Nicene Truth

Zionist Rabbi: Death for All Who Dislike Jews

Rense.com

Genocide Announced

 

"All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts." This was the religious opinion issued one week ago by Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, director of the Tsomet Institute, a long-established religious institute attended by students and soldiers in the Israeli settlements of the West Bank. In an article published by numerous religious Israeli newspapers two weeks ago and run by the liberal Haaretz on 26 March, Rosen asserted that there is evidence in the Torah to justify this stand. Rosen, an authority able to issue religious opinions for Jews, wrote that Palestinians are like the nation of Amalekites that attacked the Israelite tribes on their way to Jerusalem after they had fled from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. He wrote that the Lord sent down in the Torah a ruling that allowed the Jews to kill the Amalekites, and that this ruling is known in Jewish jurisprudence.

Catholic Predestination

[Also recommened for readers interested in this topic is Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange's book Predestination. -Jay]

By: Dave Armstrong

The Catholic Church, following St. Augustine (e.g., Grace and Free Will, 1,1; Sermon 169, 11,13), accepts predestination of the elect to heaven, but also affirms the freedom of the human will, thus staking out a position distinct from Calvinism. Predestination to hell, in Catholicism, always involves man's free will, and foreseen sins, so that man is ultimately responsible for his own damnation, not God (double predestination is rejected).

God is sovereign, in our view, every bit as much as in Protestantism (particularly Calvinism), as will amply be demonstrated below. All that is disputed are the intricacies of the grace / free will antinomy, which is one of the most mysterious and difficult questions in the history of both Christian theology and theistic philosophy. Of course, the allowance of free will is also present in Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, most charismatic, non-denominational and Baptist theologies, etc.

Apologist Taylor Marshall Discusses the Federal Vision Controversy

[This is an enlightening discussion, especially since the Federal Vision led to my own withdrawal from Protestantism to Catholicism. -Jay]

"Catholic Perspective on the Federal Vision"

By: Taylor Marshall

Over the past few years, pastors and members of the Reformed/Calvinist tradition have become alarmed at a new movement called the “Federal Vision.” I first became aware of what became the “Federal Vision” when I was a member of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). I watched this storm form and take shape during the years that I attended Westminster Theological Seminary in the debates that were stirring up around the writings of N.T. Wright, E.P. Sanders, along with the growing discontent with Meredith Kline’s “merit model.”

From Where did the Federal Vision Arise?
For those Catholic readers that are likely unaware of the Federal Vision controversy, it is fair to say that this “federal school” grew out of a number of movements.

1. There was the Norman Shepherd controversy in the 1980s at Westminster Seminary in which Shepherd highlighted the role of “works” in the Epistle of James. Shepherd soon afterward disappeared from the campus of Westminster Seminary.
2. There was the Theonomy or Reconstructionist Movement in Reformed/Presbyterian circles that sought to take the Old Testament seriously and apply its legal/covenantal framework to the New Testament economy. This project largely fell apart because it was, well, impossile. The remaining bright minds adjusted their theology from a civic model to a liturgical model and abandoned Theonomy. They became “liturgical Calvinists.”
3. These ex-Theonomists and their discioples went on to become excellent biblical theologians with a knack for seeing the role of Israel and Judaism in the New Covenant. They gravitated toward the work of Anglican theologian N.T. Wright.

Albert Pike on Masonry: The True Nature of the Society

Many masonic apologists at various websites have offered "defenses" in response to anti-masons, attempting to dismiss the popular quotations drawn from Masonic master-philosopher Albert Pike, which show freemasonry to be syncretistic and anti-Christian.  So here are the actual quotes from Pike's "Morals and Dogma."  Thanks to the IndependentConservative for this collection.

1. That masons in the blue degrees are intentionally mislead as to masonry's true nature: click here.

2. That the rituals become progressively more complicated and thereby the masters are able to wield more power: click here.

3. That all their 'mysteries' are kept concealed: click here.

4. That the secrets or true masonry are, again, kept secret: click here.

Response to a Hardcore-Traditionalist-Leaning Catholic Inquirer

[My replies are the longer, non-bold texts.  -Jay]

Jay,

  Recently I read a book on Vatican II by a supporter of the Novus

  Ordo "Catholic" church.  The author very rightly and adroitly said

  that the decisive question, as regards Vatican II, is whether or not

  the so called "spirit of Vatican II" is the Holy Spirit of God.   Agreed.

Reply:

I’ve read several books both pro and con Vatican II, including Ferrara, Blanshard, Dimonds, Lefebvre, the Radeckis, Rhynne, Davies, Likoudis and SSPX publications and numerous articles and lectures, and, of course, the documents themselves.  Anyway, I say all that to point out that I know where you are coming from.  Presently, I do think that Vatican II was a valid council. Firstly, because of the more perplexing theological difficulties that arise in the hardcore trad positions.  I’ve learned that any position will have its apparent difficulties, whether you’re defending biblical inerrancy or any certain theological stance.  I’m not advocating theological relativism, but simply saying that finitude can only give rise to incomplete information.  As it stands, I know many trad priests, SSPX folks, sede folks, and apologists of different stripes.  In short, I’m not a neophyte to these disputes.

Jay Dyer's Apologetic Lectures Now Available in MP3!

ATTENTION READERS:

By: Jay Dyer

Have you enjoyed the content from Nicenetruth?  So far, whether it was political commentary, theological debate, the occult or new world order and conspiracy information, everything has been offered to nicenetruth readers, free of charge.  As the webmaster for Nicenetruth, I intend to continue to offer these valuable articles and resources free, but also desire to branch out.  With several years of experience in debate and defense of the Faith, I want to give the hundreds of Nicenetruth subscribers and readers the ability to support this ministry.  Rather than simply ask for donations to keep Nicenetruth running, I want to offer readers the ability to learn to defend the Christian Faith, and particularly Catholicism, against all attacks. 

If you are a student of theology and church history, you know first hand the degree of time and effort that goes into learning the Faith and defending it.  Even non-Catholics will gain a better grasp of apologetic approaches for non-Christians while obtaining a robust knowledge of Catholicism.  Note also that this is not a rogue project: the content of these talks will be in full accord with the local diocesan hierarchy.  In this first series of talks (approx. 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. each), I will be giving an overview of the follwing subjects:

1. Apologetic Introduction & Methodology

2. Philosophy 101

3. The Formation of the Biblical Canon

4. Christian Theism and its Opponents

5. Catholic Theological Basics: The Creed and Dogmas

6. Biblical Theology Basics

7. The Church Fathers, The Councils and Apostolic Tradition

8. Medieval and Eastern Theology

9. Advanced Apologetics 101: Thomism & Nature/Grace

10. Advanced Apologetics 102: The Catholic Response to Protestants and Eastern Orthodox

-All ten+ hours of apologetic course material are available in CD-ROM/MP3 format for only $20.00, plus $5.00 shipping and handling for inside the US.  Outside the US, add $12.00.  Allow two weeks for shipping.  Make check or money order out to "Jay Dyer."

Send Check or Money Order to:

Jay Dyer

900 Tyson Ave.

Paris, TN 38242

Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons

A Book by John Salza Now Available from TAN

Many good Catholic men have been deceived into becoming Masons. In this powerful little book, a Catholic attorney and former 32nd degree Mason, John Salza, clearly shows why joining Masonry (including the Shriners) means embracing a false religion. Explains Masonic doctrines, history, rituals, oaths and curses, showing that Masonry is totally incompatible with Christianity and the Catholic Faith. Who is the god of Freemasonry? How does Freemasonry view the Holy Bible? What are the self-curses of Freemasonry? Why does Freemasonry appear to be compatible with the Christian Faith? What have the Popes said about Freemasonry? Are "Catholic Masons" excommunicated? How does a Catholic exit Freemasonry? Packed with facts and very well documented, Why Catholics Cannot Be Masons is a brief but potent revelation by a man who has been there - and then returned to the One True Faith.

James Kelley's Response and A Brief Rejoinder

Note: James Kelley of OrthodoxPatristics.com has responded to my response of his initial challenge to dialogue/debate as follows.  We await a fuller response:

"Dear Jay,

God is love, but a love which “seeketh not its own.” This notion of a love delivered from all necessity is in a sense incomprehensible to man, since it would have to be lived to be believed. However, all of Orthodox theology is there to guide seekers into a transfiguration into the Light which is God’s glory or love. Andrea is right, I believe, to say that hell is to be understood antinomically, as I am suggesting “love of God” is to be understood.

The One True Church

By: Fr. Arnold Damen, S.J.

"One cannot have God for his Father, who will not have the Church for his Mother," and likewise one cannot have the Word of God for his faith who will not have the Church for his teacher. It is the infallible teaching authority of the Church, as promised by Christ, which alone preserves God's word from erroneous interpretation. This is the essence of the zealous priest's doctrine. It is also the essence of true Christianity, as Father Damen amply proves from Scripture itself and from just plain common sense.

