Topic: Jesus!

[charlesoakwood]

Jesus Will Break Your Leg If He Has To

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - April 30, AD 2012 5:59 PM MST

Oh, how fortuitous. After our discussions about how Marxist-homosexualists have attempted to drain all of the masculinity out of the Church, and also out of Christ Himself, today I find the most wonderful thing via Fr. Z. at Fr. Ray Blake's blog.

The context of Fr. Blake's original piece is about heresy in the Church, but it applies not only to full-blown heretics, but really everyone, because every sin is, in a sense, a heresy.

Fr. Blake's piece here.

Long story short: When a shepherd would go out and search for a lost sheep that had wandered off, when he found the lost lamb, he would BREAK OR DISLOCATE ITS LEG, and then carry it back to the flock on his shoulders. This husbandry technique is called "hobbling." We have all seen that image. Yeah. He wasn't carrying it because it was fun. He was carrying the lamb because he had intentionally crippled it.

Why? Why break the animal's leg? First, to keep it from wandering off again. Second, in order to train it to stay with the flock. While the leg was mending, the lamb would NOT wander off and learned to stay with the fold. This was done not just to protect the straying lamb, but also to protect the rest of the flock. Sheep are very gregarious. If one is heady and heads off on some tangent, the rest of the flock might go after it instead of staying with the shepherd.

You know, KINDA LIKE PEOPLE.

In terms of the actual breaking of the leg, you might be thinking that a broken leg would kill an animal or be massively cruel. You would be wrong. The folks who taught me the cattle business used to herd and drive wild animals like elk and reindeer up on the tundras of Canada. One time they came across a large herd of elk and one of the animals had a totally fractured hind leg. The bone was totally severed and the leg was flopping completely free as the animal ran with the herd on three legs. When they came back to that herd a few weeks later, they spotted the animal, and its leg was almost fully healed. It had a slight deformity, but it was running on the broken leg. The point is that animals have a massive pain tolerance such that their perception of pain is fundamentally different than that of human pain. Additionally, they have a capacity for physical healing that humans likewise do not have. A untreated compound fracture in a human leg would kill the human. But animals are different, so the shepherding technique of breaking or dislocating the leg of a straying lamb would have been standard operating procedure.

I looked this up, and sure enough, up until just within the last century, people understood the symbolism of the Good Shepherd fairly widely, as many people were still involved in animal agriculture on roughly the same technological level as that of 2000 years ago. The Church, and thus the people understood that if God gently guides you back to the fold, but you keep persistently wandering off and being disobedient to God's perfect will, endangering not only yourself but the rest of the flock as well, JESUS WILL PROVERBIALLY BREAK YOUR LEG, hoist you on His shoulders and haul you back to the flock. The alternative would be to let you get eaten by the wolves, and entice the wolves to attack the rest of the flock.

When Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd," He MEANS IT. CRACK!

Finally, this also illuminates the prophecy in Numbers 9:12 that the Passover Lamb shall not have any of its bones broken:

    They shall not leave any thing thereof until morning, a nor break a bone thereof, they shall observe all the ceremonies of the phase. --Numbers 9:12

This was specifically emphasized by John in his Gospel:

    For these things were done, that the scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of Him. --John 19:36

Jesus is the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), slain for the sins of the world (Qui tollis peccata mundi). He was slain without any of His bones being broken because He is the prefect Lamb, in perfect union with the Will of the Father, Who never, ever strayed, and thus His bones, in particular His legs, were not broken. If you remember the narrative from Calvary, when Jesus had died on the Cross, the Romans, spurred by an earthquake and the desire to get the three crucified Jews off of Golgotha before the beginning of the Passover (also prophesied in Numbers 9:12 - "They shall not leave any thing thereof until morning"), were ordered to break the legs of the three men in order to hasten death. If their legs were broken, they couldn't hold themselves up on their crosses to breathe, and would thus asphyxiate in a matter of minutes. The two thieves had their legs broken with a cudgel by the Romans. When the Roman came to Christ, he saw that Our Lord was already dead. In order to make sure that Jesus was dead, the Roman, Longinus, took a spear and stabbed Jesus in His side, through to His Heart. This pierced the pericardial sac of water that had formed around His Heart as He went into shock and asphyxiated. Out of Jesus' side poured first water (Baptism) followed by Blood (The Eucharist). So, while the good thief and the bad thief both had their legs broken, Jesus' legs were NOT broken at the last second because He is the perfectly submissive Lamb to the Will of the Father.

