What do you think of Donald Trump being the president? It’s an execrable thing. He is the worst we have ever had, by far. The man has no morals; he is wholly dedicated only to the god Trump. Nothing concerns him except what he believes will be beneficial to him.

Do you think it’s accurate how people say he reminds America of Hitler? Yes…and no. Dan Hodges wrote an excellent article in the New Statesman in an attempt to address the conservative canard that Hitler was a socialist. His conclusion is that this is a way of thinking that is too easy and lazy, and ignores the reality. You can read the article for his reasons, but what stuck with me is what it was he said about Hitler that does remind me of Trump:

“Anyone who has studied Hitler’s rise to power knows he was no socialist. He was an opportunist, even a political schizophrenic…Pin the ideology on the Führer is a fun game. Actually, it’s quite a tasteless game. But we can all play it…But does it matter? Yes, it does, actually. Hitler wasn’t a socialist, nor was he a conservative. He was a political mutation. And to try to place him anywhere on the conventional political spectrum is not just to abuse history but to play a dangerous game with the future.”

“(Don’t ever call Hitler a socialist)

I was stunned! All you need to do is substitute “Trump” for Hitler and you get exactly the same truth:

“Anyone who has studied Trump’s rise to power knows he is no socialist (Democrat). He is an opportunist, even a political schizophrenic…Pin the ideology on the Trump is a fun game. Actually, it’s quite a tasteless game. But we can all play it…But does it matter? Yes, it does, actually. Trump isn’t a socialist (Democrat), nor is he a conservative (Republican). He is a political mutation. And to try to place him anywhere on the conventional political spectrum is not just to abuse history but to play a dangerous game with the future.”

All that said, Trump does exhibit fascistic affinities: “Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and control of industry and commerce.” (Fascism – Wikipedia)

(1) Authoritarian nationalism: He has declared himself to be the only person who can save America and one of his campaign slogans is borrowed straight from the American Nazi sympathizers pre-WW II: “America First!”

(2) Dictatorial power: He has demonstrated an extreme dislike, even hatred, for the limitations the Constitution places on the powers of the presidency. He despises the courts, unless they rule the ways he wants, and hates even a Congress which is run by his own party for not rubber-stamping his every whim and fancy.

(3) Forcible suppression of opposition: He is actively searching for ways to circumvent or stop a legitimate investigation into criminal behavior by members of his administration and hopes to control the free press, to punish them for exposing damaging truths about him and his administrations.

(4) Control of industry and commerce? He exhibits less of this tendency specifically, but so far, industry and commerce are all in bed with him, so there is little reason for him to complain.

Hodges finishes off with a warning. Note that the article was written in 2013, before anyone thought Trump would run for office:

“Hitler has gone but his progeny are very much alive. In Hungary, they are calling for a register of Jews to be drawn up. One, a mass murderer, is languishing in a Norwegian jail. A few are pushing their leaflets through the front doors on east London housing estates.

“There is one thing political extremists crave more than anything else and that is entry to the mainstream – and by branding such people ‘socialists’ or ‘conservatives’ we unlatch the door and pull back the bolt.

“Hitler was Hitler, a grotesque one-off. Or he will be, if we avoid bestowing unnecessary respectability on those who dream of following him.” (ibid.)

According to Paul, the dead in Christ will rise first, then those of us who are alive will be caught up. “According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15–17) Looks to me like it will be all at once.

Extra credit:

If you compare texts, Jesus says in Matthew 24:4–29 that God’s people will face terrible tribulation until, in vss 30–31, “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Then, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” In chapter 1, verse 10, we read, “and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” Finally, in Revelation 11:15, the seventh trumpet is sounded:

“The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has become

the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,

and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Note what one of the things the 24 elders proclaim in vs 18:

“The nations were angry,

and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your people who revere your name,

both great and small—

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

The next few chapters are “asides”, like cul de sacs. The seventh trumpet actually announces the seven angels with the seven last plagues in chapter 15—“last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.” (vs 1) Indeed, the seven last plagues are the the Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath.

What does this tell us?

1. There will be a period of tribulation for God’s people (Matthew 24:4–29)
2. This will not be God’s “wrath”, for we are told in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that we will escape God’s wrath. His wrath is reserved for those who ultimately reject him even after absolute proof of his existence is presented and “for destroying those who destroy the earth.” (Revelation 11:18)
3. The trumpet of God will sound (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 11:15).
4. The dead in Christ will rise.
5. Those Christians left alive will rise.
6. Finally, God’s wrath will be unloosed on all who remain.
7. Armageddon
8. The final fall of “Babylon the Great”.
9. The “Beast” is defeated.
10. Christ’s thousand year reign.
11. Judgement of Satan
12. Judgment of the dead
13. New heaven and new earth
14. New Jerusalem
15. The marriage feast: Christ and his Bride, a pure and holy, spotless Church!
16. Eden restored!