Every sincere Bible reader deserves to know the true relation God has established between His Church and Holy Scripture. We, therefore, invite all who love the Bible to read Father Damen's exposition with an open mind, lest while reading the Scriptures "they wrest them to their own destruction." (2 Peter 3:16)

Response to James Kelley on Religious Presuppositions and the Patristic View of Hell and Punishment, pt. 1

[Many more patristic quotes could have been given but it was getting too lengthy. -Jay] 

By: Jay Dyer

First, I want to thank my friend James Kelly of OrthodoxPatristics.com for his interest in dialoguing with me. He is far more well-read in Fr. Romanides and the Orthodox writers than I am: Perry Robinson and Daniel Jones as well. I have spent the last few years trying to immerse myself in the East and its Doctors in the attempt to obtain a more Catholic understanding of the mind of the one Church, which all admit is truly East and West in unison. And, as many of you know, I refrained from being received as Orthodox primarily for some of the reasons we will be discussing. I am delighted, however, to have become friends with James, and, I’m even surprised and honored he would be interested in devoting any time to discussions with me. We have had some very engaging late-night discussions and this discussion will get a bit ‘feisty.’ Also, I’m not responding to the ‘haters’ at James’ site who have posted pointless attacks of my "heretical prattle," with absolutely no substance. As many times as I have changed my positions and retracted certain views, I hope it’s obvious my concern is for what is true, and not merely academic disputes and intellectual ostentation.

New Sites of Interest

TalmudUnmasked.com  Self-explanatory

Pontifications   Fr. Alvin Kimel's learned blog

DestroyFreemasonry.com  Self-explanatory

On the Predestination of the Saints (Book I)

By: St. Augustine of Hippo

Addressed to Prosper and Hilary.

Wherein the truth of predestination and grace is defended against the semi-Pelagians,— those people to wit, who by no means withdraw altogether from the Pelagian heresy, in that they contend that the beginning of salvation and of faith is of ourselves; so that in virtue, as it were, of this precedent merit, the other good gifts of God are attained. Augustine shows that not only the increase, but the very beginning also of faith is in God's gift. On this matter he does not disavow that he once thought differently, and that in some small works, written before his episcopate, he was in error, as in that exposition, which they object to him, of propositions from the epistle to the Romans. But he points out that he was subsequently convinced chiefly by this testimony, but what have you that you have not received? which he proves is to be taken as a testimony concerning faith itself also. He says that faith is to be counted among other works, which the apostle denies to anticipate God's grace when He says, not of works. He declares that the hardness of the heart is taken away by grace, and that all come to Christ who are taught to come by the Father; but that those whom He teaches, He teaches in mercy, while those whom He teaches not, in judgment He teaches not. That the passage from his hundred and second epistle, Question 2, concerning the time of the Christian religion which is alleged by the semi-Pelagians, may rightly be explained without detriment to the doctrine of grace and predestination. He teaches what is the difference between grace and predestination. Further, he says that God in his predestination foreknew what he had purposed to do. He marvels greatly that the adversaries of predestination, who are said to be unwilling to be dependent on the uncertainty of God's will, prefer rather to trust themselves to their own weakness than to the strength of God's promise. He clearly points out that they abuse this authority, If you believe, you shall be saved. That the truth of grace and perseverance shines forth in the case of infants that are saved, who are distinguished by no merits of their own from others who perish. For that there is no difference between them arising from the foreknowledge of merits which they would have had if they had lived longer. That testimony is wrongfully rejected by the adversaries as being uncanonical, which he adduced for the purpose of this discussion, he was taken away lest wickedness, etc. That the most illustrious instance of predestination and grace is the Saviour Himself, in whom a man obtained the privilege of being the Saviour and the Only-begotten Son of God, through being assumed into oneness of person by the Word co-eternal with the Father, on account of no precedent merits, either of works or of faith. That the predestinated are called by some certain calling peculiar to the elect, and that they have been elected before the foundation of the world; not because they were foreknown as men who would believe and would be holy, but in order that by means of that very election of grace they might be such, etc.

Athonite Monks Threaten to Self-Detonate Over Dialogue With Rome

Monolabe70.Blogspot

A conflict between a groups of monks has flared up on the holy mountain of Athos in Greece, following years of dispute. A group of extremely orthodox monks is threatening to blow itself up according to the Greek media.

The group has isolated itself from the 19 other monasteries on Athos because it fiercely opposes dialogue with the Roman Catholic church. The other groups of monks think they should leave the mountain because of this. But the extremist monks say they will blow their monastery up with dynamite, petrol and gas bottles if they have to. There were skirmishes on Sunday, when another group of monks tried to enter the rebel monastery.

There were similar incidents 18 months ago on the eastern peninsula of Chalkidiki, in which seven monks were seriously injured.

Alice Bailey & Master Djwhal Khul: A Satanic Communion

By: Terry Melanson

ConspiracyArchive

“Preparation too must be given to the developing of higher psychic powers...Hospitals and schools will appear under the direct guidance of the Masters; Teachers... will train the minds of the pupils to be responsive to direct inspiration from above. ”

- The Externalization of the Hierarchy, pp. 516-517

As we have seen in part one, Lucis Trust is, today, intimately connected with Elite Politics through its World Goodwill. We haven't yet, however, examined the occult teachings of Bailey as they were related by her Master Djwhal Khul. Her 24 books, combined with the Beacon magazine, Triangles, and the Arcane School indoctrinate students into what Bailey describes as the "Ageless Wisdom" teachings. The Arcane School, founded in 1922, boasted 20,000 graduates by 1954. This occult university is more active than ever and continues to be the main training ground for New Age disciples.

Flashback 1966: Knights of Columbus & B'nai B'rith Freemasons Team Up

Time Magazine

1966

When Ervin Kotowski was installed recently as grand knight of Milwaukee's largest Knights of Columbus Council, he got a telegram of congratulations from Circuit Judge Claire Voss, imperial potentate of the city's big Tripoli Masonic Shrine. Exclaimed Kotowski: "Imagine the Shriners congratulating me!" A lot of brotherly things that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago are happening today be tween the Roman Catholic Knights and their longtime antagonists, the predominantly Protestant Masons.

Finkelstein on Israel

Good Point...

The Biblical Proof of Sacred Tradition

By: Jay Dyer 

Suffice it to say that the chief arguments of all Protestantism generally, rest on the assumption that only the written texts are the Word of God, and that the Word Himself is only known from these. If this fails, then so does all of that system, since this Protestantism's sole foundation. My goal is to open the minds of readers to the error of this most foundational Protestant presupposition and the overwhelming evidence for Catholicism. When we consider the history of Revelation, we note that in the beginning (Gen. 1:1-3), God’s Word was spoken, and yet nothing was written down. In fact, from Adam to Moses, a period of several hundreds of years passed with the Revelations given to Noah, Abraham, Joseph and others being passed orally.  We have, to say the least, no knowledge of anything being written. So, from this we can deduce that there is nothing inherently defective with oral tradition, as Calvin seems to have thought in the Institutes. If God can guide the written texts, as the Protestant will admit, then He can also guide the oral transmission as well. And, in fact, if one believes the Bible, one must affirm that from Adam to Moses the Oral Revelation was passed on faithfully and perfectly to Moses and Joshua, because this is from whence arises the origin of the written texts.

Less Frequently Used Biblical Texts that Show the Office of the Papacy

By: Jay Dyer

There are many texts that are frequently neglected by apologists that demonstrate the Biblical origin of the Papacy. To begin with, consider some Old Testament texts that prophesy/foreshadow the office of a Supreme Pastor and earthly High Priest of the New Covenant:

1. Hosea 1:10-11:

"And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God. And the children of Juda, and the children of Israel shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land: for great is the day of Jezrahel."

Freemasonry and the King James Bible

Freemasonrywatch.org

The history of King James' role in the formation of Freemasonry is mandatory reading in the Hiram Key book of Masonic scrolls attempting to link Christ with the Pharaohs.

Freemasonry, in its present form, came into being through the Lodge system, established under the auspices of King James VI of Scotland, (later King James I of England), the only son of Roman Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. At the age of 37, two years after becoming a Mason, James became the first Stuart king of England and immediately began to persecute the Puritans, rejecting their petition to reform the Church of England along biblical lines.

The Facts on Martin Luther

By: Msgr. Patrick O'Hare, LLD

From Chapter 9 of his The Facts About Luther, TAN

The cesspool seems to have been the garden that furnished his choicest flowers of rhetoric. To be plainer still, "It is a fact," Fr. Johnston says, "that Luther's usual talk took its imagery most often from the privy. In this connection, perhaps, it is significant that Luther admitted that it was precisely in the privy of the monastery that he received from God the revelation of his famous doctrine about justification by faith alone. 'By the grace of God, while thinking on one occasion in this tower over those words, "The just man lives by faith alone," the Holy Ghost revealed the Scriptures to me in this tower.' Protestant biographers have naively attempted to show that this place was not the monastery toilet; but there is no reasonable doubt."