Again, this symbolism would have been obvious to previous generations. It is only today that it has been lost. Beware of any clergy today who try to paint Jesus as utterly benign, effette and passive. He is anything but. Jesus will BREAK OUR LEG if that is what is required to get us safely to heaven and save us from the wolves. Priests and bishops would do very, very well to heed this example. The fact that there have been no excommunications in the wake of the pro-abort culture in government, especially now among such "c"atholics as Kathleen Sebilius, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Joe Biden and every member of the Kennedy clan is a testimony to the utterly piss-poor job of shepherding that today's episcopacy is doing. UTTERLY. PISS. POOR.

For the love of God, and in the name of Christ the Good Shepherd, BREAK SOME LEGS! CRACK!

(Isn't this image incredibly moving now that we know the full story and context?)

[LadyVirginia]

a useful reminder

[Libertas]

I never got that lesson in Sunday school.

I bet many didn't.

The timing couldn't be better though.

[IronDioPriest]

Beware of any clergy today who try to paint Jesus as utterly benign, effette and passive.

I have heard it preached that the modern interpretation of "Turn the other cheek" and "Love thy enemies" are misrepresentations, and that in the original text, the acts carry a connotation of defiance. If your enemy strikes you, offer him the other cheek in defiance. Love your enemy in defiance of his hatred as a method of overcoming it.

[Conservative RWNJ]

Good stuff ... never heard that before!   

[trapeze]

This interpretation is completely familiar to me. Others, not so much. Here is an NPR (of course) story about how liberalism is finding its way into the AME church.

Let me qualify that somewhat...The AME church is already quite liberal in some areas but has held steadfast in others. One area that has held up until recently (as the AME church adopts more and more of the Democrat theology) is its interpretation of Scripture toward homosexuality. This article concerns that interpretation. NPR managed to find an ultra liberal AME pastor in NC (to tie into the NC ballot initiative regarding homo marriage, naturally) and thus we have this article.

The money quote that ties into the above:

As his text for the night, Spearman chooses the Gospel story of the Good Samaritan, who helps the man who's been beaten and robbed and left on the road to die.

"Say that this victim is a victim of gay bashing," he says.

Spearman says in the story, Jesus is telling them to love everyone, including those they despise the most.

"Jesus is always calling us away from our comfort zones," he says. "If you look at his life, he is always out there doing something to liberate somebody's life, from something. And he expects us to do the very same thing."

This is typical liberal "theology" where Jesus is used to fit whatever political line of thinking is currently in vogue. In this case the quote comes from a pastor of an AME church. The pastor has decided that homosexuality is okay with him and therefore okay with Jesus and God. You will note that nowhere in the article is actual Scripture quoted. The NPR article is typical in reporting that the pastor's church members aren't so sure but that they are also seeing things his way. First they claim this:

Spearman has taken a public stand against the marriage amendment, calling it an anti-gay attack that will only cause harm. But he'll be the first to tell you that many — maybe most — of the people in his own congregation see things differently.

Then they claim this only a few paragraphs later:

So far, Spearman's flock seems to be with him. Sylvia Shuford is a smallish woman in her 50s. She says as a home health aide, she's worked with patients with HIV.

But, getting back to the original point, this is not what Scripture really says about marriage and homosexuality. Jesus did not come to earth to sanction sin. But that is pretty much what this pastor is trying to get across. He has corrupted Scripture to fit his own political point of view.

[Weisshaupt]

He is not a Tame Lion.

[BMG]

Social justice working it's evil in churches all across the country (world actually). Leftism can not abide a faith in anything that does not put government first. For that reason Christianity necessarily has to be 'tamed' or in other words, destroyed. This is why I have come to the conclusion that leftists (democrats) can not be both democrat and Christian. The two schools of thought can not coexist.

[charlesoakwood]

You're correct.

[Libertas]

Social justice creates more and more apostate congregations...everything about Leftists starts with subverting traditional institutions whether they be religious or secular...and in the end what they do not make subservient they make gone.

!

