“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21 (NIV)
All over the world, people are gathering with family and friends, exchanging gifts, attending church and celebrating Christmas. It is a wonderful day, full of meaning and significance: the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world.
I urge my readers to gather your families around the Christmas tree and read the Christmas story, found primarily in two places in the Bible: the first two chapters in the Gospel of Luke, and Matthew 1:18-chapter 2.
Oftentimes the stress and busyness of this unique day can cause us to lose sight of the true “reason for the season.” And that reason is the gift of God to sinful mankind with the precious birth of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Truly I am, because being in this cult is one scary place to be.
One of my Youtube videos that has received thousands of views is about the false prophecy made by JW’s concerning the 1914 generation. Here it is below:
For anyone who doubts that JW’s are brainwashed, read some of the comments JW’s post and you will soon learn just how deep into denial and deception they actually are. Here is one that I received today from a typical deluded member of this cult:
“The Watchtower never made “false prophecies” because they never actually made “prophecies” to begin with. Those were simply surmisings of what’s already there IN the Bible. This is what apostates and anti-JW cornballs don’t grasp. Jehovah’s witnesses only went by calculations of prophecies ALREADY THERE IN THE BIBLE. (Sighs…) As for the WT article that says “prophet in your midst”, if you read the whole article and points, carefully and honestly, which anti-JW ranters never do, in their hastiness, sloppiness, and bias, you’ll see that that’s “prophet” in the BROAD sense of the word of simply speaking on God’s behalf IN GENERAL. A witness of the Lord, in general. That’s how the word “prophet” can also be referred to or what it can also mean. Not some infallible thing directly from God in the miraculous sense. But from what’s already written, and NOT NEW inventions or revelations or “predictions” that were ever claimed to be divinely inspired. NOT “prophet” in the Deuteronomy sense. Which is always sloppily and stupidly mis-applied onto them, desperately. Jehovah’s witnesses, from the very beginning, NEVER claimed to get “inspiration” in the sense of the actual inspired prophets in the Bible…but always clearly DIS-claimed that. Russell from the beginning said:
“these are not prophecies, but surmisings”
and
“we don’t claim to be perfect or without mistake”.
There is CLARIFICATION OF UNDERSTANDING, among God’s true servants. That’s not the point about Jehovah Himself “not changing”. (Sighs…) The point is that in the past,Jehovah’s witnesses merely offered an interpretation of Biblical prophecy that was already there in the Bible; they did not give actual prophecies of their own. But simply expounded what they believed was stated in the SCRIPTURES already. Not some separate thing. Some of the understandings were of course mis-understandings and inaccurate. So? That doesn’t mean “false prophet” in the Deuteronomy sense, though jackass pagans like to wrongly think that, and mis-apply that onto them. When that has nothing do with it. It’s simply misunderstandings, at the time, in CALCULATIONS in Bible chronology. NOT THE SAME THING. (Though you desperately want it to be….lol)
They said clearly that they were NOT divinely inspired infallible prophets. Very clearly. Only blind wombats and dishonest trolls don’t see it and don’t want to see it.
JWs keep on the watch….and they don’t have “so many false teachings”…but they’re all pure and Biblical. Despite clarifications or mistakes or refinements in understanding. They never claimed (ever) to be infallible or “inspired prophets” in that sense. I don’t have time or patience (I’ve been on this road before with you pagans and apostates and whiners) to educate you…or correct your overblown belly-aching. You’re a drone. And barf up the same sloppy nonsense. JWs said from the get-go (from Russell onwards) that they are NOT infallibly inspired…in the Deuteronomy sense, that you keep idiotically wrongly quoting and mis-applying. You WANT JWs to be a uhhh “false prophet” and harp and whine on dates (exaggerated), because it suits you better. It means you get to celebrate pagan Christmas and violate Verse after Verse (both “Testaments”) and mix in the world’s politics, and avoid the “narrow road”. Roy, you’re such a sad and sorry drone-tard pagan Protestant loser, whose so “part of the world”, and on a demented soap-box with no life. Get a grip, kiddo. Seriously. The world is a mess, and we ARE in the “time of the end”. Would you honestly deny that prophetical and Biblical fact?”
