I do not think Hilary Rodham Clinton is the woman of revelation, or the dragon. I do know she is a disbarred lawyer. The creepy clown picture was too good not to use. Having said that, this is going to be overtly political, because of what is happening at present. The founder of Dilbert has been attacked by the liberal media because he dares, dares, predict that the Trump will be president. Not allowed. Attack the bastard. Take him down. For the cause. Read the whole thing, (Adams is always witty) but the take home is this:

Team Clinton has succeeded in perpetuating one of the greatest evils I have seen in my lifetime. Her side has branded Trump supporters (40%+ of voters) as Nazis, sexists, homophobes, racists, and a few other fighting words. Their argument is built on confirmation bias and persuasion. But facts don’t matter because facts never matter in politics. What matters is that Clinton’s framing of Trump provides moral cover for any bullying behavior online or in person. No one can be a bad person for opposing Hitler, right?

Some Trump supporters online have suggested that people who intend to vote for Trump should wear their Trump hats on election day. That is a dangerous idea, and I strongly discourage it. There would be riots in the streets because we already know the bullies would attack. But on election day, inviting those attacks is an extra-dangerous idea. Violence is bad on any day, but on election day, Republicans are far more likely to unholster in an effort to protect their voting rights. Things will get wet fast.

What does this have to do with the reading of the day? Come on, pukeko is a New Zealander, a Kiwi. I have no skin in the game, I cannot vote in this election.

It is as good an example of how the spiritual effects the secular as any. It is better than the implosion of Twitter, who are laying off staff to cut down their burn rate: Twitter has never made a profit and never will make a profit.

Pity. It was good for finding memes.

And it shows how the press in concert with politicians attack on trivia, while ignoring real stories. The bigger story for the Pacific is that the Chinese economy has crashed. The bigger story for the world is that US and Russian troops are confronting each other, while ISIS survives.

But we would rather talk about how nasty Donald Trump is, or who won the Rugby.

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.”

One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs.

(Luke 11:42-48 ESV)

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.

(Revelation 12:1-6 ESV)

The burden of the lawyers is always greater than the law. And when lawyers make the laws, all citizens become felons: there will be penalties for all kinds of morally neutral behaviour because aspirational law is good for you.

As if. The law is supposed to be what we can expect from each other: what is needed for righteous behaviour. There is a reason the law includes sacrifices for sin and guilt, so that we can return to the worship of God, knowing that the penalty for error, after the fall, is death, and that goat or lamb died because of your actions.

Christ kept the law. He ignored the lawyers, and mocked the Pharisees, who searched for righteousness in regulation. The regulations mean that you cannot care for justice or holiness, because the process you must follow becomes a barrier, a yoke that enslaves.

Which is both the delusion of the current Pharisees — the progressives and Social Justice Warriors, who have this delusion that Blake wrote truth. That Jerusalem can be built on earth: that we can have a perfect society.

That we can be made good and righteous by the correct application s of memes and a few sponsored demonstrations and timely revolutions.

To do this, they must devour the church. The church has one goal: to preach the gospel. The truths within must not be said: that we are flawed and broken, and cannot make ourselves whole, and that Christ died to allow us salvation, as an act of divine mercy.

That speech must not be allowed. The Christians must be mocked.

But God will protect his church, though the nations rage against. it.

To the Americans who have the ability to vote, let them vote.

But let us all pray. The Dragon in revelation refers, most often, to Lucifer. Who wants the gospel silenced, truth hidden, and all converged.

Do not align with those who preach that message.