The Importance of the Nature/Grace Distinction, Pt. 3

Considering the Eastern Orthodox View

By: Jay Dyer

Distinction isn't tension and often times this distinction I've been writing about is characterized as an opposition.  Human nature, even fallen, isn't in opposition to grace, but it the effects of the Fall do bring about a tendency towards sin and opposition to God.  In the Catholic view, synergism, which is the human will following and conforming to the divine will is always is always upheld, even if one takes the Thomistic and Augustinian view that there is operative or efficacious grace.  The human will never can and never does lose its own natural energy.  But the natural energy of the human will isn't sufficient to cause divine grace or life, and this is where we differ with both the Calvinist and the Orthodox concerns the need and power of divine grace.  I know the Orthodox would not say that the human will causes divine grace, but in the final analysis, salvation, whether the beginning of faith or the persevering therein is ultimately in the hands of man.  This is the point where we differ.

The Importance of the Nature/Grace Distinction, Pt. 2

By: Jay Dyer

In part one, I was discussing the implications of classical, Reformation Protestantism's skewing of the nature/grace distinction into erroneous views that ultimately end up with a heretical Christology.  I intended on making that post much longer and filled out, but had to leave in the middle.  Let's move to the pre-lapsarian man to further show the implications of these different views.

Oddly enough, both Pelagianism and Calvinism have the same views of pre-lapsarian man.  Man in the garden, for both Pelagius and Calvin, is not in a situation to need grace.  For Catholic readers, I'm not avoiding using the term "sanctifying grace" because I deny it, but because most Calvinists don't know about the Catholic view to begin with, except that whatever the Catholic view is, they hate it.  Anyway, its undeniable that both Calvin and Pelagius viewed man in the garden in the same way-in no need of what Catholics call the donum superadditum, the super-added gift of grace, which is the divine life itself--the Holy Spirit.  Man in the garden was created naturally good and thus needed no grace.  Now where Calvin and Pelagius differ is the fall, and most of us know the rest of this story. 

The Importance of the Nature/Grace Distinction, Pt. 1

By Jay Dyer

We all intrepret phenomena in our experience according to certain criteria that make up our worldview.  This fact is inescabpable, but this is important because I have noticed a common-thread problem in various groups that I have been affiliated with and debated and dialogued with.  The problem I am speaking of is philosophical in nature, and deals with one's perception of others as well as their own psychological/existential situation in the given belief system in which they are involved.  This problem often revolves around errors regarding the all-important nature-grace distinction that is so foundational for Catholicism.  It seems, in my experience, that various anti-Catholic groups all share this same fundamental philosophical flaw (and I myself shared this same flaw for many years). 

Aquinas' Prologue to Dionysius' On the Divine Names

By: Jay Dyer

The question of St. Thomas Aquinas' use of Platonic ideas has arisen often in Thomistic circles. Often, incorrectly, its assumed that St. Thomas was a slavish follower of Aristotle, neglecting truths in the more prevalent neo-platonic tradition of the early middles ages that preceded the Aristotelianism of his day. This is important for East-West issues, including the via negativa, since many might find St. Thomas' discussion of Dionysius quite surprising. In fact, as McInery notes, its Dionysius who is quoted the most in the Summa!

St. Augustine the Roman Catholic

1. On the authority of councils and apostolic traditions:

"But in regard to those observances which we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and which derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are given to understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either by the apostles themselves or by plenary [ecumenical] councils, the authority of which is quite vital in the Church" (Letter to Januarius [A.D. 400]).

2. On the canon of Scripture and prayers for the dead:

"The whole canon of the scriptures, however, in which we say that consideration is to be applied, is contained in these books: the five of Moses . . . and one book of Joshua [Son of] Nave, one of Judges; one little book which is called Ruth . . . then the four of Kingdoms, and the two of Paralipomenon . . . . [T]here are also others too, of a different order . . . such as Job and Tobit and Esther and Judith and the two books of Maccabees, and the two of Esdras . . . . Then there are the prophets, in which there is one book of the Psalms of David, and three of Solomon. . . . But as to those two books, one of which is entitled Wisdom and the other of which is entitled Ecclesiasticus and which are called ‘of Solomon’ because of a certain similarity to his books, it is held most certainly that they were written by Jesus Sirach. They must, however, be accounted among the prophetic books, because of the authority which is deservedly accredited to them" (Christian Instruction 2:8:13 [A.D. 397]).

Leo XIII's 'Humanum Genus' Condemning Freemasonry

To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and
Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.

The race of man, after its miserable fall from God, the Creator and the Giver of heavenly gifts, "through the envy of the devil," separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from their heart to be united with it, so as to gain salvation, must of necessity serve God and His only-begotten Son with their whole mind and with an entire will. The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God.

My Retraction of Eastern Orthodoxy

Or, Jay Refutes Jay

[Note: this post has been tweaked]

By: Jay Dyer

As some readers now know, I have decided not to become Eastern Orthodox.  Though I confessed it for the past two and a half years and was a catechumen, I chose not to be chrismated, and thus not technically becoming Orthodox.  I have, after much reflection and prayer, decided to return to Catholicism.  I was also instructed by my spiritual advisors to publish this retraction.  Let me say that also that this isn’t being posted as a subtle “challenge” to get Eastern Orthodox friends to spark a debate.  I’m just not really as interested in that as I was as a 21 year-old Calvinist.  I’m more interested in union with Christ nowadays, than debating every naysayer.

In the debate with Josh Brisby, Josh changed his position on infant baptism (not because of me), while he likewise presented me with many quotes from key Eastern theologians concerning the papacy that I simply could not answer.  He also made the key point that I believe is ultimately correct: the Orthodox are not able to adequately deal with legal categories such as expiation, propitiation, etc.  The fact that a very learned Orthodox writer had to point us to an obscure article in a seminary journal on what exactly the Orthodox view on these concepts illustrates the point.  I have likewise changed my position.  While some of the quotes can be explained as references merely to St. Peter himself, many cannot.  I also doubt that they are all forgeries, as this is very unlikely.

The Vatican Clarification on the Filioque

Did a Freemason Almost Become Pope? (the story of cardinal rampolla)

Did a secret member of the OTO almost clinch the papacy?

By: Craig Heimbichner

Life within the Church is not immune from the disease of faddishness, whether the fads are mere oddities or outright heresies. Occasionally, however, something truly significant is dismissed as a fad when the dismissal itself is foolish. Such is the case with the current attitude in some quarters toward the resurrection of old accusations of Masonic intrigue within the Church. Once a common fear, the specter of scheming infiltrators in parishes (or even in the Vatican itself) from the Lodge is now under attack as a leftover bit of lunacy from the days when hucksters and hoaxers played on the alleged gullibility and paranoia of the Vatican.[1] This even holds true in the case of one of the most famous and forgotten stories involving the election of a Pope: for when Pope Leo XIII died, it is said that a Freemason was very nearly elected as his successor. This older story was widely repeated in the decades following the Second Vatican Council,[2] but has lately been increasingly dismissed as a false rumor and is enjoying skeptical scrutiny.[3] This article will examine whether or not there are reliable historical evidences for asserting that Cardinal Rampolla, who almost became Pope, was actually a Freemason. The answer may astonish even the most seasoned skeptic.

Real Jew News

Introducing www.RealJewNews.com

Run by a convert to Orthodoxy from Judaism, Brother Nathanael Kapner.

McCain a Zionist Puppet & Warmonger

"As Nathanael Kapner, a knowledgeable Jew who—thank God!—is also a Jesus believing Christian, writes in his website (www.realjewnews.com), "John McCain knows which side his bread is buttered on. And that's the Jewish side of campaign contributions."

Brother Kapner noted that McCain was at the private Rothschild fund-raiser in the posh London Spencer house. Kapner's sage conclusion: "John McCain is bought by Jews via the Rothschilds!"

Kapner also reported that McCain recently was forced to apologize to the Jews for having the audacity to say in a speech he had given that, "America is a nation founded on Christian values." Immediately, the Jewish organizations sprang into action, prompting the frightened McCain to trot out before the news cameras and retract what he had said."

-Texe Marrs

Read the article here.