There is so very much wrong with this comment that time forbids giving a thorough answer to even half of what needs to be rebutted. Also, it is hard to take someone seriously who resorts to juvenile name-calling, but thinking people understand that those who resort to such tactics usually do so as a defense mechanism.
This comment perfectly portrays your typical brainwashed JW, and reveals the depth of deception that JW’s have fallen into. It is akin to you and I walking out into a summer day at noon, the sun blazing in a cloudless, blue sky with the temperature being a blistering 105 degrees. As I wipe the sweat from my brow, I say to you, “Gosh, what a hot and sunny day it is today!”
But you turn to me and reply, “What do you mean ‘hot and sunny’? It’s freezing out here, and I wish these dark clouds would disappear so the sun can come out and melt this four feet of snow off the ground and warm me up.”
There is no denying that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society claimed to be a prophet; the evidence is overwhelming. Here is a video offering one small piece of evidence supporting my assertion:
The deluded soul who wrote the above rant is truly a sad case. If this individual honestly believes what he wrote is truth, he finds himself in the unfortunate position of being self-deceived; such a person needs both our pity and prayers.
But there may be a darker side to this poster: he may be fully aware that his comment is a lie, but he is a JW apologist and defender who spends his time seeking to keep other JW’s in the dark by posting known lies and fictions such as this one. There are holocaust deniers who fit into this latter category and these are dangerous individuals. If so, this poster is a deceiver and must be exposed as being one.
As I say to many JW’s: “Thank Jehovah I’m not a JW!”
As tragic and gruesome as these slayings are, they are not unexpected; I am surprised these type of murders are not more commonplace.
For those fathers involved in similar custody battles for their children, the “justice” system they often face in Family Law courtrooms across this nation is anything but. Fathers are routinely stripped of their parental rights, and in the worst cases, these fathers will lose all contact with their children.
Fathers are under a grand delusion who think they are going to get a fair shake when they walk into your typical Family Law courtroom during their divorce. Typically, these men are not there because they either want or choose to be there; most divorce cases are initiated and filed by the wife, so these fathers are playing defense.
It is well-known that women are favored during divorce proceedings and are usually awarded primary custody of the children. There is an unfounded presumption that the mother is the better caregiver and that the “best interests of the children” are realized when the mother has them in her care, custody and control for most of the time.
Though today’s blog is not the time to debate whether or not this basic presumption is accurate, the fact that mothers are given a significant edge in custody disputes can set the stage for this kind of violence.
Clearly, Stone was a psychological basket case to have committed such a heinous crime. His gruesome suicide with the same sword he used to hack up several of his victims only supports this allegation of mental instability.
But something drove this Iraq war veteran, on medication for his mental health issues, over the edge, and though his death forecloses the possibility that the public will know for certain his reasons and motives, it is clear that the years long battle for their children was the main motivation.
The article stated that “Stone and his ex-wife, Nicole, 33, filed for divorce in 2009 and had an ongoing custody battle over their daughters, aged 8 and 5…Stone asked a court on Dec. 5 to grant him emergency custody but was denied.”
These facts are significant. This couple was battling in court for their children for almost five years. The reference to Stone asking for emergency custody on December 5 is also significant, but the fact that he was denied this emergency custody is even more telling.
Why did he feel it was necessary to seek this emergency custody? Did he feel his children were in some kind of danger with his ex-wife or her in-laws? Apparently, this is why he was seeking “emergency custody” because a parent usually does not go into court seeking this unless there is a reason to do so, whether real or imagined.
“In recent months, Nicole Stone had sought treatment for drug abuse, friends and family members said.
When her ex-husband learned of that, he redoubled his efforts to win custody of their daughters, 5-year-old Kayla and 8-year-old Shannon, who spent much of their time living with their mother at her apartment in Harleysville…”
Certainly this could have been a valid reason to seek such an emergency order.
And he was denied. This is perhaps as significant to understanding why he chose to go on this murder spree than anything else. Was this denial just another defeat for him in court that followed many others like it after five years before the same family law judge? Was it the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”?
Was the ex-wife poisoning the children against him? Refusing to allow him to see the children? Interfering with their parenting time? Filling the children’s heads with nonsense and lies about their father? Driving wedges between them? Since the ex-wife’s family were also targeted in this mass killing spree, what part, if any, did they play in this custody dispute?
For anyone who has gone through what is called a “high conflict divorce” where the custody of the children are a reason for much of the litigation, intense emotions are part and parcel of the environment.
Unfortunately for this fractured family, those emotions are now the cause for an unimaginable amount of tragedy. Let’s pray for the innocent children left to deal with losing the people they loved the most and who will have to deal with the horror and trauma of such a tragic event for the rest of their lives.
Spears v. City of Tucson. On September 12, 2014, I filed a “civil rights action” lawsuit against the City of Tucson because myself and Edwin Lo were threatened with arrest for ministering there on September 16, 2013, virtually a full year prior to the filing of the suit.
The City of Tucson, the Tucson Police Dept. (TPD), Planned Parenthood, and Tucson Medical Center (the hospital that allows PP to have this death mill as a tenant in part of their private medical complex) all claimed that the public sidewalk that Edwin and I were ministering on (directly in front of the clinic) were “private” and that we were trespassing. We were ordered to leave or face criminal arrest.
We contacted Nate Kellum of the “Center for Religious Expression,” a Christian law firm based in Memphis, TN that is experienced in first amendment cases. Mr. Kellum expressed particular interest in this case and offered to take it on “pro-bono,” meaning I did not have to come up with the money for the litigation. Praise God!
The interesting part of this case is that this PP is indeed in a private medical plaza. Tucson Medical Center (TMC) is a highly regarded hospital here in Tucson and they own a vast medical complex along with their hospital. They own and maintain all the grounds: the streets, sidewalks, buildings, etc. The City of Tucson does no maintenance for TMC in this medical complex where PP carries out their gruesome business.
For years and years, Christians have gone to this particular PP clinic on a sporadic basis and sought to minister there, and from what I understand, each time the private security firm hired by TMC to patrol the grounds ordered all of us off the grounds, using the same legal basis that the area was private.
But on September 16, 2013, I decided to make a stand and refused to leave when ordered by the private security company, believing that we had every right to be on the public sidewalk, regardless of any claim of these sidewalks being “private.”
The police were called and the TPD officer, after consulting with his superiors and the private security firm, confirmed that we were on private property and ordered us to leave or face criminal arrest. I respectfully disagreed with him and explained that, on the contrary, we were not trespassing and had every right to minister on that sidewalk.
He wasn’t in the mood to discuss this and ordered us off the property or get arrested, forbidding us to return on the property again unless we needed medical services. Wisely, we left before the handcuffs went on.
My attorney, Nate Kellum, did an excellent job in researching this issue and discovered that, yes, this was indeed private property, but here is the interesting twist: the sidewalks that make up this private medical complex were indistinguishable from any other public sidewalks in Tucson, and nothing about them would make anybody using them think they were anything but regular, public sidewalks. There were no signs around the medical complex alerting people coming onto the property that they entering private property.
As a matter of fact, many people use the roads in this complex as a shortcut and do not use the medical facilities. Pedestrians, joggers, bicyclists, and dog walkers use the roads and sidewalks to go about their business and many are not patients of the medical service providers.
After much research, it was finally determined and confirmed by TMC that yes, these sidewalks were “within the public right of way” and now, I would no longer face arrest for trespassing if I desired to engage in conduct protected by the First Amendment. This was provided in a letter dated December 5, 2014 from the City of Tucson, of which I did not receive until today.
What does this mean? Christians can now freely go to this notorious death mill and “speak for those who cannot speak for themselves” in the hope that some abortion minded moms will choose life instead of death for their unborn, defenseless and innocent pre-born sons and daughters.
For years and years and years, Christians have been bullied and lied to by these people and, threatened with arrest, have avoided ministering at this clinic. Backed by law enforcement and the “big guns” of the City of Tucson’s legal department and well-paid attorneys, these babies have been butchered without anyone to speak up in their defense. Hopefully, this will now begin to change.
