For what reads like a pretty fair summary of the broader issue of sola scriptura click on this AI link.

This post is about my personal experience with the doctrine.

I was baptized at the behest of my parents when I was a young teen in a United Methodist Church in Maryland.  I did it mostly for my parents, which is probably typical for all Christians who are baptized while a child of any age.  That is to say that baptism at that age is more about the adults who surround the child than the child.  They are too young to have any rigorous theological or philosophical understanding of the liturgy.  The Church community contextualizes the event in the months that follow.  As months turn into years the child becomes a man and grows in his responsibility to fully understand the indelible spiritual quality of what happened when the Church baptized him.

I was presented with an inscribed Bible by the Church at the baptismal liturgy.  I have it today, some fifty-five or so years later.  I think the sola scriptura idea/doctrine was probably mentioned to me as part of the preparation for the baptismal liturgy, but I’m not certain.  I remember having a special feeling about the inscribed Bible.  I read from it periodically as a child.  I never developed a habit of daily Bible reading.

I found written and visual material of an erotic nature to be much more meaningful than Bible verses as a teenager.  While I wanted to act out what I read, and viewed, in the “literature” I never developed the habit of fornication beyond self-stimulation inspired by the jewish-promoted “literature” known as porn.  I always knew that the Bible I owned was critical of the habit, and of all forms of lust.  Talmudically, I chose to rationalize the dichotomy.

I fell in love at eighteen years old with the woman I would marry.  Raised in the Pentecostal Church she had a deeper, more emotional, connection to sola scriptura than did I.  We both attended Protestant Bible College where she studied music, and I obtained a degree in Religion & Philosophy.  I accepted the doctrine uncritically all through this process until 2020 when I entered the Roman Catholic Church. That’s when I started to think deeply about it.

As I write this blog post I’m celebrating the end of my sixth year as a Catholic.  I find deep peace in having a Priest, and the Bible, in my life.  My Priest spent years sorting through the theological and philosophical issues/controversies that followed Luther’s articulation of sola scriptura’s modern form in the 1500s.  I trust my Priest on this point mostly because the alternative in America is Protestantism, which has disintegrated into tens of thousands of small groupings that each rally around some novel interpretation and/or charismatic personality.

The oldest of the Protestant groupings are all woke now.  Their biggest concern is transgendering. They’ve developed all sorts of theological and philosophical “reasoning” to support the insanity.  They get away with it because almost nobody attends their “worship” services anymore.  They are all closing, along with the Catholic Churches that maintain a relaxed attitude toward jews and their Talmudic ideas.

During my lifetime the only christian churches that enjoyed growth were evangelical zionist enterprises.  They were captured politically by the Republican Party at the time of Ronald Reagan.  The zionism was buried in eschatology that probed from the margins of daily and weekly worship until Trump was elected for a second time.  It appears that zionism is now a major dogma of the evangelicalism that I defended for twenty years as leader of the Christian Civic League.

I never defended zionism.  I stayed away from eschatology.  I’ve always reasoned that the future belongs to God and I was never comfortable with current event, headline driven “prophets”, teachers and preachers.

I’m not surprised to see what is happening right now in Washington D.C.  After spending four years leading a Christian community that ministered to troubled souls I entered Maine’s political world at the highest layer of engagement.  I spent twenty years as the spokesman for the century old Protestant institution who’s job it was (and is) to influence public policy, The Christian Civic League of Maine.

What Trump is doing makes perfect sense to me.  He has surrounded himself with evangelical “judeo-christian” Americans who sincerely believe that Old Testament verses are as timely, relevant and authoritative today as they were when they were written.  Sola Scriptura requires that the social order honor the absolute right of every individual Christian to interpret and apply the Bible for themselves alone. Protestant pastors teach this duty, and each denomination develops unique and independent rules to tamp down the inevitable chaos.

Most teach that the Old Testament must be interpreted through the lens of the New Testament, which introduces Jesus into the interpretation and application of Old Testament ideas.  But … never forget … that the doctrine empowers every individual to interpret and apply any, and all, Bible verses themselves.

This highly individualized and sovereign characteristic, encouraged by the doctrine, creates men like current Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.  The Pope recently reminded the world that the gospel cannot be used to justify war, “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

The American Evangelical Christians who are the most enthusiastic supporters of Trump’s war of choice against Iran are quoting the Old Testament out of context.  Hegseth quotes from it regularly.

I’m not a theologian.  Never have been.  I’m barely a philosopher having merely earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.  I do, however, have practical experience at 65 years of age.  And it is from those decades of experience that I respectfully offer my perspective.

Christians in the West desperately need the help of educated Priests with their spiritual lives as they work to sort out the world that is emerging from the ashes of the American empire.

Protestantism isn’t helping.  It will end up in the dust bin of history because it has always been nothing more than a heresy.

Selah

I’ve mentioned Truthstream Media many times over the years.  They do great work on political news in video.  In the vid below they present a compilation of Trump video clips that will blow your mind if you’re anything like me.  The hypocrisy in American media and politics is rising to new satanic highs.

Back when I was doing my deep dive on Nick Fuentes I came across this once young (now forty year old) Livestreamer.  He’s interviewed Dr. Jones a few times.  We need a lot more conversations that jump the artificial generational divides fueled by psychological warfare.  Great work gentlemen!

Every word of this article is both true and clever.

For example:

The War on Whatever is not meant to be won.  It is meant to be continuous, which it is. Like the never-ending war in Orwell’s 1984, it is waged by the empire against its own subjects, but not only to keep the structure of society intact, also, in our case, to transform society into a neo-totalitarian global-capitalist dystopia.

And:

And what about the War on Populism? You might not remember that one so well.  I do, because I published two books about it. It was launched in the summer of 2016, when the empire realized that “far-right populists” were threatening “freedom and democracy” in Europe, and Trump was on the rise in the USA. So another “state of emergency” was declared, this time by the Intelligence Community, and the media, and Academia, and the Culture Industry. Yes, that’s right, it was time once again to set aside our democratic principles, censor “hate speech” on social media, bombard the masses with ridiculous official propaganda about “Russiagate,” “Hitlergate,” and so on, or otherwise “the far-right populists would have won.”  The War on Populism culminated with the roll-out of the New Normal Reich.

To read the entire column click on the image above.

Amen.

According to this column published this morning the most violent threat to Christians worldwide is Islam.  Yet, this video was published by a Muslim last week.  His points about justice make perfect sense to me, and sound much more Biblical/Christian than Americanism.

Whenever I speak against genocide in Gaza my Christian friends justify our actions by condemning Islam, and making the claim of the column linked above — that Muslims are killing Christians all over the world.  Because this is true, they argue, Israel is justified in using our munitions to obliterate women, children and non-combatants in Gaza.

It is never just or righteous to kill the innocent.  We must move ahead with a more sophisticated and realistic understanding of what it means to live inside of borders next to others who don’t speak our language, or share our religion.  How about we start with respect, curiosity and appreciation of language/religious difference instead of giving in to the simplistic idea that we are somehow better, smarter and more worthy.

God made every single human on earth.  Every single one is made in His image.  Our first instinct MUST be to love them, especially if they are our enemy.

Amen.

Back in 2004 I was “brigaded” on email.  Given how disconnected from reality the internet is I wonder if the thousands of emails I received back then were machine generated.  I received them as an overwhelming rejection of an idea I promoted by email at the time.  I was thinking that the emails were all generated by individuals. 

Maybe not!

It is important to realize how fake the screen world is now.  It’s essential, actually, for your mental and spiritual health.  My rule of thumb is NEVER to believe anything that a political, monied or popular source says in the opening days of the assertion/news.  I tell my wife everyday, “Time will tell.”

That’s why I pay closer attention to older/more-experienced-source commentary than I do to what the powerful/rich are saying.  Especially in the opening days of an event/story.  But you have to be cautious with this also, because the opinionator world is in the process of being purchased as well.

Never forget that truth and reality EXIST!  And it often is the opposite of what your scrolling reveals.

Amen.

A few years ago I offered myself for Governor of Maine.  While nothing of electoral or political import resulted from the effort I did learn a bunch. 

Early on in the campaign a potential volunteer was approached.  She did her diligence and read my blog.  She found my posts on the theme, “Faggots are Maggots.”  And she did the typical womanish thing and read beyond what I wrote, assigning malice where there was none.

The popular accusation against Christians who choose to use direct and plain speech confronting evil/evildoers these days is “You lack charity.” 

Right.

It was a pleasure this Lord’s Day to discover this short video by a Canadian YouTuber.  He says it better than I can.

Amen.

When I considered running for Governor a couple years ago I coined the phrase “Jezebel Janet Kills” referring to Governor Janet Mills.  In similar style I’m going to think of House Representative Laurel Libby as Jezebel Laurel Ribby.  She is the more Zionist side, with an Evangelical identity, of Jezebel Janet.

Ribby is a play on her gender.  In the Garden the man gave his rib to make the woman. Today men surrender their nature to serve in the Legislature with their opposite gender.  Politics is war by other means. 

“Good christian” hidden men like Joshua Tardy must love making war on this increasingly womanish battlefield.  The emotion and chaos make it easier for him to help his clients — casinos and big pharma.

Jezebel Laurel is headline news internationally right now.  That’s because the jewish revolutionary movement benefits from her exaltation.  Curious that her second fifteen minutes of glory comes as a result of the world’s most well known jewish revolutionary, Donald Trump, calling out Jezebel Janet last week in the White House.  The issue that is permissible to fight over now is boys defeating girls in sports.  When I enjoyed my decade of glory it was the political pillow fight over “sexual orientation.”

Everything that Christianity upholds as good, true and beautiful must be replaced by what the rich and powerful (revolutionaries to a man and woman) decide is legitimate, meaningful and serious for humanity.  Anybody who interferes with this global systemic change in human nature can be justifiably murdered or fired.  If you’re a Christian in Palestine today you either abandon the homeland of your ancestors or suffer obliteration by an American bomb.  If you’re a Christian leader in Maine you make nice to the jews, sodomites and baby murderers or look for another job.

Jezebel Laurel was allowed to throw a politically ineffective hissy fit last year on baby murder.  She produced a lot of heat but no light.  This year she is crusading for women’s sports and credited with placing a Voter Identification proposal before the people by referendum.  Both issues will play out this year.  Jezebel Laurel commands the political high ground on both headline grabbing crusades just in time to put together a campaign for 2026.

I’m told Billy Bob isn’t happy.  Laurel is sucking up all the pot smoke that fills Republican meeting rooms statewide.  For guys like Billy Bob to be happy they need their share.  Jezebel Laurel Ribby doesn’t share with anybody that isn’t approved by Alex Titcomb’s fund raising church pot luck scam known as the Dinner Table.

Politics aside the time is fast approaching when the curtain will be pulled back.  The people will realize that Maine’s political class has managed a show for decades.  Monied interests have done well for themselves.  The rest of Maine, not so much.

All of us must blow the dust off the moral law.  That law in Maine is written down.  It defines rights that every single Mainer is benefitting from today.  We simply must choose to appreciate that fact as we develop knowledge and skills that enable the assertion of more of what is written there.

No politician is coming to save you.  If they are smoking the glory weed be careful.

Amen.

I’ve been following Ed Dowd since the start of the covid nonsense.  Listening to him has never been a disappointment.  Watch and learn.  Comment below.

In the column linked above (click on the image to read the column) the author praises a married couple for their social work.  The husband is a doctor who matured into a deep Christian faith that became increasingly public.  He and his wife did much to promote family life and marriage.  I’ve met many similar couples over my years of work in politics.  And I am also, like the author, grateful for their witness.

Referring to the familiar passage about Sodom in Genesis 18 Francis X Maier, the column’s author, observes, “Betty and Les aren’t alone; they’re simply two good people among not merely fifty or thirty or ten other good men and women, but rather millions of ‘ordinary’ others who still, quietly but faithfully, provide the remaining leaven of virtue in everyday American life. That’s a source of hope. It needs to be fed with courage and zeal. Which means that we need to wake up and live our Christian faith as an urgent, salvific mission; a matter with eternal import.”

Amen and amen.  We Christians must live our Christian faith as an “urgent, salvific mission; a matter with eternal import.”