Because what he did was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Christianity, besides, calling oneself a duck does not make one a duck; it makes one nuts.

“One day an evangelist by the name of Jakov arrived in a certain village. He commiserated with an elderly man named Cimmerman on the tragedies he had experienced and talked to him of the love of Christ. Cimmerman abruptly interrupted Jakov and told him that he wished to have nothing to do with Christianity. He reminded Jakov of the dreadful history of the church in his town, a history replete with plundering, exploiting, and indeed with killing innocent people. “My own nephew was killed by them,” he said and angrily rebuffed any effort on Jakov’s part to talk about Christ. ‘They wear those elaborate coats and caps and crosses,’ he said, ‘signifying a heavenly commission, but their evil designs and lives I cannot ignore.’

“Jakov, looking for an occasion to get Cimmerman to change his line of thinking, said, ‘Cimmerman, can I ask you a question? Suppose I were to steal your coat, put it on, and break into a bank. Suppose further that the police sighted me running in the distance but could not catch up with me. One clue, however, put them onto your track; they recognized your coat. What would you say to them if they came to your house and accused you of breaking into the bank?’

“ ‘I would deny it,’ said Cimmerman.

“‘ “Ah, but we saw your coat,” they would say,’ retorted Jakov. This analogy quite annoyed Cimmerman, who ordered Jakov to leave his home.

“Jakov continued to return to the village periodically just to befriend Cimmerman, encourage him, and share the love of Christ, with him. Finally one day Cimmerman asked, ‘How does one become a Christian?’ and Jakov taught him the simple steps of repentance for sin and of trust in the work of Jesus Christ and gently pointed him to the Shepherd of his soul. Cimmerman bent his knee on the soil with his head bowed and surrendered his life to Christ. As he rose to his feet, wiping his tears, he embraced Jakov and said, ‘Thank you for being in my life.’ And then he pointed to the heavens and whispered, ‘You wear His coat very well.’” (You Wear His Coat Very Well)

You see, we Christians are too familiar with liars and false prophets. We’ve been warned about them from the beginning: “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:15–20)

What kind of “fruit” did Hitler bear? Was it good fruit? Was it love? Joy? Peace? Patience, kindness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? These are the fruit Christians will bear; furthermore, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24) Does Hitler sound like the kind of man who crucified his flesh with its passions and desires?

Later on, Paul warned us: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Timothy 3:2–5) See the part I emphasized? These people, whether they turned out to be Crusaders, Inquisitors, Popes…Nazis…all had “a form” or an appearance of godliness; they talked a bit of the talk but walked none of the walk.

Doing evil “in the name of Christianity” is a logical absurdity! It would be like saying “I’m going to chow down on this suckling pig and chase it with a bottle of scotch in the name of Islam!” Or someone who believes in God calling themselves an atheist!

“That dog won’t hunt”, my friend!

Anybody who has not been aware of the depths of depravity in Hollywood since forever has been in a coma, so stop with this “now that the curtain has been pulled back” bit. How about “Now that the curtain has been pulled back, and the depths of depravity revealed in Washington, will there be any consequences for all politicians? Aren’t political campaigns & endorsements forever tainted by the broken & abused who were forever scarred?” Right now, we have a Republican sexual predator campaigning for another Republican sexual predator (who preyed on minors), and “the base” is just fine, because “judges and all that, you know?”

Guess what?

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

(Romans 3:10–18)

We want to divide the world into us and them: Our group is the good guys; theirs is the bad. The Democrats are of Satan; Republicans are the party of God; Democrats are weak, don’t care about the unborn, want to give money to lazy people and welfare queens; Republicans are cruel, don’t give a damn about the “lucky to be born”, favor the wealthy, will allow the sick to die and the poor to starve…blah, blah, blah…

Vomit!

Not Nazi Germany; the Soviet Union Gulag

When he was rotting in the Gulag, the Soviet Union concentration camps, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn came to know Jesus Christ. It was there that he realized something deeply profound:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them…It was only when I lay there on the rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not between states nor between social classes nor between political parties, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts…And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? And that is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say, sometimes to the astonishment of those about me, bless you, prison, for having been a part of my life.**

* This excerpt is from “The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

**I have taken the liberty of combining two nearly identical quotes.

Basically, it appears that he is saying that Christians, those who accept “the authority of scripture”, must accept what scripture says about the death penalty rather than what culture says. If he also means Jews, who accept the authority of the Old Testament, the answer would be a simple, “Yup!”

