carolina suburban/rural votes – and you may not even dress the way that you feel like dressing. I’m in shorts and T-shirts guy, jeans at best, and I just can’t see myself wearing a suit in every single situation publicly. If I present United States why can’t they wear whatever the hell I want – which accounts. Because you really aren’t the most powerful person in the world. The voter in that swing state that you’re trying to impress is. And they could just be the scariest redneck weirdo you’ve ever seen in your life in real life.

So I just wouldn’t fit the norm. It would suck the life out of me.

So in conclusion, I just wouldn’t want to be President. I’m sorry that this may disappoint some of you, though of course I’m Canadian so I couldn’t be if I wanted to. That didn’t stop a particular Kenyan before, but I digress. America – make it easier for a person to want to be President. It’s the highest office and should be a difficult job to compete for and win – but are we actually seeing the only people in America who are qualified for the job, actually getting the job? Ummm, no

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: November 25, 2018
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

A Young Missionary’s Monumental Martyrdom

*John Allan Chau, American missionary, killed by the Sentinelese tribespeople in the Indian Ocean this week. ICredit: Instagram @johnachau)*

On November 15, 2018, John Allan Chau, 26-year old American missionary and avid outdoorsman, began a journey of personal faith and a love for mankind that would lead him halfway around the world.

His goal sounded simple – to share the love of Jesus Christ with people he had never met….but it was made nearly impossible by his need to first go halfway around the world, then figure out a way to meet with people so intentionally reclusive, so difficult to interact with, that they had not had any contact with the outside world in over 5,000 years.

This is a resmarkable testimony of the impact that just one courageous life of faith can have, when they take seriously Jesus’ command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature…”. Any person that abandons themselves completely to God, and do whatever He asks without question or compromise, can impact the world. Need proof? Google “John Allen Chau” today,

and you will get 7.11 million search results.

*John Allen Chau, American missionary, killed this week by Sentinelese tribespeople on North Sentinel Island, Indian Ocean. (Credit: Instagram @johnachau)*

During a 2013 outreach to Cape Town, South Africa, with fellow University soccer team members, John Allen Chau, then 21, was introduced to More Than A Game, an organization uniting refugee kids together through the “universal language” of soccer. It would be an encounter that would change the trajectory of Chau’s life.

Chau returned from Cape Town to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was studying to complete a Health and Exercise Sciences degree at Oral Roberts University, and volunteered with a soccer camp outreach to Burmese refugee kids in that city. (Tulsa World reported in March 2018 that over 7,000 Zomi people from the Chin State in war-torn Myanmar (formerly Burma) have built a new home in South Tulsa, including over 1,100 school-aged children).

Bobby Parks, More Than A Game (morethanagame.co)

After graduating in spring 2014, Chau hosted soccer camps for more than 2,000 young Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. In 2015 and again in 2016, while visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands off of India’s western coast, Chau first learned of a small tribe of 50 to 200 people, who lived on the remote North Sentinel Island off the coast of India, and who would attack anyone who approached their island.

I have never known a more courageous, selfless, compassionate man and friend. John lived and gave his life to share the love of Jesus with everyone.
– Bobby Parks, More Than A Game

NINTCHDBPICT0003355692884 — *Tribespeople living on North Sentinel Island, the “Sentinelese”, have been inentionally isolated for over 60,000 years.*

The Sentinelese people, believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world, are resistant to outsiders and often attack anyone who comes near, and visits to the island are heavily restricted by the Government, both to protect the visitor from such attacks by the islanders – as well as to ensure the inhabitants of this tiny island in the Bay of Bengal were not overcome by measles, mumps, the flu, or even the common cold – any of which could wipe them out – as they have had no contact with other humans in up to 60,000 years, as the UK newspaper The Mirror has reported.

The logical outcome of this fact, of course, is that these were also one of the only people groups on Earth to never be told about the love of Jesus. Imagine a culture where every man, woman and/or child would die for thousands of years, and be ushered into a Christless Hell. Every single one. The concept had gripped Chau’s mind and heart, to the point that his friends later said that he was all-consumed with this small, highly-reclusive group of tribespeople who lived on this small, highly-remote island. People he had never met – people he had never actually seen up close with his own eyes – had somehow captured his whole heart.

*Portman with Andamanese chiefs. I(Credit: American Ethnologist)*

Chau developed a very real burden for them, and he knew that there had been issues after others had attempted to visit there before. The New York Times reported that back in 1899, a British naval officer, Maurice Vidal Portman, wrote a book about his adventures in “stepping onto a remote, coral-fringed island in the Andaman Sea and encountering one of the world’s most enigmatic hunter-gatherer tribes, an extraordinarily isolated group of “painfully timid” people ate roots and turtles and stored a heap of wild pigs’ skulls.” He basically kidnapped several islanders and took them back to his house on a bigger island – and watched the adults grow sick and die. He ended his experiment by returning the kids back to the island, calling it a failture.

The island has an area of about 23 square miles and is surrounded by a natural barricade of coral reefs. It lies east of India in the Bay of Bengal, and is home to between 40 and 500 Sentinelese, although it’s impossible to estimate exact numbers.
– Bigthink.com

Over the next century, few outsiders ever returned. North Sentinel Island was a bushy, hilly world unto itself, about the size of Manhattan. Just about anyone who dared to visit was greeted by flying arrows. In the 1970s, the director of a National Geographic documentary took one in the leg. The island was completely off-limits until earlier this year, but even then, visits were still heavily restricted.

At around midnight on Npvember 14, 2018, with a friend helping to arrange it for him, Chau rented a fishing boat for around $300 to take him near the infamous, access-restricted North Sentinel Island, located off the western coast of India. Early the next morning, under cover of darkness, Chau quietly rowed out alone in a small kayak away from the larger craft, inching carefully on calm seas toward one of the most mysterious islands in the world, which no man has been allowed to visit for centuries. He asked the fishermen to move their boat away from shore to avoid detection.

Chau’s stated goal was simple. This was no vacation, nor a social visit. He had come thousands of miles from his home in Vancouver, Washington, to simply share the love of Jesus Christ with a people who had never heard of Him before. Likely few knew where he even was that day, and he made the last part of his journey alone. He wasn’t receiving donations to fund this trip, or any logistical help from any NGO or Christian groups. But regardless, he had made it on his own – and was so thrilled to land on the shore, leave gifts that he had brought for them: fish, some scissors, a soccer ball – and see what happened.

Chau’s riveting journal of his last days, shared with The Washington Post by his mother, shows a treacherous journey by dark in a small fishing boat to the area where the small tribe lived in huts. The men — about 5 feet 5 inches tall with yellow paste on their faces, Chau wrote — reacted angrily as he tried to attempt to speak their language and sing “worship songs” to them, he wrote.

I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you,’
– From John Chau’s journal

One young Sentinelese fired an arow that hit a waterproof Bible he was carrying. Chau was able to run for his life and escape back to the sea, swimmimg back to the fishermen’s boat and spent the next day recuperating. He posted on Instagram both of his fears of dying, and his determination to once again attempt connection with them.

“You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s
worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people.
God, I don’t want to die.”
– John Chau’s last words, written to his parents on November 16

On November 17, 2018, not only did Chau have the bravery and fortitude (or insanity, depending on whom you speak to) to actually try this again, but he once again succeeded on the second attempt to reach that heavily protected shoreline. He became one of the first people in recent history to actually connect with these tribespeople twice, and to once again attempt a brief conversation with them.

“Why does this beautiful place have to have so much death here?” he wondered hours before his death. “I hope this isn’t one of my last notes but if it is ‘to God be the Glory.’”
– John Chau’s last journal post

Moments later after coming ashore this second day, the horrified fishermen in the escort boat saw the tribesmen drag Chau’s body across the beach, having apparently killed him by arrows.

The story of his death has now made headline with every major news organization in the Western world, after his family posted this powerful message on his Instagram (@johnachau) account late on Wednesday, November 21:

This was to be THE most monumental day of his life – more than could have ever dreamed. He became aware that the tribesmen walking toward him with bows and arrows on the ready had just – stopped moving. He was still standing on the same beach, but his anxiety had disappeared. And he no longer heard the ocean waves lapping the shore, or smelled the salty air. He also became aware of a fourth Man calmly and deliberately walking down the beach toward Him. The closer He came to Chau, the more the scenery around him faded away. There was something so familiar about Him…

Then Chau gasped, and his heart lept into his throat, as the Man smiled, His voice booming…

Oh, JOHN! Well done,
good and faithful servant!
You came from halfway
around the world 4 times
and gave everything,
to tell a tribe on a small island – about Me.
I have seen your sacrifice,
and now everyone will see it.
John…the WHOLE WORLD is talking about you. You have inspired millions to finish My Great Commission!
Now, I’ve come to take you Home!
-Jesus

The Bible makes it very clear:

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15)
Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)
Then Jesus said to His disciples: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it;…
… but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
(2 Corinthians 5:8)
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

CCClogo-small

By Shawn Jorgensen, Founding Editor
Calling Out Community
Posted: November 23, 2018
[God’s Got A Plan For You!]

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“Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house… WE WILL SERVE THE LORD”.

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PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

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“Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house…
WE WILL SERVE THE LORD”.