USA Today, an official organ of political correctness in North America, recently “celebrated” Mother’s Day with a front page puff piece celebrating the 5oth anniversary of the birth control pill and its progeny, the sexual revolution.  Here is the link to that article.

To be fair to the secular progressives at USA Today, they did try to separate the advent of oral contraceptives from sexual license, but fell short as they described all of the benefits that derived from, in the words of the Magisterium, the separating of the unitive from the procreative.  Here is the link to a prophetic document warning the world of the harms that can arise out of the post-modern lust for sexual license.

Here is the abbreviated take on the USA Today celebration: (more…)

The once doubting Thomas fell to his knees in worship and later was martyred in India for refusing to deny his Risen Lord.

He died to save us and was raised to Rule over us.  Lord and savior cannot be separated.  As Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Only he who believes is obedient and only he who is obedient believes.” 

The Messiah sternly warned us not to deny Him among men.  If we do, He warned, He will deny us before the Heavenly Father.  In other words, we will miss the blessings of Heaven.  (And the alternative is not good … it was said of Judas that it would have been better if he had never been born.) 

Thus what must a Christian say when a government interrogator or “examiner”  (be they Nazi, Soviet, Star Chamber or Hoosier High Court affiliated) puts them under oath and then demands that they respond, with only ”yes?” or “no,” to this question:   

“MY QUESTION’S DIRECT … DO YOU FIRMLY BELIEVE YOU’RE OBLIGATED AS A CHRISTIAN TO PUT OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW ABOVE HUMAN LAW?”

Note that when a government interrogator (or Examiner) demands this of a Christian he (she in my instance) is grabbing the Christian by the metaphysic and forcing them on the horns of a dilemna:  Either deny Christ and suffer damnation as a Judas or affirm Christ and suffer negative consequences in this world.

My choice (Bryan J. Brown’s) in the face of such an (I argue unconstitutional) demand is recorded here.  I could have been more artistic, but that is not my style.  I am honest and blunt by character.   So I just put it out for the Indiana Board of Law Examiner Charlotte Westerhaus to use against me.  And, as she foreplanned it, she did.  To great effect and harm to me, my career, my wife and my five children (all under 13).   

Most Christians would have responded as I did.  Regardless of style, a Christian can reply only one way, and tell any anti-Christian inquisition of only the one thing when so demanded …. see the video at the end of this post for a fine artistic reply. 

Regardless of the art work, the reply must be something along these lines …

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!!!!  Risen to rule over you — Risen to be your King.  Risen to be the King of kings.  Risen to be obeyed over the claims of mere human government.

I merely affirmed this central tenet of our Christian Faith and for that reason was denied a license to be an Indiana attorney and ordered to not even apply again for five years. 

 (Stay tuned to this website for more evidence of blatant religious discrimination by the Supreme Court of Indiana though its agents and assigns.) 

IS THE BELIEF THAT THE CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD REASONABLE? 

Very much so.  Follow this link for last year’s Easter post on that question: http://www.archangelinstitute.org/he-is-risen-indeed/

He did not die for nothing — He died to be your King, King over all other kings.  Are you bowed before Him or standing against Him?

Click here and here  and here to read about your amazing future.  Note it on your calendar — it will happen.

Bow or be broken.  Confess Him as Lord of all — even the Indiana Supreme Court — or be found on the side of the cosmic rebellion on the great Day of the Lord.  Click here

Here is a more artistic reply than mine.

Most say Good Friday is the least happy day of Holy Week.  I disagree.  On Good Friday, as horrible as it was, the disciples yet had hope that legions of angels would intercede and the life of Jesus be spared.  Up and until he sighed his last breath, on that Passover, his followers could hope for a miracle that would reverse the gross injustice of the Messiah’s death.

Saturday is when it all had to set in.  Saturday had to be so very hard.  The first day, they must have thought, for (more…)

As I have written in past posts, my family has been taking in religious films for Lent.  King of Kings was a big hit, even after Mel Gibson’s almost flawless work of art.  King of Kings starts earlier and spends more time developing Judas, among other differences between it and The Passion.

We are finishing up with a more recent movie.  The Messiah: Prophecy Fulfilled (2002) is a bit stiff in the acting (so far) but pretty great on the storyline.  It is a family meal — The Passover meal — in a Jewish home in the Holy Land the year following the Passover in which Jesus was crucified. 

If you have not heard about the fantastic parallels to the Passover and the death of Jesus the Christ then consider buying this movie:    http://www.amazon.com/Messiah-Prophecy-Fulfilled-Nick-Mancuso/dp/B00009W0UV

Or, in the alternative, you could attend Mass tonight.  Here are the readings.  Note that the Old Testament and New Testament meet in the Upper Room.  The “Last Supper” was  the last Passover Seder in the Old Covenant.  In that Upper Room our Lord instituted a brand new program — one in which the Lamb is yet eaten, as before, only that new Lamb is the one identified by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.

That Passover Lamb said this:  ” Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.”  John 6:53

The Catholic Church, like the Orthodox Church, has well preserved the teaching of the Apostles as to the fact that “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”  (Paul the Apostle, I Cor. 5:17)

Are you dining on God’s appointed sacrifice this Pascha (Passover) season?

Fulfilled prophecy should convince anyone who approaches the historical record without guile that Jesus of Nazareth is the  Risen Lord.

Zechariah 11 Fulfilled prophecy should convince anyone who approaches the historical record without guile that Jesus of Nazareth is the  Risen Lord.
(written prior to 250 bc)

10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the LORD.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me (more…)

Listen to Redeemer Radio, AM 1450 in Fort Wayne, at 9 am Saturday mornings for Dr. Matt Bunson’s show Faithworks.  I (Brown) was recently interviewed for 30 minutes by Dr. Bunson — he is a very fine interviewer.    NE Indiana is fortunate to have such a resource and fortunate to have Redeemer Radio and Dr. Bunson both.

Update:  The interview aired January  9 at 9 am.  Redeemer radio can be heard on the Net at this site:  http://www.redeemerradio.com/.

Working on a way to post a link to the interview, stay tuned.

Growing up Baptist I was never much exposed to thinking about Jesus’ mother.  In fact, I once heard a preacher say she was no more special than the colt that carried Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

I am pleased to note that Evangelical Protestantism is working to correct this oversite. 

Click here for Amy Grant’s You Tube causing us to reflect on the Faith and fears of this great woman of God.

The Mother of Jesus.   Think of the ramifications … for they are almost endless.

Here are the lyrics … (more…)

The Synaxarion of the Nativity (handed down as oral tradition through the Orthodox Churches of the East)

On the 25th day of the same month, the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Verses.
God the one born, the Mother too a Virgin:
What greater wonder had creation seen?
Mary the Virgin bore God on the twenty fifth day of December.

God, who loves mankind, seeing the human race under the tyranny of the devil,

took compassion on it, and sending his Archangel Gabriel, he said to the Mother of God:

‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you’.

And at once our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God, was conceived in her immaculate womb. (more…)

The ArchAngel Institute celebrated this special day in all three divisions.

The Raphael Division, with very much help from Mike and Cathy Butler at Diskey Sign, lit up the southern wall of the Institute with nine beautiful classic Christian art representations.  Drive by the Institute after dark to see this fine work of public art that is our response to Pope Benedict XVI’s call here.  More details to follow.  This post shows one of the works of art now gracing the building.

The Gabriel Division communicated our Executive Director’s long climb toward the Indiana bar and thanked so many who have meant so much to us at our first ever banquet tonight.  Terry Clancy and the crew helped us put on a first rate first effort.  Many, many thanks to those who braved the weather to attend — you are special friends, one and all!

The Michael Division entered federal court at 2:00 pm today and filed a lawsuit against the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, Dr. Elizabeth Bowman, Dr. Steven Ross and Chief Judge of the Indiana Supreme Court Randall Shepard seeking to have three laws enjoined for due process reasons and documenting a psychological waterboarding that is alleged to have violated both the federal and state constitutions in many, many ways.

