Enemy of The State

I'm an enemy of the state of mind

That tells me that ignorance is bliss...
Homey, that's a hiss
A lick to tickle the ears
Something to soothe our deepest, subconscious fear
That is searing our collective conscience like a hot iron
And firing across the great divide
Between reason and cosmic treason
Because we deem it a way better option
To credit creativity to the creation
And fashion ourselves in the way of logic
Instead of "Our Father in heaven..."
We're always willing to go one god further

Make 'em up as we go along
And then turn around and say that
Religion is a pestilence
(Pay no attention to the evidence)
Yeah, this is what's wrong with society
Still praying every night that someone would come along
And worship me
Or at the very least, let me do as I please
But we wouldn't call that sovereignty
We call it "freewill" -
"Doin' whatever suits me
And I don't even gotta take a pill"

Homey, wake up!
You are still in the Matrix
The Oracle was always wrong
And Morpheus is a sadist
This is real life
Where the strife comes by the boatloads
And we've still got starving children in Africa
And dudes smokin' each other in the 'Hood
Over shoes and clothes

I'm at odds with the atheistic narrative
So I'm labeled narrow-minded
I refuse to be blinded by the Zeitgeist
'Cause it ain't nothin but a bank heist
You jack the riches of another worldview
And then apply it to your own life...
(Minus the sacrifice, of course)

Homey, that's a myth
Wishful thinking being fleshed out in a valley of dry bones -
I stand opposed to giving up everything I have
To try to hang on to all the things
That I will never own
You see, it's not foolish for a man
To stand against the odds
The portrait of a proper fool
Is a man that says there is no God
It's a fallacy and a fraud
Because deep down we know better
You stand in the rain with no umbrella
And honestly believe
That you won't get any wetter
Only to raise a fist
Because if God truly exists
He should've granted you sunny weather

My dude, you're a debtor
And that storm is a privilege
Because it falls on the just and the unjust
But you see it as a menace
Homey, you don't run this
Everything you've got has been a given
And if the Lord sees fit to take it away
He could snatch it from you in an instant
Health, wealth, and prosperity...
All are handed out on the basis of Charity

But you don't get it, see
That grace don't come cheap
Because we get what we don't rightfully deserve
And that seems to only feed the beast
So we feast on each other
And anything else we can get our hands on
What we don't got is exactly what we want
And everyone else always has a greener lawn

Same song, different day
But I'm strummin' it the other way
Backmasking the track on helter skelter
So you can hear
That the price has already been paid...

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Jester

Bring in the clown

Beat him down

It's time to court-martial the jester

Let's heckle the herald

Wear him down 'til he recants his confession

Teach him a lesson 

We'll show him

Who’s really playing the fool

And if he won't listen to reason

Then we'll tighten the screws and ridicule

For his ridiculous rants and rhetoric

Label him as a terrorist

Tolerate him as entertainment

And tell 'em his message

Makes him a pessimist

Limit his access to the residents

And his words become irrelevant

We can target him as a heretic

Making a mockery of his benevolence

Never address him as a martyr

Denounce the prominence of his Father

If he's a bastard with no inheritance

Then the people won't even bother

Color him reckless and a derelict 

Unfit to be a prophet

But know that if he's truly a man of God

We'll never be able to stop him...

(Matthew 5:11; John15:20; Acts 5:35-41; 1 Corinthians 1:18, 25; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Peter 4:14; Hebrews 11:26)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Evangel-Lies: Prophets of Profit

This is the sort of thing that makes me physically ill...the sort of thing that gets exported from America as "Gospel" (not all of the time, but unfortunately it is the majority report). Men like this turn the truth of God into a spectacle for their own gain, and never blink twice. Remember that Jesus saves FROM the "American Dream". In the words of Lecrae: "God is the Gospel, not a new Bentley..."
Nigerian Fake Pastors and Church Business Exposed from Maku Zikya on Vimeo.

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

...Against Such Things There Is No Law: What I Know About Love (pt. 2)

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
(Galatians 5:22-23 ESV)

But, are we truly free to marry whoever we love?

“Love is not a legal category. Love has never been a legal category. If you think that love makes a family, then what does it mean when a man decides he no longer loves his wife, he no longer loves his children, and he wants to walk out and never pay child support again? After all, ‘It’s love that makes a family’; why should he be forced to pay child support? It doesn’t make any sense to use love as a binding legal category. Besides, would you really want the government inquiring about who loves who? And also, there are plenty of loving relationships that are based on love that we would never even think about having marriage around…so you love your child, you love your sister, you love your best friend. But that’s not a marriage; nobody believes for a moment that that’s a fitting relationship for a marriage. So, what kind of love are we talking about, and in the end, what is the social purpose of marriage? If all marriage is supposed to do is affirm people who love one another, then we need to ask ourselves why do we need marriage in the first place? And the answer is we don’t need marriage if that’s its only purpose! We need marriage for completely different purposes that the advocates of same-sex marriage never want to even think about.” – Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse

In short, what we need to remember this: Marriage is the safeguard for love, not the other way around...