BUT…if he means Christians, it’s not that cut and dried:

MURDER

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,a and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’* is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’** will be in danger of the fire of hell.” (Matthew 5:21–22)

ADULTERY

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” (5:27–32) (1)

Finally, he said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” (5:38–39) Preachers will say, but since he didn’t specifically include “life for life” here, he didn’t mean that. Well, he also didn’t include “hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

So, we have two capital crimes mentioned just in Matthew 5, and Jesus basically says we are all guilty of both. Who wants to be the first to volunteer to be stoned? Plus, we are not to return evil with evil; if we are not to even resist the man who slaps us, how are we to deal with the criminal?

For good or ill, we DO live in a country that has an alternative to the death penalty: life or life without parole. Both allow one thing the death penalty does not: the possibility of correction for human error. So if the person quoted was arguing for the death penalty as being the only “Christian” alternative to capital crimes, I would have to at least offer that it is not so absolute.

One last word. Anyone who claims the Bible mandates death for murder must also mandate death for adultery, homosexual acts, idolatry, blaspheming God, rebellion against parents, cursing parents, working on the Sabbath, practicing witchcraft, kidnapping…I think the population of the US would decrease by several million if we were to get Biblical on crime! (2)

*Of Chaldee origin (compare reyq); O empty one, i.e. Thou worthless (as a term of utter vilification) — Raca. (4469. ῥακά (rhaka) — empty (an expression of contempt))

**moros. Sound familiar? Ever call someone a “moron”? Eeek! We’re all going to hell! (Jk!)

Regardless, however, of what scripture says—and I definitely accept the authority of scripture, as is obvious, I would submit, as I have often, that since we—humans—are terribly imperfect, despite our intelligence and awesome forensic science, the only way to be absolutely certain that no innocent person is ever killed by mistake is by abolishing the death penalty. Blackstone’s formula states: “For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer”, a sentiment shared by Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. I would further submit that it is better for ten-thousand persons to be confined to prison for life than for one innocent person to be killed.

(1) Interestingly, the context of this verse isn’t about “murder”, it’s about injury if there is a fight and a pregnant woman either has a miscarriage or gives birth prematurely: “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” (Exodus 21:22–25)

(2) I am not arguing here for or against pacifism. I am not saying these things are no longer sin; I am saying that not every sin should be criminal, and that no sin/crime must be punishable by death.

I cannot help but at least nod occasionally to the Christian God, because he has attributes that no other “god” has, but I will try to keep my arguments as non-sectarian as possible.

1. Existence exists. Either the universe had a beginning, or it has always existed. If it had a beginning, there would have been a first cause. Either the first cause was ex nihilo, “There was nothing, then there was something”, that’s all we need to accept; or something or someone brought the universe into existence. I submit that the first cause was the act of creation by a God who exists (“I AM”), but who by nature exists outside ALL of the confines of his creation, including the demands from his creation for “proof”*. If you cannot understand that the creation declares the existence of a Creator NO AMOUNT OF “OBJECTIVE” TRUTH WILL SUFFICE to prove the existence of God. If the universe is infinite, the Law of Entropy surely would mean that we would be in a state of infinite heat death. Time would be irrelevant; it would not exist. We could not say, “we would be in a state of infinite heat death by now because “now” would be meaningless. Imagine an infinite number of red books, and an infinite number of blue books; now, completely destroy one of the red books (I’m not arguing that anything can or cannot be completely destroyed…annihilated, so don’t go there!). Are there now more blue books than red books? Does the sentence ∞ > ∞-1 make sense? Yes. It makes grammatical sense, but does it really mean anything? Not really.
2. The moral argument. Let me say right away that I do not argue that atheists cannot be moral people. I would never say they do not know right from wrong. In a limited way, God has written morality on each person’s heart. What I will argue is the atheists have no foundation for their morality that is not the philosophical equivalent of quicksand. They cannot justify morality. If there is no objective measurement of evil, then it becomes merely an opinion; actions become “bad” based on feeling, either emotional or physical. It has been claimed that Nietzsche’s path to insanity (apart, perhaps from his syphilis), began when he saw a man beating a horse. “…While in an open air market in Turin, Nietzsche witnessed a merchant flogging a horse. He ran to the animal and yelled for the beating to stop. He threw himself between beast and whip, and hugged the equine’s thick neck. This frail and sickly philosopher who gave us the Übermensch and slave morality, then collapsed, weeping.”(1) How odd that the man whose philosophy would bring the death of tens, even hundreds of millions of human beings and who decried the “soft” morals of Christianity, holding high the “hard” morals of the superman, would “lose it” just by seeing a horse beaten. Was not the beater of the horse simply exercising his own Übermensch morality? Indeed, who is to say that those who consider killing animals, especially for sport or food, “murder” are wrong? Further, who really cares? It’s all a matter of opinion. Consider this exchange between Richard Dawkins and Justin Brierley:

JB: When you make a value judgement don’t you immediately step yourself outside of this evolutionary process and say that the reason this is good is that it’s good. And you don’t have any way to stand on that statement.
RD: My value judgement itself could come from my evolutionary past.
JB: So therefore it’s just as random in a sense as any product of evolution.
RD: You could say that, it doesn’t in any case, nothing about it makes it more probable that there is anything supernatural.
JB: Ultimately, your belief that rape is wrong is as arbitrary as the fact that we’ve evolved five fingers rather than six.
RD: You could say that, yeah.(2)

There are plenty of other arguments for the existence of God. There are certainly a number of excellent apologists out there who do an excellent job offering a defense for the existence of God. What they will ALL say is, in the, end, the fundamental problem is spiritual, not physical, scientific, logical, rational, reasonable, etc., even though all of these were given to us by God as road maps, guides…tools, so to speak. I would submit that even if we do not always call him God, every one of us at some point in our lives accepts that he exists, but our will steps in the way. Our desires become greater than his. We become angry with him over injustices or cruelties or great evils, but never pause to think, “How did I know those things were evil in the first place?” We know what injustice looks like because we know what justice looks like; we know what cruelty looks like because we know what kindness and mercy look like; we know what evil looks like because we know what good looks like. But again, if there is no objective standard of these things outside of our own feelings and desires, then they are too easily whittled down into mere subjective opinions.

“In one of her letters, Helen (Keller) told Bishop Brooks that she had always known about God, even before she had any words. Even before she could call God anything, she knew God was there. She didn’t know what it was. God had no name for her — nothing had a name for her. She had no concept of a name. But in her darkness and isolation, she knew she was not alone. Someone was with her. She felt God’s love. And when she received the gift of language and heard about God, she said she already knew.” Phillips Brooks and Helen Keller

I am often asked, “If objective proof could be presented that God did not exist, would you become an atheist?” I won’t answer that here; I’ve answered it elsewhere and I’ve Gish-galloped enough, I think! But I would like to ask this question of the atheist: “If objective proof could be presented that Christianity were true, would you follow Jesus?”

*People will claim theists are arguing for “special pleading”: “Applying standards, principles, and/or rules to other people or circumstances, while making oneself or certain circumstances exempt from the same critical criteria, without providing adequate justification.”(3) We absolutely are. What, then, is the justification? Over and over again, throughout the Bible, we are informed that God is absolutely sui generis: “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5); “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?” (Isaiah 23:19); “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9) None of this was established in “modern” times as a neat little philosophical trick to sidestep “enlightened” man’s desires for “scientific evidence” or “objective proof”; these writings are thousands of years old, accepted by people who were not always initially receptive to their message. The point is, IF there is a God, he is, again, BY NATUREabove, outside, beyond, entirely other than everything in his creation. Compare the Mycoplasma genitalium (which “has one of the smallest genomes of any free-living organism in the world, clocking in at a mere 525 genes [4]) with Homo sapiens, with approx. 21,000 genes. As immeasurably different as the two are, their differences pale in comparison to the differences between Creator God and everything else in his universe. Indeed, we have more in common with the singularity at the center of the black hole, J1342+0928, 13 billion light-years away than we do with God.

(1) Hugging the Horse’s Head

(2) The John Lennox – Richard Dawkins Debate

(3) https://www.logicallyfallacious….

(4) To Model the Simplest Microbe in the World, You Need 128 Computers

I just beat one of my cats for no reason, I couldn’t help it. Does this mean I am an atheist?

The problem is that “believers” is nearly meaningless. “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” (James 2:19) “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” (John 2:23-25)

God requires: belief (acknowledgement, agreement that Jesus Christ is Lord of All); confession (admitting our sins to God and agreeing with God that they are wrong); repentance (turning away from our sins; the word means to “change one’s mind”: “I was going in one direction, but I changed my mind and went in the other direction”); and obedience:

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8–9)

“When the people heard this (the preaching of the gospel), they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” (Acts 2:37–38); “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.” (Acts 3:19–20)

“And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” (John 3:36); “If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15); “Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.’” (John 14:23); “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” (1 John 1:6)

It’s all or nothing; 100% or 0%. There can be no fence straddling, no waffling, no vacillating.

