Barry was preaching on the parable of the tares yesterday. He had an analogy: that we will have to go through customs. It is a good parable, so I will expand.

If you come to New Zealand, you will get through immigration fairly easily. Your passport is electronic, and the gates are automated. But then you face customs, and agriculture. We have strict quarantine, and swingeing fines if you bring any contraband. This has led to me never buying food and trying to bring it in: checking my bags for such, and double checking when I pack.

I once had to empty my bag in front of the inspector because a sniffer dog smelt a banana. That had been in the bag a week before. And if I have been tramping or running (I have, often) I declare that and wear the offending shoes, so they can be scrubbed.

I have seen what happens when a new blight comes in: in the suffering of farmers: O have seen stock slaughtered, vines ripped up, trees destroyed. Without compensation. So that we remain able to export.

Barry suggested that the weeds within the corn in Jesus’ time were hallucinogenic: poison. And if we don’t get rid of our bad habits we will have to declare them.

For we are all appointed to die, and then face judgement.

Barry believes we will have a chance to declare such after our death. We know God is merciful: we know that he accepted the thief on the cross. This is why we should pray for all, including those who hate us, for they may repent and the last minute, saving their souls.

But there is a reason we preach. It is because not all will be saved. There will be some who burn, and no one should be left in the hands of that prince of lies, who knows his time is limited, for his rebellion removed his immortality. He and all of his ilk will die.

Not all will be saved.

Healthcare is not the gospel

Acts 13:44-52

⁴⁴The next sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. ⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy; and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul. ⁴⁶Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles,
so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁴⁸When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers. ⁴⁹Thus the word of the Lord spread throughout the region. ⁵⁰But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, and stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their region. ⁵¹So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them, and went to Iconium. ⁵²And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Mark 4:1-20

¹Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ²He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³“Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” ⁹And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

¹⁰When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; ¹²in order that
     ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
          and may indeed listen, but not understand;
     so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”

¹³And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴The sower sows the word. ¹⁵These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. ¹⁸And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹ but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²⁰And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

It is not me who teaches that salvation is not universal. Yes, I know it is the third teaching of the Calvinists: I am one. It is Christ[1]. It is not a Calvinist teaching: it is a Christian one. It is why Mundabor, my brother in Christ, prays I will join the leaking and converged barque of Peter, for he has been taught that there is but one Church, and that is in Rome.

He’s wrong: if the antifa and the Muslim minions invade Rome and burn the Pope at the stake for crimes against intersectionality, (May it never be) the church will survive. The Church belongs to Christ. We are all but servants.

But this I must do: blog the word of God. The other posts are bait for the lectionary.

Fools. They should not preach social justice.
But the gospel.

There can be nothing noble in dereliction of duty, nor can it ever be said that the immense evil and damage to the Church of a Pope resigning whilst yielding to blackmail can ever be compensated by one or two very old men, and be one of them the Pope, not be besmirched. (Note to those allergic to History: Popes have been besmirched for many centuries; often with very valid reasons to do so).

Thirdly, two men in their Eighties will be more worried about their own final destination than about some discomfort here on earth for, predictably, not very long.

No, I am not a fan of the man, but I seriously struggle to believe that he would be able of such unspeakable, selfish cowardice. And such a stupid cowardice, too.

Therefore, my working option will remain, as always, the one nearest to the reality we can observe and furthest from conspiracy theories of all sorts: a man terrified of the parable he had seen in JP II, aware of the homo Mafia but not strong enough to deal with it, and deciding to resign in order to allow a new and stronger man to tackle the issues at hand. A man, I add, whom he though would be a “heretic light” like Scola, not an atheist madman like Bergoglio

Repent. Turn to Christ. He is the only means to salvation. And the idea of customs is a parable we made up. Christ instead talked about the cares and signals of this world snuffing the light of the gospel out, and individuals left in hell.

1. There is a reason I used red text, an old convention for the words of Christ, today. You can argue with me as much as you like: the comments are open though filtered. But don’t argue with the teaching of our saviour, though it sticks in your craw.