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

"Uncommon Nonsense": G.K. Chesterton's Critique on Modern Man and the Rise of Postmodern Thought

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. - Romans 1:21

I think that it can easily be said that G.K. Chesterton is one of the most gifted commentators on modern thought and life in almost every area. I was watching Ravi Zacharias', Deliver us from Evil the other day (one of the rare times that I've actually watched Christian TV!), and I was reminded how profound Chesterton's analyses were when it came to the thought of modern man and the coming trend that we now know as "Post-Modern" thought. While there is some difficulty in labeling what postmodernism is, I believe that Chesterton does one of the best jobs of actually nailing down such a slippery topic. In his book, Orthodoxy, he states:

"In case the point is not clear, an historic example may illustrate it. The French Revolution was really a heroic and decisive thing, because the Jacobins willed something definite and limited. They desired the freedoms of democracy, but also all the vetoes of democracy. They wished to have votes and not to have titles. Republicanism had an ascetic side in Franklin or Robespierre as well as an expansive side in Danton or Wilkes. Therefore they have created something with a solid substance and shape, the square social equality and peasant wealth of France. But since then the revolutionary or speculative mind of Europe has been weakened by shrinking from any proposal because of the limits of that proposal. Liberalism has been degraded into liberality. Men have tried to turn "revolutionize" from a transitive to an intransitive verb. The Jacobin could tell you not only the system he would rebel against, but (what was more important) the system he would not rebel against, the system he would trust. But the new rebel is a Skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. Thus he writes one book complaining that imperial oppression insults the purity of women, and then he writes another book (about the sex problem) in which he insults it himself. He curses the Sultan because Christian girls lose their virginity, and then curses Mrs. Grundy because they keep it. As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. A man denounces marriage as a lie, and then denounces aristocratic profligates for treating it as a lie. He calls a flag a bauble, and then blames the oppressors of Poland or Ireland because they take away that bauble. The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything."

Amen and Amen!! For more on Chesterton, click here.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Systematic Mormonism: The Doctrine of Jesus Christ (Christology)

Here, we will take a look at the person and work of Jesus Christ, according to the writings of Mormonism, in contrast with that of the Holy Bible. While the content of this clip is short, the differences are not hard to point out even if one has an elementary level of biblical knowledge. Everything that we have seen up until now greatly effects this particular doctrine, just as every category that follows after this one will be greatly effected by this teaching as well. Leaves you with the lingering question, "How Christian can Mormonism actually be?"


Jesus Christ According to Mormonism

For previous chapter, click here.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Systematic Mormonism: God and His Attributes (Theology Proper)

In this section, we will look into the Mormon Doctrine on God. It doesn't take long to realize that Mormonism is not monotheistic, trinitarian God as in biblical Christianity. It is, in fact, a polytheistic religion.

The Mormon Doctrine on God and His Attributes

To see the previous section click here.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Systematic Mormonism: Orgins of Scripture and Revelation (Prolegomena)

“It's a lot more common now for someone to know a Mormon rather than just know of Mormons out in Utah, ... We seem more normal. We're not as exotic.” - Brigham Young

Mormonism (Church of Latter Day Saints - LDS) has gained much attention lately due to certain current events--both positively and negatively. Most recently, it has grabbed much of the media spotlight thanks to the popularity of Republican presidential candidate hopeful, Mitt Romney, the capture of FBI's most wanted, Warren Jeffs, and also the success of the HBO series, Big Love. However, much of Mormonism remains a mystery to the general public. Most know some basic generalities:

-They claim to fall under the umbrella of the Christian faith.
-The founder was a man by the name of Joseph Smith.
-Some may also known of some of their flagship institutions (Brigham Young University, etc.)

But still, very little is known of the particulars of the Mormon Faith. After all, most who are apart of the faith are not very forthcoming when speaking of the origins and heritage of Mormonism and its founder(s).

Recently, the people over at Mormon Research Ministry (http://www.mrm.org/) have released a video series entitled, Search For the Truth: Jesus Christ/Joseph Smith. It serves as a comprehensive look behind the scenes of the LDS church and as a warm-hearted refutation of the doctrines held by Mormonism as it deviates from the truth of the scripture.

I have taken clips from this series and placed them into systematic theological categories to show that these differences are not just mere trivial matters; this is to show that in every way this religion that calls itself "Christian" contradicts and denies the Bible at every given opportunity. So we'll start with the Prolegomena (study of first things) of Mormonism-- The origin of revelation and their "sacred writings" as well as how this effects their interpretation of the Word of God (the Holy Bible).

Introduction

Origin of Mormonism (Joseph Smith's First Vision)



Joseph Smith's Translation/Revelation Method

More on Smith's Prophecies and Revelations

If you have difficulty viewing clip on this page, click here:
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v341671KzgqB33s

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon