R.S. Christopher

Got myself in trouble on X, I forgot it’s hateful to notice things and call for repentance. The offending tweet/comment was about Netanyahu: This is so bizarre. If I’m understanding correctly, Netanyahu is signaling to Biblically illiterate Christians to support a religious ethnostate that is antithetical to Christianity, a religion he himself doesn’t believe in? And he wants them to support a genocide of his neighbors?! referring to them as “Amalek” (despite them being Persian and explicitly not the long extinct Amalekites). Weirder still is that Netanyahu is secular, and does not actually believe in Amalek, let alone the “return” of the very Messiah that his own religious ethnostate denies is the prophesied Messiah. This is entirely too much cognitive and ideological dissonance. In a secular worldview, talk of Amalek is metaphorical for genocide, and talk of the Messiah is simply nonsensical. To a secular person, Netanyahu sounds deranged and bloodthirsty. To a Christian, Netanyahu sounds like he’s speaking from the “synagogue of Satan” from Revelation 3:9 (those “who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie”). To a religious Jew, Netanyahu is violating Torah, following in the path of Manasseh, ignoring the very clear warnings from Moses (in Deuteronomy) of blessings and curses on the people of Israel. The only coherent response to all of this is repentance, sackcloth and ashes like Nineveh. May God have mercy on us,

There is much to criticize with the post-schism apostolic churches. But neither teaches that. Do not bear false witness.

America is and has been dead for at least 50 years. In the 5th and 6th century no one in Rome realized that their civilization had already fallen. It took another thousand years and became obvious only in hindsight. They called themselves “Romans” even when they didn’t speak Latin. They still had the world’s most powerful military even after the fall of (western) Rome, for a while at least. And just as the exact date of the fall of Rome is unclear (maybe AD 410, or maybe AD 476), so too with the collapse of the U.S. Strong contenders so far are: AD 1913 AD 1963 AD 1971 And just like the 6th century Romans, Americans are now living in the corpse of their own civilization, surrounded by people who don’t speak the language nor share the ethos. We are well into the looting phase of our dead civilization (which explains our politicians, and our cultural disintegration). It’s now becoming obvious, which also means it’s too late to stop, at least 50 years too late. And, just like Rome, the current people and government would be unrecognizable to prior generations, all of whom would agree that *their* culture and way of life is no longer of this world. The most stark example are the Puritans and Congregationalists who were the de-facto cultural and intellectual backbone of the U.S. (from early colonial period to its prime as a nation), creating schools (universal literacy), hospitals, universities (such as Harvard and Yale) and they were so zealous in their Christianity that they would be viewed as radicals even by today’s “Christian nationalists”. And yet all of their institutions, including state and local governments, are now fully secular and atheistic, and increasingly nihilistic (rejecting any notion of universal truth, especially moral truth). Their churches went from strong Calvinist to Unitarian to now grotesque mockeries of Christ, with the usual LGBTQ+ symbolism, active support of abortion, and whatever antichrist depravity of the day. What preserved the people of Rome is also the most important point to consider: Most civilizations die completely. Compare the Mayans and Aztecs to the Romans. What language do the descendants of the Mayans and Aztecs speak today? What is their cultural heritage? The people of Rome preserved their cultural traditions across literal centuries, kingdoms came and went, entire languages came and went, but something unique in all of history happened in Rome that preserved their culture and traditions. They did so because of Christianity. It was not an ideology or economic theory or nationality or any ethnicity — they unified around Christ. Which is why the descendants of the Aztecs are not speaking Nahuatl, but they are speaking a Latin language (Spanish). An actual Roman citizen from the 5th century would even hear familiar prayers spoken amongst the descendants of the Aztecs. Padre nuestro, que estás en los cielos … (Pater noster, qui es in caelis …) America is dead, and has been dead for over 50 years. Long live America.