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

“These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit* you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” (Revelation 3:14–18)

*the Greek word is ἐμέω, emeō. Same root as “emesis’, to vomit.

How could he be in existence before Abraham?

How could he walk on water?

How could he raise the dead?

How can a camel fit through the eye of a needle?

How can a virgin give birth?

How can a person transform from a dead person into a living child of God?

Here’s the problem (all emphases are mine):

“There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might.” Jeremiah 10:6

“O LORD, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” I Chronicles 17:20

“There is no one like You among the gods, O Lord, Nor are there any works like Yours.” Psalm 86:8

“Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me…” Isaiah 46:9

“To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?” Isaiah 40:18

“ ‘To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:25–26

“Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know Him;
The number of His years is unsearchable.” Job 36:26

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. (Ps. 145:3)

“Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand? (Job 26:14)

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:8–9)

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” (Rom. 11:33–34; cf. Job 42:1–6; Ps. 139:6, 17–18; 147:5; Isa. 57:15; 1 Cor. 2:10–11; 1 Tim. 6:13–16)” (How God Is Both Incomprehensible and Knowable at the Same Time)

God has made us incredibly intelligent beings; but there are limits to our knowledge, and this frustrates us. We are constantly told that Science will eventually discover the answers to everything, but the more we discover, the more we realize we don’t have a clue! From Aristotle: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know” to Einstein: “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know” to contemporary scientists: “As Jennifer Doudna at U C Berkeley puts it in Erika Check Hayden’s Nature article about the tenth anniversary of the first draft of the human genome sequence: ‘The more we know, the more we realize there is to know.’” (She phrases it a bit more “optimistically”!) Science can better answer the “what”; it has a hard time with the “why”.

The above scriptures inform us of our limitations; furthermore, they inform us that we will ALWAYS have these limitations! At the age of 57, I have asked these same questions over and over again. At times, I have accepted analogies, but all of these eventually fail. Why? Because what the scriptures say, very plainly, very simply…but maddeningly to us…there is no analogy to GOD. There are attributes of God (light, a rock, a fortress, shield, etc.), but no analogies. We are finite beings, trapped by time and entropy, trying to comprehend an infinite Being unbound by time Who is, in a way, a working, spiritual perpetual motion machine.

All of this goes to the heart of your question, which is really about the Trinity. Far from not being taught in scripture, it is exceedingly CLEAR. Every single doubter or denier plays the “what about” game, and every single one of them end up having to deny or distort or totally ignore perfectly clear scriptures. Why? Because they cannot accept a fundamental truth about themselves: the limitations of their “human” reasoning. Very wisely, the Talmud says, “Teach your tongue to say, ‘I do not know’.” This is the foundational problem with every cult that has denied the Trinity; their founders were humans who refused to accept the very nature of God as it is declared in scripture, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:18–23)

As Ravi says below, I may not comprehend it, but I can apprehend it.

He made the promise during his campaign to whip up his base and probably to shove it in the nose of Muslims. He is a very childish player who cannot seem to comprehend the consequences of his actions. There are reasons that, even though the US has “supported” Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and a couple of presidents even campaigned on promises to move our embassy there, we have not followed through: Intifada “an Arabic word literally meaning, as a noun, ‘tremor’, ‘shivering’, ‘shuddering’.” (Intifada – Wikipedia)

The Second Intifada was caused merely by Ariel Sharon visiting the Temple Mount in 2000, “The death toll, including both military and civilian, is estimated to be about 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners.” (Second Intifada – Wikipedia) (For an opposing viewpoint, see The Second Intifada: Background and Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) Regardless of the reasons, what Trump has done is exacerbate an already bad situation. “The president is very committed to the Middle East peace process,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Brussels…” (Trump declares Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, breaking with decades of U.S. foreign policy) This makes no sense in light of what he just did. It would be like California Governor Jerry Brown saying he is very committed to fighting the wildfires in So. California, and then sending hundreds of planes to dump millions of gallons of gasoline on the fires and the surrounding areas!

Israelis might be prepared for what is about to happen; they’ve seen it all before, but Trump may have just brought that intifada to the US and Americans abroad. Of course, I’m sure that when and if that happens, he will blame Obama.

What’s really disturbing is that the move will never happen. It would take 4–5 years and by then, we will have a new administration, in all likelihood, a Democrat administration, and any and all violence, death, and carnage will have been for nothing but the blabberings of a “moron”.

“The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

“The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” H.L. Mancken, Writing for the Baltimore Evening Sun on 26 July 1920, in an article entitled “Bayard vs. Lionheart” (and reprinted in the book On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe) (H. L. Mencken ‘Moron’ Quote)

The man was a prophet; that “great and glorious day” was November 8, 2016.