[charlesoakwood]

He who fears God cannot be coerced by the state. 1

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - May 11, AD 2012 5:54 PM MST

I keep an eye on where my essays are reposted and “syndicated” on the interwebs. I have always received a lot of positive feedback from atheists and agnostics (more on that this weekend), but I am seeing a marked uptick in the number of rough-and-ready men reposting my stuff, and making the explicit connection between the personal morality and integrity of this (or any) population and the viability of that population’s government and civilization. I see more and more guys realizing that at the end of the day, if there isn’t a deep-seated intrinsic morality and a fear of getting crossways with what many of them refer to as “the Natural Law”, then there is no amount of government (either too much or too little) or any economic theory (either interventionist or laissez-faire) that can keep that society from its own inevitable death spiral.

Building on that idea, I want to explain why exactly it is that the Marxist-homosexualist infiltrators of the Church have had as one of their top-tier objectives the emasculation and castration of Jesus Christ – specifically the minimizing and outright denial of Christ’s nature as the Judge of mankind.

Starting with the easiest target first, Superfun Rockband church™. To call a group of people who worship themselves and their capacity for self-reverential “entertainment” “Christian” is becoming increasingly difficult when the objective evidence points to these suburban blights as being neo-paganism in every regard. Where is the altar? There isn’t one. Where is there a Cross? There are no crosses. When is any reference made to Christ’s sacrifice in propitiation and perfect atonement for the sins of the world, including the sins of the latte-sipping dolts sitting in their reclining, triple-cushioned theater-style seats? Where are there any references to personal sin? Where are there any references to objective Truth? There are none – there is only “your truth and my truth”, “How I FEEEEL”, and then BRING ON THE ROCK BAND!

The notion of Christ as the Fearsome Judge of Man is as foreign to these people as the concepts of reverence, solemnity and humility before God. The Enemy notched Superfun Rockband church™ on his “victory” column years and years ago. Satan’s only objective now is to get Superfun Rockband church™ to grow and suck in as many poor sinners as possible – but the paradigmatic damage is already fully accomplished.

Next up is the infiltrated, and likely soon-to-schism Catholic Church. Soon-to-schism? Yep. Very much like the Anglican schism under Henry VIII in England 500 years ago, it appears likely that the Catholic Church in the United States will schism from the See of Peter in Rome and will become a client of the regime in Washington, complete with “gay marriage”, female priests, ratified contraception and abortion and every other form of evil imaginable celebrated under the banner of “tolerance” and “inclusiveness”. The Roman Catholic Church remaining in the U.S. will then be forced underground by means of property confiscation, civil rights litigation, and finally criminal litigation. Before this is over, Roman Catholics (as opposed to the new “American catholics”) will be openly killed ON THIS CONTINENT. There’s a name for that. It’s called GENOCIDE, and it is coming. Mark my words.

The Marxist-homosexualist infiltration of the Church has already set the stage for this schism, and the brain-dead Catholics are primed for it. Priests have all but abandoned the Sacrament of Confession, or Penance. In the last two months alone, I have had to personally correct TWO priests, one in person and one in writing, who expressly denied that the Sacrament of Confession was in any way necessary and thus could be totally dismissed. The scary part is that both of these priests would be considered “conservative” in the spectrum of the post-Vatican II Novus Ordo (Mass in English facing the people) wing of the Church. The point of this is, like Superfun Rockband church™, everything is being done to convince people that the only sin is “intolerance” and that Jesus is an effete, passive mascot who only wants to “slobber us with kisses.” You know, kind of like your pet dog who you had neutered last year. That’s how these demons want you to regard the Sovereign King of the Universe, Our Creator, Our Savior and Our Judge – as a stupid, ball-less dog who will “slobber you with kisses” if you just deign to pat Him on the head every now and then.



He who fears God cannot be coerced by the state. 2

Posted by Ann Barnhardt - May 11, AD 2012 5:54 PM MST

Now for the punchline in all of this. Why does this matter? Why are Marxsits and homosexualists so massively invested in obscuring and denying the role of Christ as the Fearsome Judge of Mankind?

Because the Marxists and homosexualists want you to fear NOT GOD, but fear ONLY THE STATE.

A man who fears God CANNOT BE COERCED BY THE STATE.

Thus, Fear of the Lord has GOT TO GO.

Let’s get pragmatic, folks. You know that this government is no longer in any way legitimate. You know that Obama is himself illegitimate and that the Constitution has been completely overthrown and discarded. You know that the regime in Washington is evil and is now MANDATING that you participate in, cooperate with, and SUBSIDIZE pure abject evil, not the least of which is the slaughter of unwanted children. You know this. And yet, I am probably the only person you know that has publically declared a tax strike. Why? Well, for you bloggers, look at your comment threads whenever you post anything I write. “That chick is nuts. The IRS is going to put her in prison, or the DHS is going to pay her a “visit” one of these days, and they’ll find her dead in her bathtub. I don’t think she knows what she is getting herself into.”

