St. Luigi?

Amid the celebration of all that is holy, namely Jesus Christ and the message of Christmas, I resent the constant inference that Luigi Mangione might be in the same league. The same group of people who got soundly defeated in the last election are planning to up the ante in their battle against Western Civilization. 

The Democractic Party gave up the age old formula it had followed of picking candidates to run for the Presidency who would represent politically centrist views. That is because the Democratic Party’s radical Marxist element hijacked the party a while ago so those sort of accommodations were not deemed necessary. The last United States elections tested whether the American people would stand for that. They would not. What will the most radicalized members of the Democratic Party do next? I think the answer to that lies in terrible stories which keep on popping up in the news. Indicative of the standard operating procedure of the radicalized democrats is the case of Luigi Mangione.

The case unfolded on a cold December morning in New York City when a darkly dressed figure with a large backpack jumped out of the shadows and shot somebody in the back. The man killed in such a cowardly way was Brian Thompson a husband, father of two and the CEO of the United Healthcare medical insurance company. The 26 year old man who has been arrested and will stand trial for this cold-blooded murder is Luigi Mangione. He was the valedictorian of his high school class and an Ivy League graduate with two degrees. 

Liberal news sources, leftist professors’s and social media Marxists have begun a nasty smear campaign against the dead man who for obvious reasons can’t defend himself. The posts, and some commentaries suggest this man had it coming. What is the truth about the Health Insurance industry? Only a very careful study and quantitative analysis could tell us that. Opinions are not always reality and emotionalism can lead us astray of the truth. But, that hasn’t stopped some people from advancing their agenda.

Some of  those people have compared Brian, the murder victim, with Hitler and suggest that knowing what we now know about Hitler would mean that it would not be a murder if we killed him before he was able to implement his plans. That’s too big of a stretch. 

The notion that murder is prohibited in the Bible is no longer central to this discussion for many. We are not talking about an accident or self-defense here. As a Christian we should know the difference between right and wrong and the way that we need to go about righting any perceived wrongs. The Marxist view that we are all either “oppressed” or the “oppressor” does not play out in the Bible the way it plays out for some in the Luigi case. 

The reality of sin touches us all. There is no innocent person on this planet. Perhaps, we could say that we have all sinned against others and they have sinned against us. We need to both be forgiven, and we must extend that forgiveness back to those who have hurt us. This of course doesn’t preclude the notion of improving our home, community and the world by fixing broken systems. But, we can’t do it with a “chip on our shoulders,” nor a bullet to the back.

Here’s what it looked like when one of the prophets called on people to repent of their sins. In the 55th Chapter of the prophet Isaiah’s Book, he did not call out companies, races or classes of people to repent, but he called upon individuals to reflect upon their own lives and seek God’s forgiveness immediately. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on you, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”  The whole season of Christmas is a season of hope and we should all take advantage of the free gift of salvation but we have to own up to our own shenanigans and quit making excuses. It’s time to get real while we have that opportunity. No St. Luigi, no, no, no! 

John the Baptist did the same thing as Isaiah did when he called for repentance. Repentance prepares our heart to welcome the Savior that was born on that Christmas Day.* This Christmas season let us commemorate the birth of Jesus by getting real and getting saved by the precious gift that God sent us, Jesus Christ. 

Isaiah 9:6- For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, The everlasting father, The Prince of Peace.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy Hanukkah to all my readers around the world. I always look at my statistics at the end of every year to see where my readers are from.  This year, I am making a list for you so that you can see who else is reading my blog. I listed them by number of readers and going from highest to lowest. The top three countries this year reading my blog are Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel. 

Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel, U.S.A., China, Spain, Germany, Russia, France, Canadian, Malaysia,Australia, U.K., Ireland, Poland, Indonesia, South Korea, India and the Netherlands.

* while we do not know the exact day of Jesus’ birth what we do know is that God thought it important enough to announce it to the shepherds in the field and to guide the three kings to see the newborn babe Jesus. Therefore, commemorating it is a worthwhile thing to do.

Angels vs. Aliens

The Christmas season creates a beautiful landscape in our hurting world. The decorations, the Christmas carols and more. It is a holiday season often given the accolade of being a time of peace and joy. While my house may look like a magical evergreen forest with touch’s of silver and gold everywhere, our world is going through cataclysmic changes. 

Starting with South Korea. What just happened there? Martial law, no martial law, the parliament blocked off and protests. There was talk of North Korean infiltrations and more. Impeachment? No impeachment?This has all left me with an uneasy feeling. Then there is the fall of the al-Assad dictatorship in Syria. That portends huge changes for the region. 