The federal lawsuit brings 27 separate legal claims, most of them sounding in constitutional law.  More on it later.

Tonight we close with these fine quotes from President Harry S. Truman that seem to sum up today’s filing …

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

“When even one American — who has done nothing wrong — is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.”  Harry S. Truman.

THE ARCHANGEL INSTITUTE : BUILDING THE CULTURE OF LIFE ON THE RUINS OF THE CULTURE OF DEATH –  AND NOT WITH OUR MINDS SHUT OR MOUTHS CLOSED!

Why does an eclipse of the sun by the moon work so completely?    Think of an eclipse of the television by your favorite pesky kid …. you can usually see some of the television still, or, if the pesky kid is big, you cannot see the television but there is part of the kid that you see that is not blocking your view of the television.

Yet when the sun is eclipsed by the moon you (in yesterday’s case Asia) see only the corona of the sun, the heavenly body is completely blocked by that pesky moon.

It fits like a key into a lock.

Why?

According to this website, here is the mathmatical  reason:

The Sun happens to be 400 times the Moon’s diameter, and 400 times as far away. That coincidence means the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size when viewed from Earth. A total solar eclipse, in which the Moon is between the Earth and Sun, blocks the bright light from the Sun’s photosphere, allowing us to see the faint glow from the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

Ah, what a coincidence it is.

What are the odds that happened by mere chance?

Is it easiler to believe that a Creator hung the moon in its place?

And that was not the only coincidence in the heavens this week.

Think about this one and imagine the luck needed to have picked this at random.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-112
 
July 20, 1969  USA on the moon
25 years later
July 20, 1994  Comet strikes Jupiter
15 years later
July 20, 2009 A large black cloud appears on Jupiter

Here is what one scientist said (quote from above article) “

“We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event. We couldn’t have planned it better,” said Glenn Orton, a scientist at JPL.  “It could be the impact of a comet, but we don’t know for sure yet,” said Orton. “It’s been a whirlwind of a day, and this on the anniversary of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 and Apollo anniversaries is amazing.”

So the scientists are amazed by the orderliness of the seemingly random events.  That is something that scientists should be quite immune to by now, given that order is found everywhere in the allegedly “by chance” universe.

Back to Jupiter, aka Zeus, the symbol in ancient religions for the King of the Gods, the ultimate authority.  (Hmmm, how did the ancients know Jupiter was the largest planet?)   Something supposedly really did ”strike” Jupiter on July 20.  It must have been something really large  –  The scar on Jupiter’s face is the  size of the Pacific Ocean!

And we did not see it on the way there? 

Is someone asleep at the Hubble?

Or could it be that something is happening on the surface of Jupiter, that there was no strike at all, but instead, perhaps, an eruption from inside of Jupiter?  Just wondering – nothing as serious as the 400 times 400 above  – this is just speculation. 

But if it was a strike, as NASA claims (without explaining how they missed it on the way) that made a scar larger than our moon, then imagine if that blow had hit us, or our moon, or even a near neighbor?

Could really ruin one’s day.  Would your life have meaning if ended by such a ”coincidence?”  Now think a moment — If all  is mere coincidence, then does your life have meaning even before such a strike?  If all is mere chance, does your life have meaning in this moment?

Only the meaning found in random paint splatterings, much like a Jackson Pollack painting.   This is in reality the absence of meaning, and is the spiritual plague that calls itself modernity.  A finite point (you), said the postmodern philosopher Sartre, without an infinite reference point (the Creator) is absurd. 

But I have great news, your life is not absurd!!!

The universe is a mystery — and not mere coincidence and heat death, friends.   It has great meaning.  It has an infinite reference point.

It is designed and operated by a Designer.  Click here for more on that idea.

The same Designer who designed your body and who created your soul.

The same Designer that you will one day, probably not too far into the future, meet face to Face.  How is that for ultimate meaning?

Ready or not?  Click here for musings if not.