The fact of the matter is that I possess the far superior clarity of thought. Why? Because I FEAR GOD.

    The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:
    and the knowledge of the holy is prudence.  Proverbs 9:10

I fear His Judgement. I fear the moment of having to look into His eyes as He hangs skinned and crucified before me, because of me, and experience the full force of the pain that I have caused Him by my BETRAYAL of Him. It just so happens that now, in this time, submission to the evil state, borne from a greater fear of the state than of God, is a BETRAYAL OF CHRIST.

If Christ has been reduced to a slobbering, castrated pet dog, and not the Just Judge of Sinners, then the ONLY thing that people will fear will be the state. There won’t even be a tension in the minds of the people. People will do anything that the state tells them to do not only because they fear the wrath of the IRS or other government arm, but also because they have been convinced that they can betray God without limit, and like a stupid, abused dog, Jesus will “slobber them with kisses” while they make the CONSCIOUS, CONSIDERED DECISION to beat the sh*t out of Him and nail Him to the Cross at the explicit command of the state. They will do this because they fear exclusively the wrath of the state and not the Pierced, Burning, Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ask any Christian you know today if they are willing to declare and enjoin a tax strike against the government, and you will see that the state is feared completely, and that Fear of the Lord has been utterly purged from the ranks of the Church Militant.

An army that completely fears its enemy, and has no fear or respect for its own supreme commander or his orders will be defeated. Swiftly.

The only thing that the people of the United States, from the "devout" Christian (including the vast, vast majority of priests and bishops) to the neo-pagan Superfun Rockband church™ denizen to the atheist, fear is the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security. If the state says, “pay for abortions, or else”, the people will do it, and to hell with the stupid, slobbering, impotent Jesus. If the state says, “Sodomy is normal and good, and you will celebrate it, or else”, the people will do it and to hell with the stupid, slobbering, impotent Jesus. I can beat the sh*t out of Jesus, and He will never do anything but "slobber me with kisses." I don’t even have to say “sorry.” Father said so in his homily last Sunday. He even put it in the bulletin.

Unless and until this highly disordered condition is corrected and Fear of the Lord reclaims supremacy in the hearts of men, there is NO HOPE for this nation. None.

[IronDioPriest]

Her point about fear of God vs fear of the state is spot on. But her flaying of the "Superfun Rockband Church™" is an ignorant generalization - particularly if the Catholic Church is held up in comparison as the paragon of virtue - the "true" church. There are certainly protestant and non-denominational churches as she describes. Far too many. But while they have their failings and undermine Christ and harm the souls of sinners, at least they are not famous for being a petri dish for homosexual pedophiles and political machinations.

See Ann, when slamming churches, there is no human institution that stands on the moral high-ground. No person gets to say "I judge these churches to be evil and this one to be the one Jesus likes." The only truth in that equation is Jesus Christ standing above it all as judge.

I know there are devout Catholics who construe Catholic doctrine as the only one "true holy Catholic and Apostolic Church." But Catholic doctrine and biblical doctrine are not equivalent. I find the gyrations one must go through to come to the conclusion that Catholicism is the only true Christian church to be at best a mis-application of the bible - a wholly human twisting of biblical doctrine to comport with the religious spirit of mankind - just the kind of religiosity that Christ so abhorred.

Church hierarchy; celibacy/forbidding of marriage; daily Eucharist as a ritual; 7 sacraments; confession to a priest; confirmation; prayer to dead humans (saints); the quazi-deification of the Virgin Mary; the notion that Peter was a "pope"....

The list goes on. These things are not biblical. They are extrapolations that spring from purely human motivations.

Does that mean I judge Catholics as non-Christian or as somehow displeasing to God? No. Judging is for Jesus Christ. We can discern. We can give our souls to Jesus Christ as best we know how. But we cannot extrapolate that because our particular sect makes us think we're doing things God's way, that other sects who do it differently are not doing it God's way.

Whether it be rock music and cuddly Jesus, or homosexual pedophile priests using their authority to rape children, I suspect that churches and their doctrines in general are displeasing to God, and that it is the hearts of men that are his concern.

[Glock32]

Well said IDP.