The Demonic Roots of Globalism

[Note: this is an excellent, well-sourced article.  We do not necessarily share Mr. Kah's eschatological views. -Jay] 

By: Gary Kah [Not affiliated with our site]

TheModernHistoryProject.com

The Cosmic Battle

One can view our world and its history...as a crazy quilt of happenstance -- of unplanned, unrelated events. Or we can see in all of this a pattern, a slow moving forward of human history towards a goal, a climactic event... Changes that affect an entire society never happen overnight, although it may seem that way to many people... Over a period of many decades, the foundation has been laid, one stone at a time, for a deception in the minds of men that would engulf not only this nation, but the entire world. (p. 11-12)

We are told in the Bible that there is a being capable of such an undertaking. His name is Lucifer... He was a member of God's highest order of created beings, an angelic prince, and his name means "light-bearer". Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19 tell us much about his character and of God's judgement upon him. When he was cast out from the mountain of God, he lost his high and holy position before "the Ancient of Days"; but he lost none of his incredible, supernatural intelligence and power...

ABC Runs Ridiculous Da Vinci Code-Esque "Sistine Secrets"

[Kabbalah blah blah blah...-Jay]

ABC News

For centuries, people of all faiths have come to Rome and the Sistine Chapel to stare up at its immense ceiling and see Michelangelo's stunning masterpiece. To most, it is a beautiful vision from the Old Testament, frescoes painted on wet plaster of the stories of the creation of the universe, Noah's ark and Adam and Eve.

Dr. Arnold Nesselrath, the curator of the Vatican Museums, says people flock to the Sistine Chapel because "it's one of the greatest works of mankind that were ever produced and it's one of the greatest treasures of art."

Rabbis Busted Making Meth

          [Meth?! -Jay]

Feds cite possible drugs, illegal workers at kosher plant

By Ben Harris 05/13/2008

NEW YORK (JTA) -- In laying the legal groundwork for a massive raid of the country's largest kosher slaughterhouse, federal authorities cited claims that illegal narcotics production took place at the factory and hundreds of illegal immigrants were employed there, including several of the rabbis responsible for kosher supervision.

The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the raid Monday at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa.

Agents arrested 390 workers in what Immigration and Customs Enforcement called the largest raid of its kind in U.S. history.

Orthodox Jewish Youths Burn New Testaments

[Note: Let all of us Christians earnestly pray for the blessed conversion of the Jews, that we may see what St. Paul prophesied as "life from the dead" (Rom. 11:12-15). -Jay]

The Associated Press

May 20, 2008

Orthodox Jews set fire to hundreds of copies of the New Testament in the latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in the Holy Land.

Or Yehuda Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon said missionaries recently entered a neighborhood in the predominantly religious town of 34,000 in central Israel, distributing hundreds of New Testaments and missionary material.

A US temple where faithful don't have to believe in God

[So is this the ultimate ecumenical church? -Jay]

by Luis Torres de la Llosa
Agence-France Presse

NEW YORK (AFP) - It looks more like a theater than a church, there are no sacred symbols, and the faithful who gather at this monumental Art Nouveau edifice believe deeply that there is not necessarily a god.

Here, across from Manhattan's Central Park, the Society for Ethical Culture, whose motto is "Deed before Creed," along with other US non-theist, atheist, agnostic and independent groups, are gaining ground in the United States.

According to the Pew Forum, those who see their spiritual dimension as "unaffiliated" make up 16 percent of Americans, but they are the fastest-growing segment of the complicated patchwork of US spiritual life.

"It feeds my spiritual, ethical and social needs," said Judith Wallach, a member of the ethical society for years who acknowledged having a religion but not a strong belief in God.

Read the complete story (Some news sites require registration)

St. Cyprian on the Unity of the Church

{Note: The classic treatise of St. Cyprian of Carthage on the Uniy of the Church.  A good introduction for those not familiar with or new to the Church Fathers. -Jay]

Argument.— On the Occasion of the Schism of Novatian, to Keep Back from Him the Carthaginians, Who Already Were Not Averse to Him, on Account of Novatus and Some Other Presbyters of His Church, Who Had Originated the Whole Disturbance, Cyprian Wrote This Treatise. And First of All, Fortifying Them Against the Deceits of These, He Exhorts Them to Constancy, and Instructs Them that Heresies Exist Because Christ, the Head of the Church, is Not Looked To, that the Common Commission First Entrusted to Peter is Contemned, and the One Church and the One Episcopate are Deserted. Then He Proves, as Well by the Scriptures as by the Figures of the Old and New Testament, the Unity of the Church.

Humanity is under occult attack

by: Henry Makow Ph.D.


As you know, the elite attaches great importance to providing us with an external enemy: Huns, Nazis, Communists, Muslim Terrorists etc. It also creates internal enemies by dividing us on race, sex and class.

Thus it diverts attention from itself, the real enemy, the elite organized in Freemasonry, an international satanic cult which controls our political, cultural and economic life with magical acumen. (See my "How They Control the World")

Their smug victory symbols are everywhere: on the US Great Seal and the logos of countless corporations,the UN and even the city where I live, Winnipeg. 

All  politicians who stand a chance are Masons including Bush, Obama, Clinton and McCain.  They don't pose serious opposition. Bush has doubled the national debt and cut the value of the US dollar in half but do you hear him criticized for this?

continued here.

Are the Fables of Origen Condemned?

A Further Response to Origen-friendly Critics

By: Jay Dyer

Let me say first that I am relatively well-read in Origen.  I began reading some of his commentaries and apologetic works two years ago.  No doubt he is very insightful at times, but as St. Vincent of Lerins argued in the Commonitory, this makes him all the more dangerous.  This danger exploded in the time of the heated debate between St. Jerome and Rufinus.  As I mentioned in that last post on universalism, I see a trend that many today take, wherein the conception of hell and the various attributes of God (whether omniscience or justice) are mitigated or altogether done away with, and that this is merely a resurgence of Origenism, to one degree or another.  "God is love and wouldn't do that," many respond.

Another prominent name to go along with those in this camp is Ernst Benz, an "Orthodox" German "scholar," who is more honest than others in his school.  Benz argues that not only is God not wrathful, it was St. Paul himself who invented or imported all the legal-guilt/wrath lingo that came to be so prominent in "Pauline" Christianity.  Likewise, Romanides confesses that the curses in Genesis 3 do seem to have a penal character to them, and they do seem to be imposed by God [!], but what we should do is turn to a later Judaistic notion [!] of God's non-retributive "justice."  Kalomiros argues along the very same lines.

The difference here is that Benz seems more honest than these men: he recognizes that St. Paul frequently uses this "legal guilt," and "wrath of God" nomenclature, so, to be consistent, Benz says it is St. Paul that we should throw out!  Benz, of course, is in favor of a wrath-less, passive deity, like Kalomiros, who must always allow men to save themselves in hell.  Does it really seem strange that I would connect the denial of these concepts with universalism?  How many examples are needed?  It is we who do read the Fathers "critically," rejecting what is not "of the mind of the church," and especially what is condemned--or even savours of it, while it is those who are critical of "hard truths" (such as God's damnation), that are not being faithful.  This is precisely why St. Jerome had that lengthy argument with Rufinus.

To Hell With Universalism and Its Cousins

Responding to Universalists, Romanides, Kalomiros, and all others who come in the spirit and power of Origen

By: Jay Dyer

Defenders of Alexander Kalomiros and Fr. John Romanides seem quite closely linked—on the very doorstep, in fact, of also inching towards universal salvation (Origen’s heretical apokatastasis). We see this now with Bishop Ware and others. If God does not eternally punish sin, in His justice, there is not any reason why He would imprison anyone in eternity in damnation. Thus, there must always be the possibility that damned men could repent, and, so this theory goes, since God has no vengeful wrath, they could always be saved.

This is all consonant with these theologian’s exaggerated notions of free will: like we see in Bulgakov. I am reminded of an "Ask Father" section in our dioceses magazine a few months ago, by a person who said they had lived in sin and unbelief for a long time, and wondered whether God was mad. Fr. So-and-so responded that God doesn’t have anger towards any of us [!]. But what did St. John the Baptist say concerning those in unbelief? "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him" (John 3:36). Fr. So-and-so should re-read the Apostle of Love.

The Monotheistic Religions: Do We Have the Same God?

[Commentary: This is, of course, the presupposition of all inter-religious ecumenism and its mother, Freemasonry.  The central tenet of lower level Masonry nothing less than that all monotheists may find a common bond in the Lodge, whether they be Jewish, Christian or Moslem.  The modern papacy has all those same positions, which is an outworking of their scholastic version of natural theology, blended with their modernism, which begins with "God in general," adding a touch of process theology. -Jay]

By: Fr. Basile Sakkas

"THE HEBREW AND ISLAMIC PEOPLES, AND CHRISTIANS... these three expressions of an identical monotheism, speak with the most authentic and ancient, and even the boldest and most confident voices. Why should it not be possible that the name of the same God, instead of engendering irreconcilable opposition, should lead rather to mutual respect, understanding and peaceful coexistence? Should the reference to the same God, the same Father, without prejudice to theological discussion, not lead us rather one day to discover what is so evident, yet so difficult — that we are all sons of the same Father, and that, therefore, we are all brothers?"

Pope Paul VI, La Croix, Aug. 11, 1970

On Thursday, April 2, 1970, a great religious manifestation took place in Geneva. Within the framework of the Second Conference of the "Association of United Religions," the representatives of target religions were invited to gather in the Cathedral of Saint Peter. This "common prayer" was based on the following motivation: "The faithful of all these religions were invited to coexist in the cult of the same God"! Let us then see if this assertion is valid in the light of the Holy Scriptures.

The Ancient Liturgy of St. Mark

[In this ancient Alexandrian liturgy dating in this form from the 300's, we see many strong proofs for doctrines which the Protestants hate.  The Real Presence, priesthood, sacrificial Eucharistic offering, the sign of the Cross, hierarchy, prayers for the deceased, and so on.  This liturgy also focuses on the union of earthly with heavenly worship, which can be seen in the many references to the participation of the Angelic Hierarchy in the Liturgy.  This is precisely the form of worship which Ss. Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria used.  This is the worship which produced such great saints.  To conceive the foul notion that this is all idolatrous, as hardcore Protestants do, and yet it was somehow able to produce men who defended the very heart of Christianity is truly an evil idea.  But not only that, its also a very beautiful liturgy, expressing in a very exalted way many deep theological truths. -Jay]

The Divine Liturgy of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, The Disciple of the Holy Peter.

The Priest.

I. Peace be to all.

The People.

And to your spirit.

The Deacon.

Pray.

The People.

Lord, have mercy; Lord, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.

The Priest prays secretly:

The Rothschild-Built Masonic Israeli Supreme Court Complex

Here are some beatiful photos which I'm sure have no symbolic significance.

A pretty obelisk.

                                           

Which way to the Dorothy Rothschild Grove?

An upwards-looking shot through a window of the on-campus pyramid.

Read more here.

Flashback 2002: Archbishop of Canterbury Becomes Druid

[Commentary: The English Church is completely bankrupt. It was born in adultery, and is still officially headed by a woman (the Queen)! So, it only makes sense that the honorary religious head, the Archbishop of Cantebury, would be a pro-gay druid. However, it makes no sense why Orthodox people, such as Bishop Ware, would write a preface for this man's book on "icons." Does anyone still think that there isn't a Freemasonic conspiracy?  This is truly one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. -Jay]

Archbishop becomes druid

The new Archbishop of Canterbury has been inducted as a druid in a centuries-old Celtic ceremony.

Dr Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Wales, said that he had been "saddened" by the misrepresentations about the ceremony, which sparked concern about pagan links.

"Some people have reached the wrong conclusion about the ceremony," he said.

"If people had actually looked at the words of the hymns and text used they would have seen a very Christian service."

Rest of article at BBC News here.

Related: Williams Retracts Comments on Freemasonry.

Williams stated, "The quoted statements about the 'satanic' character of the Masonic ceremonies and other matters did not come from me and do not represent my judgment. Since my late father was a member of the Craft for many years, I have had every opportunity of observing the probity of individual members."

Orthodox Leaflet Blasts Lions, Scouts, Masons, Rotary

By: Jean Christou (2005)

Freeemasonrywatch.org

The Pancyprian Christian Orthodox Movement has issued a booklet claiming that the Lions and Rotary Clubs and the Boy Scouts are recruiting grounds for Freemasonry.

“Masons are the Trojan Horse in our state,” said the booklet, 50,000 copies of which have been printed.

“They are traitors not only to the faith but to the country. They are a Jewish Zionist organization, whose objective is to destroy Christianity and to enslave the country.”

The leaflet also claims that Masons were behind the Greek junta, which orchestrated the coup that led to the invasion of Cyprus.

Winston Churchill the Freemason & Druid

Photo: Churchill's initiation into Druidism. 

"It is a relatively little know fact that one of Britain’s most celebrated, though far from uncontroversial, statesmen, Winston Churchill, was a Druid. In the first decade of the twentieth century the still relatively obscure Churchill dabbled with a number of esoteric organisations most notably the Freemasons and his initiation into Druidic rites appears to have been an outgrowth of this.

Churchill was born in 1874 and his father, Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, had been a Freemason and this may well have provided Winston with his first introduction to the fraternity. However Winston Churchill did not actually join the Masons until after his father’s death in 1895. Although there are different accounts of exactly when and where Churchill became a Mason it seems that he was initiated into the Entered Apprentice degree in 1901 in Studholme Lodge (no. 1591) in London. Churchill subsequently advanced through the Fellow Craft degree and was raised to a Master Mason in March 1902 in Rosemary Lodge (no. 2851). Another version has him being initiated into a lodge in South Africa in 1903. Churchill remained a Mason until 1912.

As well as conflicting accounts of his initiation into Freemasonry there is also some confusion over Churchill’s Druidic initiation, more specifically which of the several Druidic orders did he join."  Read the rest of the article here.

The New Cult in Washington: the "Temple of Understanding"

[Commentary: We see that the real roots of Globalization are religious and spiritual in nature, not ultimately political. -Jay]

Article from the Conspiracy Archive

From Robert Keith Spenser's The Cult of the All-Seeing Eye, pp. 43-46.

A temple will be erected in Washington, D. C., for "the citizen of the world" to develop "universal understanding" in place of his "national limitations."

Planners for this $5 million edifice, called "The Temple of Understanding," say endorsers include Swami Prabhavananda of the Vedanda Society, Hollywood; Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, Socialist leader Norman Thomas, Chester Bowles, special advisor to the President; Swami Bhaskaranand Paramhamsa of "UNISM," New Delhi, India; Thomas B. Watson, president of International Business Machines; Eleanor Roosevelt, the United Lodge of Theosophists, New York City, and others.

The futuristic building, characterized as a "spiritual UN" will be a "symbol of the brotherhood and sisterhood of mankind," according to the brochure issued from Temple headquarters, Greenwich, Conn. A wing of this modern-day Tower of Babel will be accorded to each of the six international faiths: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity and Islam.

The Filioque: Dogma, Theologoumenon or Error?

By: Fr. Theodore Stylianopoulos

[Not affiliated with our website.  An excellent essay on this key topic. -Jay]

Originally appeared in The Greek Orthodox Theological Review, Volume 31, No. 3-4, 1986. pp. 255-288.

The theological demands of the ecumenical movement are currently leading ecclesial-minded theologians to a fresh examination of the filioque, one of the long-standing doctrinal controversies dividing the Eastern and Western churches. The publication of Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Edited by Lukas Vischer (London and Geneva, 1981). featuring a substantial memorandum of two consultations held at Schloss Klingenthal, France (1978 and 1979) and also excellent papers presented at those consultations by Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic theologians is a preeminent ecumenical expression of the new interest in the filioque, the Nicene Creed and related topics. Some of the key questions in the filioque discussion are the following: Is the filioque a dogma binding upon all Christians who seek unity on the basis of the one, catholic and apostolic faith? Is it a theologoumenon, that is, a valid but optional interpretation of Christian dogma? Or is it a doctrinal error that should be corrected? Moveover, how is the filioque related to the faith of the New Testament and to Christian life? In this paper I would like briefly to address some of these questions as pursued by the contributors to the above publication in the following three sections: (1) historical and theological presuppositions, (2) evaluating the filioque, and (3) the relevance of the filioque question.

The Jewish Understanding of the New Latin Mass Prayer

Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism (USA)

USA, 2008/02/14

Whereas the past 43 years since the conclusion of Vatican Council II and the issuance of Nostra Aetate have been marked by fruitful dialogue, a history of progress and amicable relations between Catholics and Jews; Whereas remarkable progress has been made in implementing the new theological stance of the Catholic Church towards the Jewish people; Whereas Vatican II has been conventionally understood by Jews and many Catholic scholars as affirming that God's covenant with the Jewish people has never been revoked; Whereas our teacher, Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel, met in the Vatican with Cardinal Bea and Pope Paul VI and convinced the Council to remove a proposed passage in Nostra Aetate calling for the conversion of the Jews; Whereas Pope Paul VI revised the Good Friday Prayer for the Conversion of the Jews in 1970 to read: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the Word of God, that they may continue to grow in love of His name and in faithfulness to His covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption;" Whereas the late Pope John Paul II spent much of his pontificate teaching that Jews are "the elder brothers" of Christians, and that both faiths should be "a blessing to each other so that they might be a blessing to the world;" Whereas Walter Cardinal Kasper, head of the Vatican Commission on Religious Relations with the Jews, announced publicly on several occasions that the Catholic Church no longer maintains an office for the conversion of the Jewish people in the spirit of Nostra Aetate and subsequent documents that comprise the Magisterium (official teachings) of the Roman Catholic Church; and

From Theology To Philosophy In The Latin West

[This book, of which the following is a key chapter, is a must-read for those interested in the divergence of Western and Eastern thought in Church History -Jay]

By: Philip Sherrard

We have spoken of a certain retrogression in Christian thought during the later Middle Ages, and this in respect of the theology of both the Latin and the Greek worlds. At the same time, it was in the Latin West that this retrogression became most clearly marked, and we have indeed noted in previous chapters how the addition of the Filioque to the Christian Creed is intimately related to it, and how this had its counterpart in changes in ecclesiastical organization in the Latin West. What, though, we have not remarked is how this same retrogression, however inevitable it may have been, yet prepared the ground for the penetration of the rational spirit to a degree that was to produce a revolution in European thought and to lead, in much the way that Plethon had visualized, to the formation of a new, non-religious, even materialist type of mentality, and to a corresponding culture and society.