One evening I am reveling to the sounds of a collegiate choir at an annual “Lessons and Carols” event, next morning I am reading of Syrian torture chambers. The conflicts in the Middle East are a lot like the world that Jesus was born and grew up in. The message of “peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Men” central to the Christmas story remains as vibrant now as it ever did. We need this message now as much as the beleaguered Jew did in Jesus’ time. 

The messengers sent by God to give these glad tidings to the shepherds in the fields brought fear into their hearts. However, there was nothing to fear. These messengers told them so. These heavenly visitors were the good guys. They were God’s messengers, the angels, who were sent by him with tidings of comfort and joy. Angels are superior beings loyal to God. What about those visitors to New Jersey? 

I am talking about nightly visitors in the sky throughout the state of New Jersey. As of late, there have even been sightings in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, Wyoming, Maryland, California, Washington State, England, and Germany. Wow, so close to Christmas, how nice that the angels are returning to give us glad tidings once more during Christmastide. Is that it?

Except, unlike the heavenly host visiting Bethlehem in 1 A.D. these host of creatures have not declared and communicated a hopeful message for the future of mankind. Instead, the lack of communication gives quite the opposite impression. People are frightened by the host of unidentified flying objects, or UAP’s as some are calling them now. 

These visitors started just after Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the United States election. Shortly after that event, they loomed ominously over his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. That’s our first clue. Then, the number of nightly sightings increased and seemed to operate over U.S. territory unencumbered. Where were the helicopters, or fighter jets ready to scramble? What of the surface to air missiles that I know we have? Many citizens contacted their local, state and federal officials but nobody seemed to care. The nightly violations continued operating with complete impunity. 

Is this the work of a country with an ax to grind against the United States, is it a coup d’etat by the Biden administration against President-elect Donald Trump? Or, is it an alien invasion? If the United States government press conference is to be believed, there is no problem at all. Nothing to see here. 

If this is an alien invasion then, how are angels and aliens different? Well for starters, the angels were anxious to dispel any fear and to communicate about what was happening. So far, there has been six weeks of skyline sightings with not a word spoken about what is happening. Could aliens be in our midst?  If so, just who are they and what are their intentions? 

People reporting on social media have described and taken videos of drones that are the size of a car invading their neighborhoods. Furthermore, these drones seem to be able to maneuver at great speeds and evade capture by the few intrepid citizens and law enforcement officials who were brave enough to take matters into their own hands. The United States government has allowed this circus to go on for six long weeks and people are mad. This reminds me of the Chinese weather balloons which were allowed to spy all across the United States. This is yet another reason why Donald Trump got elected. Most people realize that one of the prime responsibilities of a government is to keep their citizens safe. People have not felt safe under the Biden administration.

Anyone or anything willing to instill fear and uncertainty among communities like we have been seeing is by definition not an angel, not one of the good guys. Are fallen angels involved? Those are the angels who rebelled against God and are now in active opposition to God and lead by Satan. I think we have to consider that possibility. Fallen angels could easily masquerade as aliens. They seem to pop in and out of view defying the laws of physics. Check,✔️fallen angels have that power. Their leader is even described as the prince of the air. Other characteristics of this drone horde, according to a pilot observing them, are they can go dark and evade detection and they seem to put off no heat like other drones. Spooky considering the basic laws of physics. That all checks the satanic arsenal of weapons alright.

However, why isn’t the United States government doing anything? What do they know? I believe they know what this is, be it fallen angels masquerading as aliens or the testing of new weapons. Satellites can uncover anyone’s license plate from their orbit outside the earth’s atmosphere and you mean to tell me they don’t know what is in the sky above New Jersey? If it is an “alien invasion” the government could be negotiating some sort of deal with them right now and are not ready to announce the results yet. If it is weapons tests then they had a heck of a way of doing that. Is it some sort of a show of strength? The angels had strength but they wielded that strength with integrity. This leads me to conclude that we are not seeing any force for good.

The world seems to be in a state of flux but our God is the same yesterday, today and always. He is holy and righteous. He is our rock and our salvation. No matter what life brings us let us make an affirmation to hold strong to the angelic, the holy and godly things. Let us hold on to the Christmas message delivered by the angels to the shepherds: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.”- Luke 2:10-11.

Excerpt from the Christmas Carol “Angels from the Realm of Glory” by James Montgomery

VERSE 1

Angels from the realms of glory, 

Wing your flight over all the earth;

Ye who sang creation’s story

Now proclaim Messiah’s birth.

Refrain:

Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn King.

VERSE 2

Shepherds, in the field abiding,

Watching over your flocks by night,

God with us is now residing;

Yonder shines the infant light.