I want to encourage everyone to pray that a regular and consistent pro-life outreach will now begin to take root in front of this PP clinic. Please spread the word about this astonishing victory in Tucson, and let’s not waste this opportunity. Truly, to God be the glory!
The clinic name and address is:
Margaret Sanger Health Center
2255 N. Wyatt Dr.
Tucson, AZ 85712
520-408-7526
In my last post, I wrote about the dangers of religious hypocrites and how easily highly religious people can be deceived into thinking they are close to God when, in truth, they might be as far from Him as the devil.
I mentioned a prayer that I often pray, knowing that I am in danger of religious hypocrisy myself: “Lord, where am I deceived at this moment in my faith?”
If you believe yourself to be a Christian, let me ask you whether or not you have ever prayed a similar prayer? Hopefully, you are enough of a developed soul to understand that you, a zealous, bible believing, Scripture quoting, moral minded man or woman, can be as deceived as the Devil.
I speak the truth. And if you are one of those unfortunate believers in God that have deceived yourselves to such an extent that you believe yourself immune to deception because of your strong faith and close walk with the Lord, then you are a person utterly deceived in some place in your faith.
Strongly held beliefs are a two-edged sword. On one hand, such rock solid beliefs are necessary to stand the innumerable times of testings that come to each believer. But on the other hand, strong and rigid beliefs can blind us to truth that we may never consider.
At one time in my Christian walk, and in particular in my early to mid twenties, I was what some might describe as an “on fire Christian.” I devoured the Bible, reading and studying it for hours during the day. I prayed, fasted and regularly attended an evangelical, mainline southern Baptist church.
If you and I were talking and you brought up a verse in the Bible, I could finish it before you finished the quote and probably give you the exact book, chapter and verse you were referring to.
I was zealous for sharing this faith to anybody that would listen. I started and led a large Bible study with many young people my age, even leading worship in this group. It was a glorious time of my life and, even today, decades later, I look back upon these times with fondness and am grateful to the Lord for Him allowing me the experience.
Was my faith perfect? No; I had my struggles, but I believe, with all that is in my heart, that my faith was genuine and sincere; I had a true, living relationship with Jesus.
Back then, I did not think I was deceived or capable of it. I felt that my evangelical faith was based on sound biblical principles and was never guilty of straying into any bizarre unorthodoxy, like handling live, poisonous snakes and believing if they bit me that I would not die.
In my thirties, I began to seriously question some of my strongly held and cherished beliefs. These doubts increased in my forties and it was around this time that I began to first pray that prayer about being deceived.
And it was this Scripture that I believe the Lord used to open up my eyes that there was some areas in this strong faith that needed some reflection and serious adjustment:
“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'” (Matthew 9:139(a) NASB)
Highly religious people who posses strong faith can be particularly susceptible to the sin of pride; we can, astonishingly, be proud of our great faith in the Lord, as paradoxical as this seems. Strong faith can lead people who posses that faith to have hard hearts and be harsh towards others who they perceive as weak in the faith. Mercy is often lacking in such people.
This lack of mercy extends to our belief in the character of God, and now I will get to the crux of this post: I began to seriously doubt my long held belief in the concept of an eternal, never ending, burning hell that most people get tossed into when they die and from which they never have a chance to escape.
Please let me pause here and point out that I realize the significance of what I just wrote. I am questioning one of the foundational doctrinal beliefs of evangelical Christianity and reexamining a strongly held belief that I adhered to and believed in unquestionably for decades of my faith.
My doubt of the typical belief in hell will brand me as a heretic to the vast majority of evangelical Christianity in America and throughout the Western world.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Jesus, Matthew 23:27-28
Jesus reserved His harshest condemnations for religious hypocrites. Not for prostitutes and tax collectors, but people who quoted the Bible and walked around praying all day, peppering their daily conversations with “Praise the Lord!”
For me, this has been the source of never ending fascination. I could write a myriad of blogs on just this topic because faith plays such a huge part in my life. And I have to ask myself a tough question: am I a religious hypocrite?
The reason I have to ask myself this question is because I have learned something: people who are very zealous for God are often some of the biggest hypocrites in existence. There is nobody so blind or harmful as a Pharisee, a person walking around who carries the Bible and quotes memorized Scripture as easily as they breathe.
The Pharisees in Jesus’ day were the men who stood above the masses when it came to religious duty and adherence. They were esteemed as being pillars in the community for their community service and generous tithing to the Temple. When they prayed, you could feel their intensity and no doubt hear them from a long way away as they shouted out their praises and petitions.
But make no doubt about this fact: they were men of cruelty, and while it is possible they loved animals and treated their own livestock with care, they despised people, especially “sinners.”
For these men, it was the letter of the law and not its spirit that was all important. If it was the Sabbath, and a desperately ill man needed to be carried in the arms of his friend to the doctor for lifesaving treatment, well, this could not be done. After all, the Pharisee reasoned, the Bible forbids working on the Sabbath, and certainly one man carrying another fits this obvious prohibition.
In these men’s minds, you can seek treatment for your illness on any day but the Sabbath, especially if you have to be carried in the arms of your friend. Tough luck if you’re dying on the holy day. Suck it up and wait until the next day, then you can seek your healing. And if you die waiting, well, praise the Lord! You obeyed His commandments and you will receive your reward in heaven for being faithful and obedient.
If you think I’m out in left field on this, read Mark 3:1-6 and you will see what I mean. This story is so incredible that it almost seems unbelievable. How could these Pharisees, in verse two and identified in verse 6, actually be so hard-hearted toward this poor man with the withered hand that they would not want him to be healed on the Sabbath?
These Pharisees did not want this man to be healed on the Sabbath and reacted so cruelly due to their “hardness of heart” (verse 5).
Those of us who truly believe we are Christians, particularly if we are unusually zealous for the faith, face dangers of falling into the same trap as these Pharisees. There seems to be nothing more deceiving than this tendency for super religious and devout people to be guilty of hard heartedness.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are picture perfect examples of modern day Pharisees. One only has to look no farther than their evil and cruel doctrine of “shunning” than to verify the truth of my statement.
“Shunning,” in case you are not familiar with this, is when a JW, at one time a faithful member, suddenly finds themselves at odds with something in the organization. Perhaps this JW is seriously questioning some teaching of the organization, like the ban on blood transfusions, and can no longer support it, believing it to be a man made doctrine and not something supported by the Bible.
If this is brought to the attention of the elders and found to be true, and this particular JW is then asked to repent and cease from going against the teachings of the Governing Body on this issue, he has only two choices: repent or be disfellowshipped.
If they abide by the convictions of their conscience and stick to their belief, they will be kicked out of the organization and the other members must, and will, “shun” them. They will become invisible to the other faithful members and be treated as if they no longer exist. No friendly “Good mornings!” if they are met in the grocery store, no speaking to this disfellowshipped member as they walk down their neighborhood streets, etc.
And this even applies to parents. In other words, a mother or father would also be shunned in this cruel, perverse and unbiblical manner by a son or daughter. Such is the awesome power of the Pharasaic spirit that rules the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, blinding all of their members to such wicked and evil behavior, even toward parents; all because that mother or father simply chose to exercise their conscience in a minor biblical matter.
If there is one prayer I pray as frequently as any other, it is, “Lord, where am I deceived at this moment in my faith?” I must understand that I, too, can be deceived at any part of my faith, even over strongly held and cherished beliefs that I have held over a lifetime.
I will discuss one such strongly held belief in the next post.
The JW was arrested and I gave my SD card to the police as evidence. That case has now been resolved and, just last week (on or around 11-27-2014), the SD card was finally returned to me after well over a year in the possession of law enforcement.
The video should be up and running on Youtube shortly. Today’s post will give some background on what happened that fateful day.
I have been doing outreaches at JW summer conventions for over 20 years. In Tucson, AZ, they are held each summer at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC). At lunch time, many of the thousands of JW’s that attend each convention leave the TCC arena hall and have something to eat. They will sit or walk by a certain area by the hundreds on the grounds of the TCC.
In this particular area, I will place gospel tracts and, more recently, pair the tracts with a DVD titled, “Witnesses of Jehovah.” I place these in areas where I know the JW’s will be sitting and having their lunches. It is astonishing how many of these tracts and DVD’s the Witnesses will pick up and carry away. Since they will never accept any literature from me if I simply offer it to them, I have found this strategy to work amazingly well.
I was placing these resources on the grounds at the TCC when the incident happened with the JW who went berserk on me. Understand that what I was doing is perfectly legal: the TCC is taxpayer owned property and I, as a taxpayer whose taxes help maintain this public facility, have every right to be on the grounds and exercise my first amendment rights.
Engrossed in my task at hand, this JW, Gene Veal from the Phoenix, AZ area, was walking his dog. Evidently seeing what I was doing, he became upset. If my memory serves me correctly, it was he who first initiated contact with me; I was busily engaged in placing the packets of information and had only a certain amount of time before the Witnesses would break for lunch. You can see the packets I had in my right hand in the video.
The video tells the rest of the story. As an amateur video-maker, editing videos for Youtube is always a challenge: I like to keep my videos under five minutes in length, and to do this you must be selective in the clips you use. There is much more video on this interaction that what is shown but again, brevity is important.
I immediately called the police, but it was over an hour before they showed up. I explained to one of the officers that arrived that I had video of the entire altercation and he suggested I give it to him right then and there. I did not want to do this because I wanted to make a copy of the video, knowing full well that I might never get this priceless footage returned to me. I would then provide a copy to the police.
The officer explained that this would not be a good idea because of the possibility I might selectively edit the video before giving the SD card to them. The lawyers handling this case might then argue that I doctored the video and it would lose its value as evidence. Reluctantly, I agreed and turned over the card.
After about an hour of the police, myself, and the JW’s going back and forth in our explanations of what happened, I was told by the police that both of us were to be arrested. I was dumbstruck. Me, arrested? Whatever for?
As usual, the JW’s lied and made up some phony story that I was the aggressor. Was I surprised by their lying behavior? Certainly not. I have dealt with JW’s for over three decades and I have learned at least three things about this group: they are blatant liars, hypocrites and many of them are prone to violence.
Ours was a “field arrest.” Nobody went to jail (I was disappointed by this because I thought nothing would be better for Gene if he spent a night or two behind bars); we were cited and released.
I knew my trumped up charge would never stand; I have decades of experience in free speech and knew I did nothing illegal. As I expected, my case was quickly dismissed and all charges against me were dropped. Gene Veal, though, was not so fortunate, and my video evidence would be the nail in his coffin.
The case never made it to trial; because Gene did not have a prior police record, he was able to go into a “diversion program” where he had to do perform some community service, pay a fine, and the charge would not go on his record.
I did not want this but felt strongly that he needed to have this assault on his record. What would happen the next time he went ballistic on the next Christian he might meet at a subsequent convention? The guy is obviously a ticking time bomb. An assault charge on his record might cause him to think twice before he pulled this violence on someone else because being convicted of a second offense would probably land him in the slammer for a long vacation.
Gene hired an attorney to represent him. For the pretrial conferences, Gene had to drive down from the Phoenix area on at least two different times, maybe three or more.
At one of these pretrial conferences, inside a packed courtroom in Tucson, I inadvertently sat next to Gene, not more than a couple of feet from him. After a few minutes, I recognized him and said something (what, I can’t remember; it was over a year ago). He flared up in anger again, and I think I laughed. The guy is hopeless, a walking time bomb waiting to explode.
Fortunately for Gene, I was on a two and a half month preaching outreach in California when his trial finally came up, so I was not able to be there. Because of my absence, the district attorney and Gene’s attorney cut the deal I described above, against my wishes. Had I been there, I’m not certain if it would have altered their final agreement in any way, but as the victim, I had some say in the matter.
The problem for Gene getting a conviction was the lack of an injury on my part. I guess for an assault to be taken seriously by the court system, they need to see your blood flow or broken bones. Since I wasn’t hurt, and Gene didn’t have a prior arrest record, they went easy on him. He got lucky.
But the man is unrepentant. He never apologized to me, showing further proof that he is just another JW thug. These people are a dime a dozen in this false, hypocritical religious sham and I have decades of experience in dealing with their nonsense.