The Catholicity of the Church

[This is an excellent article.  Fr. Florovsky outlines the nature of Catholicity, while touching on several important points, such as the reconciliation of the one and the many, the transfiguration of human personality, and the nature of ecumenical councils in the Church. -Jay]

By: Archpriest George Florovsky

The theanthropic union and the Church

Christ conquered the world. This victory consists in His having created His own Church. In the midst of the vanity and poverty, of the weakness and suffering of human history, He laid the foundations of a "new being." The Church is Christ’s work on earth; it is the image and abode of His blessed Presence in the world. And on the day of Pentecost The Holy Spirit descended on the Church, which was then represented by the twelve Apostles and those who were with them. He entered into the world in order to abide with us and act more fully than He had ever acted before; "for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). The Holy Spirit descended once and for always. This is a tremendous and unfathomable mystery. He lives and abides ceaselessly in the church. In the Church we receive the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15). Through reaching towards and accepting the Holy Ghost we become eternally God’s. In the Church our salvation is perfected; the sanctification and transfiguration, the theosis of the human race is accomplished.

New Testament & Patristic Citations of Deuterocanonical Books

Scripture Matt. 2:16 - Herod's decree of slaying innocent children was prophesied in Wis. 11:7 - slaying the holy innocents. Matt. 6:19-20 - Jesus' statement about laying up for yourselves treasure in heaven follows Sirach 29:11 - lay up your treasure. Matt.. 7:12 - Jesus' golden rule "do unto others" is the converse of Tobit 4:15 - what you hate, do not do to others. Matt. 7:16,20 - Jesus' statement "you will know them by their fruits" follows Sirach 27:6 - the fruit discloses the cultivation. Matt. 9:36 - the people were "like sheep without a shepherd" is same as Judith 11:19 - sheep without a shepherd.

St. Photios' Encyclical to the Patriarchs on the Filioque

[This is a good summary of St. Photios' Mystagogy: it provides the crux of the argumentation against the filioque. -Jay]

  Countless have been the evils devised by the cunning devil against the race of men, from the beginning up to the coming of the Lord. But even afterwards, he has not ceased through errors and heresies to beguile and deceive those who listen to him. Before our times, the Church, witnessed variously the godless errors of Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Discorus, and a foul host of others, against which the holy Ecumenical Synods were convened, and against which our holy and God-bearing Fathers battled with the sword of the Holy Spirit. Yet, even after these heresies had been overcome and peace reigned, and from the Imperial Capital the streams of Orthodoxy flowed throughout the world; after some people who had been afflicted by the Monophysite heresy returned to the True Faith because of your holy prayers; and after other barbarian peoples, such as the Bulgarians, had turned from idolatry to the knowledge of God and the Christian Faith: then was the cunning devil stirred up because of his envy.

For the Bulgarians had not been baptised even two years when dishonourable men emerged out of the darkness (that is, the West), and poured down like hail or, better, charged like wild boars upon the newly-planted vineyard of the Lord, destroying it with hoof and tusk, which is to say, by their shameful lives and corrupted dogmas. For the papal missionaries and clergy wanted these Orthodox Christians to depart from the correct and pure dogmas of our irreproachable Faith.

Holy Scripture in the Orthodox Church

[Commentary: this is a good introduction for those who are interested in the Orthodox view of the canon. It also deals well with the canon's connection to Liturgy. -Jay]

Based on an article by Metropolitian Isaiah of Denver

Strictly speaking, there never was a Bible in the Orthodox Church, at least not as we commonly think of the Bible as a single volume book we can hold in our hand. Since the beginning of the Church, from the start of our liturgical tradition, there has never been a single book in an Orthodox church we could point to as the Bible. Instead, the various Books of the Bible are found scattered throughout several service books located either on the Holy Altar itself, or at the chanter's stand. The Gospels (or their pericopes) are complied into a single volume — usually bound in precious metal and richly decorated — placed on the Holy Altar.

The Epistles (or, again, their pericopes) are bound together in another book, called the Apostolos, which is normally found at the chanter's stand. Usually located next to the Apostolos on the chanter's shelf are the twelve volumes of the Menaion, as well as the books called the Triodion and Pentekostarion, containing various segments of the Old and the New Testaments.

Don't Think There's a Coming World Religion? Consider the UN Meditation Room

[Commentary: From the United Nations' own website.  This also demonstrates why ecumenical services with unbelievers and heretics is a violation of the First Commandment.  They want to build Babel, and throw away Christ: precisely what the UN charter is.  Reading the entire article shows that his "spirituality" is clearly demonic: he mentions the God of all, who is light--Lucifer himself. -Jay]

"A Room of Quiet"
The Meditation Room,
United Nations Headquarters

In the original plan for the new Headquarters, a tiny room had been provided as a place dedicated to silence, where people could withdraw into themselves, regardless of their faith, creed or religion, but Dag Hammarskjöld wanted something more dignified. In his efforts he was supported by a group, composed of Christians, Jews, and Moslems, the "Friends of the UN Meditation Room", who combined their efforts and provided the money for a room worthy of a world organization. 

The work on the room began, and Mr. Hammarskjöld personally planned and supervised in every detail the creation of the "Meditation Room".

Malachi Martin: Black Mass Celebrated in Vatican

By: Jay Dyer

Most people are aware of who Malachi Martin was.  Definitely an insider to Vatican activities and undoubtedly a well-known scholar and writer, Martin wrote many books on Vatican activities, theology, church history and exorcism.  Martin was an ex-Jesuit and sometime traditonal Catholic who claimed to oppose the reforms of Vatican II and what he called "the anti-Church" faction within Catholicism.  The point of this post is not the questionable character of Malachi Martin, but the facts he has repoted due to his inside knowledge of Vatican activities. 

In the following quote from his 1990 "The Keys of This Blood," Martin explains what occurred when Paul VI was elected in 1963.  Along with William Kennedy's well-researched book, Lucifer's Lodge, Martin explains what the real reason is for the problems of perversion and pedophila in the post-Vatican II Catholic Church:

"Heresy and grave error resided in the seminaries.  An intricate and self-protective network of actively homosexual priests, nuns, bishops and some Cardinals that now throttled all attempts at reform...."

Martin goes on...

"Most fighteningly for John Paul, he had come up against the irremovable presence of a malign strength in his own Vatican and in certain bishops' chanceries.  It was what knowledgeable churchmen called "superforce."  Rumors, always difficult to verify, tied its installation to the beginning of Pope Paul VI's reign in 1963.  Indeed, Paul had alluded somberly to "the smoke of Satan which has entered the sanctuary"-an oblique reference to an enthronment ceremony by Satanists in the Vatican.  Besides, the incidence of Satanic pedophilia--rites and practices--was already documented among certain bishops and priests as widely dispersed as Turin, Italy, and South Carolina, in the United States.  The cultic acts of Satanic pedophilia are considered by professionals to be the culmination of the Fallen Archangel's rites."

(The Keys of This Blood, pg. 632).

This explains quite a bit, in fact.  My only question after this is, how does Martin know, unless he was there?

Some Notes on the Nature of Orthodox Mysticism and Salvation

[Commentary: this is not an article for theological novices.  I recommend only serious Orthodox readers dig into this.  I especially enjoy his use of Gematria, something neglected by most commentators, as it is a very exalted biblical science for advanced students only. It also dovetails nicely with the article I posted on Husserl and universals.  It is yet another excellent Orthodox Essay in line with the several I have posted lately. -Jay]

By: Father Matthew Raphael Johnson

(Not affiliated with our website)

From here.

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. Romans 8:27

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace, because the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by their sinful nature cannot please God. Romans 8:6-8

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given to us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14

But when the kindness and love...our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-5, 7

More Fathers on the Death Penalty, Civil State, Etc.

Some readers objected to my post on Orthodoxy & the death penalty, saying that "some" Fathers opopsed the death penalty.  I'm not convinced, since the majority hold quite the opposite.  Below are quotes from several more Fathers on the nature of civil government, the death penalty, state prosecution of heresy, and "vengeance."  I say vengeance because one reader seemed to think that "vengeance" exacted by the civil magistrate was somehow an evil, or not of God.  The below quotes show that to be false.  Besides that, they read St. Paul precisely the way I do in Romans 13.

By: Jay Dyer

St. Irenaeus

Adversus Haereses (Book V, Chapter 24)

Of the constant falsehood of the devil, and of the powers and governments of the world, which we ought to obey, inasmuch as they are appointed of God, not of the devil.

1. As therefore the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also in the end, when he said, "All these are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them." Matthew 4:9; Luke 4:6 For it is not he who has appointed the kingdoms of this world, but God; for "the heart of the king is in the hand of God." Proverbs 21:1 And the Word also says by Solomon, "By me kings do reign, and princes administer justice. By me chiefs are raised up, and by me kings rule the earth." Proverbs 8:15 Paul the apostle also says upon this same subject: "Be subject to all the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: now those which are have been ordained of God." Romans 13:1 And again, in reference to them he says, "For he bears not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for wrath to him who does evil." Romans 13:4 Now, that he spoke these words, not in regard to angelical powers, nor of invisible rulers— as some venture to expound the passage—but of those of actual human authorities, [he shows when] he says, "For this cause pay tribute also: for they are God's ministers, doing service for this very thing." Romans 13:6 This also the Lord confirmed, when He did not do what He was tempted to by the devil; but He gave directions that tribute should be paid to the tax-gatherers for Himself and Peter; Matthew 17:27 because "they are the ministers of God, serving for this very thing."

Quotations From High Level Masons

[I don't know who wrote this, but it's excellent.  It's very hard to argue against this, and one would have to be completely ignorant or of bad will to think that Masonry is compatible with Christ. -Jay]

'Brother' Eliphas Levi
The Mysteries of Magic

"What is more absurd and more impious than to attribute the name of Lucifer to the devil, that is, to personified evil. The intellectual Lucifer is the spirit of intelligence and love; it is the paraclete, it is the Holy Spirit, while the physical Lucifer is the great agent of universal magnetism." page 428

Masonic Diversion: 'But Levi wasn't a Mason!'

Fact: Eliphas Levi was a Freemason.

He was initiated at the Lodge Rose du Parfait Silence of the Grand Orient of France on 14 March 1861 in Paris. M. Caudet who was the Venerable (Worshipful Master) at Levi's Masonic initiation is quoted in the Masonic Work 'Eliphas Levi, written by Paul Chacornac thusly:

"In his reception speech, Eliphas Levi, to the great astonishment of his auditors, little inclined to paradoxes, made the following statement: 'I come to bring you your lost traditions, the exact knowledge of your signs and emblems, and in consequence to show you the aim for the attainment of which your association has been constituted.' He then tried to demonstrate to his coreligionists that Masonic Symbolism is borrowed from the Cabala. It was time wasted. No one believed him."

Russian Bishop Accuses Church Leaders of Bowing Down to State, Masonry

Mar 2nd, 2007 8:46 AM

The Bishop of the remote Russian region of Chukotka has addressed the
believers with a statement in which he accused the leaders of the
Russian Orthodox Church of “moving from the purity of Orthodox faith” -
in particular, of making pacts with state authorities, and Ecumenical
movement, which the cleric sees as a freemason conspiracy aimed at
eventually imposing the rule of Antichrist.

The letter of Diomede, the Bishop of Anadyr and Chukotha, was published
by the Novye Izvestia daily on Thursday. In the letter, the bishop wrote
that Moscow Patriarchy was making pacts with the state, often anti-God
authorities which damages the God-given freedom. He also wrote about the
Church officials’ “silent approval of state policies that lead to the
country’s breakup, demographical crisis and other negative consequences.”

'Towards Renewal and Renaissance'

[Commentary: this is an excellent essay.  I've come across some really good essays and articles lately, especially Metropolitan Zizilous' on the Cappadocians and the Trinity, and this one on the degeneracy of European/Western Culture due to its loss of authentic Christianity.  Its snatched from Nikola's Blog.  All Christian readers, and especially Orthodox, should check it out.  Fr. Thornton opposes the New World Order, the World Council of Churches and other global entities, and notes their connection to the problems of modern secular society, and the proper goal of 'culture' as more than an end in itself, with erudite perfection.  -Jay]

By: Fr. James Thornton (Not affiliated with our website)

I am greatly honored to have been invited to address this assembly of men and women who seek some deliverance from the contemporary dilemma surrounding the question of race. This question has bedeviled our poor country for the better part of two centuries, and has brought about in our history expenditures in human lives and treasure of tragic proportions. Of late, it threatens thoroughly to overwhelm us and transform this nation, totally and permanently, into a national and social entity radically dissimilar from that represented by the past four hundred years of our history.

We have come to think it curious that a committed Christian would have an opinion on the subject of race not consonant with the prevailing and rather rigorously invoked view, and would express that personal opinion in a public forum. For in these closing years of the twentieth century, Christianity has come to be looked upon by some as a religion for the fainthearted and the perfidious, as a kind of fifth column within our European culture, and as one of the seeds of European man’s own destruction. Needless to say, I do not agree with that view.

"Anti-Semitic Bigotry" Kept Archaelogist from Revealing that Jesus Did Not Resurrect

[Commentary: An excellent post by Michael A. Hoffman.  It concerns the Discovery Channel's 'Lost Tomb of Jesus' nonsense.  Note that the supposed replacement for the bodily resurrection is the heretical gnostic "spiritual" resurrection, promoted for centuries by many occultists, sects, heretics, Cabalists, and our modern New Agers.  Note also Director James Cameron's influence.  Cameron, I am convinced, from the hints in his films and documentaries, is an occultist and most likely a Freemason.  Its all the same Da Vinci Code fables rehashed. We can recall the 'Gospel of Judas' absurdities from a few years back, which Cameron so highly touted.  Hoffman is not affiliated with our website. -Jay]

By Michael A. Hoffman II

"Holocaust-denial"? A crime in more than a half dozen European nations and Canada.

Resurrection-denial? Subject of lavish publicity and praise; a boon to cable television.

To claim that the burial tomb of Jesus Christ has been located (not the cave where the stone was rolled away and He was resurrected, but the burial place for his corpse after He did not resurrect, according to the Zionists) is probably the most serious anti-Christian slur and attack on Christians anyone could make.

As the Apostle Paul stated: "if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith also is in vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ...if Christ is not raised...you are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." (1 Cor. 15: 12-19).

Continued here at his blog.

Greek Patriarch of Antioch to Benedict XVI: Let's Have Rapprochement Of All Religions!

[Sounds like something any good freemason would write. The Koran is noble (though demonically inspired), all religions are basically good, all religious rites are allowable and all men may freely practice them (what about Satanism or the OTO?), the middle ages are bad, etc. -Jay]

To Your Most Venerable Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Salutations and best wishes for your health:

We have followed with extreme anxiety your statements and the angry reactions that accompanied them over the course of the last days. In this regard, we would like to clarify to Your Holiness some essential points that Eastern Christians live by and believe in. More than any others, they have knowledge, experience and understanding of Christianity and Islam together, for they have been in a state of coexistence, cooperation and harmony from the beginning of the Islamic mission until now.
We have established the best of relationships, built on respect for religions and for everyone's freedom to practice rites as he wishes and according to his belief in the teachings of his religion and the principles of his divine law. This springs from the fact that both the essential and preeminent relationship between Christianity and Islam, and the culture of individual coexistence, have sprung from the East, from this land of sacred religions. Pope John Paul II praised - as you know - this coexistence and relationship, which he knew and read about, and which he observed during his historical visit to Syria . The accounts of this visit, what was written and what was said about it have become part of Vatican history and one of the stages of development that the late Pope desired.

Reformed Protestant "Giant" R.J. Rushdoony's Nestorianism

Rushdoony’s Nestorian Denial of Christ

By: Jay Dyer

Lately, I have been re-reading some old reformed Protestant materials I read several years ago. One of these books is by a very respected reformed thinker named Rousas J. Rushdoony. Rushdoony wrote and did some good things, like defending homseschoolers and giving that movement an initial impetus. However, these things don’t magically make him orthodox or erase his denials of the Incarnation. In my many dealings with reformed pastors and theologians, I’ve learned that it generally doesn’t matter what heresies their heroes have, nor does it matter how serious the heresies are. No, reformed thinkers have their demi-gods and none dare challenge them. So it doesn’t matter that Rushdoony also promoted the Jewish food laws, which is condemned by St. Paul. It doesn’t matter that Van Til said the essence of God was a Person. It doesn’t matter that Bahnsen thought one could have pictures of Christ and that he celebrated Christmas, which John Knox thought worthy of death. And none of this stuff would be so bad if the reformed didn’t claim to hold to the ecumenical councils.  

No, if the reformed thinkers decide you’re a hero, you can, in fact, get away with quite a bit. Forgiving men for errors and passing them over is one thing, and it’s an aspect of love. However, when it comes to the point of excusing men or ignoring their substantial heresies on Christ and/or the Trinity, that’s another story. The reformed thinkers and pastors that have despised and blasted me, fail to realize that whatever errors I have held, I haven’t promoted serious Trinitarian and Christological errors like Van Til and Rushdoony. And none of this would be so bad if Rushdoony’s foundation wasn’t named “Chalcedon.” Other men in these circles also name their publications and churches after Chalcedon.

Orthodoxy and the Death Penalty

Vindicating the Justice of the Death Penalty

By: Jay Dyer

It has become popular in certain circles of Orthodoxy as well as in Romanism and Evangelicalism, to oppose the death penalty as something "unchristian."  I have had many discussions on this topic with professing Christians from all stripes.  However, this response ususally comes from a mis-placed "sentimentalism," rather than the divine founts of Scripture and Tradition.  Purveyors of this anti-death penalty view usually fall back on saying that "God is love," or they cite an obscure saint somewhere who was overflowing with compassion and hated to see men die.  While I understand the compassion in mind here, we need not be more compassionate than Christ Himself.  God is love, but He is also just (Matt. 12:18).  But, "evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand all" (Prov. 28:5).

Phony "Orthodox" Church Blends Liturgy With Jazz

[There are many of these pseudo-Orthodox Churches started by makeshift, vagrant "bishops."  Note that from the Church's own website they were originally called, "One Mind Temple Evolutionary Transitional Body of Christ."  Flags should immediately go up.  -Jay] 

Sunday Religion, Inspired by Saturday Nights

Beside the altar of the storefront church on Fillmore Street stand an electric piano, two basses, a drum kit and three microphones. The hymnal, such as it is, consists of a music book, open to a piece titled “Blues For Bechet.” And on the side wall hangs an icon of the congregation’s patron saint, a golden corona circling his head, as he holds a tenor saxophone with flames in its bell.

This being a house of jazz as well as of God, the Sunday morning service starts on Sunday afternoon, early rising for any musician who played three sets on Saturday night. As the worshipers trickle in, whether regulars from the neighborhood or pilgrims from abroad, a call comes from behind the rear wall: “Let the procession be formed.”

The rest of the article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/us/01religion.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The Church's website is here: http://www.coltranechurch.org/    

Flashback 2006: 7 Vatican II Priests Took Stand for Marilyn Manson

[You can' make this stuff up. -Jay]

BBC Reported:

A Catholic priest has defended controversial rock star Marilyn Manson ahead of his concert in Croatia.

Anton Bobas - the lead singer of his own metal band - said Manson was unlikely to "turn young people into Satanists" during his performance.

The gig, taking place in Pula on 22 August, has been condemned by a number of Croatian clerics.

Seven Catholic priests have offered to pay compensation to organisers if the show is cancelled.

What is the New World Order? Why Care? pt. 2

Read Part One of "What is the New World Order? Why Care?" here:

http://www.nicenetruth.com/home/2007/11/what-is-the-new.html

By: Jay Dyer

Zionism

Members of this Brotherhood of Death have so gained control of the media that most people cannot think through the illogic and inconsistency of the doublethink.  A good example is so-called “anti-semitism.”  We at nicenetruth oppose all forms of racism.  We believe that discriminating on the basis of bloodlines is itself primitive and occultic.  All men are made from one blood (Adam) as St. Paul teaches in Acts 17, and all men equally need redemption in Christ.  At the cross, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, as St. Paul says in Galatians.  We oppose Nazism as well as racist Zionism.  However, it has become common to label anyone who is critical of anyone that is a Jew an “anti-semite.”  This, however, is a misnomer and can be shown to be a sham.  First of all, a “Semite,” or a Shem-ite: is anyone that is a descendant of Noah’s son, Shem.  All Hebrew peoples are defined as descendents of Abraham.  So, by definition, Arabs are also Semitic peoples, since they descend from Abraham’s son, Ishmael.  This means that radical Zionists, those racists who seek to give the nation of Israel political and religious dominance in the world, are themselves anti-Semitic, since they despise Arabs.  Furthermore, they might also be described as anti-Semitic for hating Jesus Christ, who was Himself a Hebrew.  “Wait,” you say, “Jews do not hate Christ, they just do not hail him as Messiah.” 

What is the New World Order? Why Care? Pt. 1

Part Two of "What is the New World Order? Why Care?" can be read here:

http://www.nicenetruth.com/home/2007/12/what-is-the-new.html

An Explanatory Essay on the New World Order

By: Jay Dyer

Unfortunately, we have been conditioned from the earliest years to not believe in the existence, or even the possibility of a conspiracy.  Students of history learn in introductory courses that there are three views of the philosophy of history.  First, the random contingency view in which historical events are merely “one damn thing after another” (as one of my professors so elegantly stated) with no apparent reason or cause.   Second, the so-called “great man” view, in which key religious and political figures cause certain landmark events, history revolving around these figures such as Napoleon or Caesar.  The third and least popular is the providential or conspiratorial view.  In this view, history is led along by unseen forces, be they malevolent or beneficent.  Humans play their role to be sure, but man is not the autonomous god of his own destiny.

     Coming to see the truth of a worldwide conspiracy that has been especially centralized in the past few centuries is not something people prefer to hear.  Americans are independent individualists: the frontier mentality still dominates and is an image that is always latent in our culture. This individualistic mentality refuses to even consider itself as the victim of any conspiracy: we are too great a nation to be ruled by an evil elite, bent on world domination.  After all, George W. Bush is a “Christian” president, isn’t he?  “How could there be a massive conspiracy?  If there were, they would all be caught!  It’s just not possible,” the opponent says.  That’s all “black helicopter, tin-foil-hat nonsense.” To those with an elementary level of philosophical training and common sense, it becomes evident that none of these objections suffices to demonstrate that the conspiratorial view is false.  From the fact that one is a “proud American” or that George Bush claims to be a Christian, it does not follow that the conspiratorial view is false.  This is called, in logic, a non sequitur.  The conclusion does not logically follow from the premises.

Judaic B'nai B'rith Co-Author of Vatican II Document, "Nostra Aetate" Dead

Ernst Ehrlich, 86; Jewish Religious Philosopher

[Note: We just reported that John Hagee is a big friend of Jewish Freemasonry--that's what "B'nai B'rith" is.  For those that don't know, "Nostra Aetate" is the horrible document of Vatican II which proclaims Hinduism, Islam and other false religions to be pleasing to God, while Judaism receives special praise.  "Nostra Aetate" teaches that no one can say what St Paul said--that Jews are lost and blinded, and no one can any longer say what Christ said in Apoc. 2:9 and 3:9, that Judaism is a "synagogue of Satan."  No, one must now participate in their religious services with them (along with other false religions), as John Paul II and Benedict XVI have done.  Again we see clear proof that Judaistic Freemasonry has had its influence well established in the Vatican for several years.  -Jay Dyer]

   

Associated Press
Thursday, October 25, 2007; Page B07

GENEVA -- Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich, a Jewish religious philosopher who escaped the Nazis and became a European bridge builder between Christians and Jews, has died. He was 86.

Ehrlich died Sunday at his home in Riehen, a suburb of Basel, according to the family notice in Swiss newspapers.

The Berlin-born Ehrlich studied at the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies, Rabbi Leo Baeck's rabbinical seminary, until the Nazis closed it in 1942.

The Nazis forced him into labor until he found shelter with a Berlin couple and was smuggled into Switzerland.

He obtained his doctorate at Basel and later taught at universities in Switzerland and Germany. From 1961 to 1994, he was European director of the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, founded in New York in 1843.

At the Second Vatican Council in 1965, he served as adviser to German Cardinal Augustin Bea in preparing "Nostra Aetate," a key document on Roman Catholic-Jewish relations.

Rabbi Walter Homolka, rector of Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, Germany, eulogized Ehrlich as being "the bridge to Jewish heritage before the Holocaust" and an important liberal thinker.

Ehrlich was the author of several books on Judaism and was credited by the Free University of Berlin with "influencing generations of scientists."

Ehrlich is survived by his wife and a daughter.

End of article.

For the Masonic Connections of B'nai B'rith, see the following

http://freemasonrywatch.org/bnaibrith.html

A response on the Ochlophobist

by Sophocles

The following is a comment I made in the combox to a blogger by the name of "Maxim".  If you wish to understand the context of this comment, it will be necessary to go here.

The post appeared on the Ochlophobist.  I highly recommend this blog written by Owen Wilson who often undertakes to tackle complex subject matter in the context of debate between (usually)Orthodox and Roman Catholic positions.  His blog also deals with "modernity" and other present day social ills.

Oh.  My name is Sophocles and my home blog, besides this one of course, is a..sinner.  Robert and Jay graciously invited me to participate on this blog and I spoke with them on Thursday October 25, 2007.  As I have not posted anything yet, fearing for my job, I thought I would at least introduce myself with this post.