Higher Education

John Ritenbaugh, focusing on Genesis 6:5, prior to the Flood, in which mankind's thoughts and intents were evil continually, warns us that a parallel time is on the horizon for those living today. Like our ancient ancestors, we share a habitation with Satan and his demons, evil beings who have been preparing for our demise for thousands of years. The hideous perversions (such as homosexuality and infanticide) did not arrive on the scene instantaneously, but the demonic world has been working to make them the cultural norm for thousands of years. Demons have fostered to the point of fury the ancient conflict between Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau. These spirit beings chose to become demons into order to stop God's purpose. They have succeeded to erase all discussion of God out of the public schools by spreading the humanist agenda previously introduced into the universities by anti-God philosophers such as Marx, Darwin, and Nietzsche. John Dewey promulgated this 'progressive' doctrine into the public schools, where it has spread like leavening, fostering a whole generation of individuals lacking any knowledge of God at all. As God's called-out ones, we have entered (through baptism) the same Covenant God made with our forebears before they entered the Promised Land God has not removed the demonic influence which plagued our forebears, deeming it necessary for our spiritual growth. However, God has given us gifts our forebears never received, such as His Holy Spirit, thereby enabling us to advance in the face of massive enemy fire. We are marching to the beat of a different drummer from the rest of the world.

Mike Ford, reflecting upon the high prevalence of 'snowflakes' (i.e., anxiety-ridden young people) needing a safe place, exemplified by the Yale girl shrieking for a safe place from Halloween costumes, and Harvard snowflakes, terrorized by having to pay library fines, contends that we have never experienced such fearfulness in pre-adults. A major contributory factor of this snowflake syndrome was the self-esteem movement of the 1960's, which brainwashed young people into thinking they were unique and special. Today's parents, refusing to teach their offspring responsibility, turning them over to government-controlled daycare at a young age, are turning the current generation into packs of violent savages. The family has been under attack since the 1960's, leaving in its wake a new normal of narcissism and irresponsibility. The youths Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had no fear of trial because they feared God more than raging fire. The antidote to fearfulness is God's Holy Spirit, destroying cowardice with a sound mind and a good work ethic.

John Ritenbaugh asserts that. despite recent claims from the Evangelical conservatives, America was never established as a Christian nation. God called out Abraham, specifically blessing him, and through him, blessed the nations of the entire earth. The early European settlers of the North American Continent consisted of Israelitish immigrants from Europe—descendants of the immigrants who came from Ur of the Chaldees to the Promised Land millennia earlier. God guided these descendants of Jacob to a virtually empty land. God brought the Israelitish people to certain lands in order to prepare them for the return of Christ. God follows patterns so that His converted children can see His invisible work, including immigration patterns. No one leader among America's Founding Fathers approached the stature of Moses, nor did any feel inclined to implement God's Holy Laws or Covenant. The founders established no single religion to ensure the sanctity of the Sabbath and the Holy Days. If they had established such a religion, it was, and remains, highly fractured. The founders made no covenant between the People of the United States and God. American citizenry never practiced true Christianity, America is still laboring under the curse of I Samuel 8, where Israel asked for a king to be like the nations around them. A human leader seemed more 'real' to them than an invisible God requiring faith to follow. Human governments are nothing but raw force, grasping for control in order to benefit the leaders. Human governments have no faith in God and they do not fear God. Even with the mandates Moses gave to a future king, Israel would always suffer from the rule of a human leader, The faith of physical Israel has been eroded through evil philosophers.

It is easy to laugh at the ridiculous "safe spaces" movement on America's college campuses, recognizing it as an inevitable result of the excessive shielding of a generation of young people from opposing viewpoints. Yet, Joseph Baity argues, this movement may be a precursor to even worse societal problems as members of the rising generation move into positions of power.

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that, although every nation has its own unique kind of conservatism, American conservativism is judged more harshly because its tenets took root in biblical principles advanced by the Puritans, who sought to find religious freedom on the North American Continent, and because the Founding Fathers, established the Declaration and the Constitution on biblical principles. Consequently, American conservatism rests on a decidedly biblical foundation. French philosopher and historian Alexis de Tocqueville proclaimed that America's greatness was not the result of its natural resources or its political leaders, but rather, was the consequence of the ardent zeal and faith emanating from its ubiquitous churches and meeting houses. He concludes that when America ceases to be good, she will cease to exist. Sadly, at the beginning of the 20th century, anti-God, pernicious, humanist, 'progressive' lies started to flood the classrooms of the universities, eventually reaching the public schools. The stream of liberal lies seems to parallel the flood coming from the dragon's mouth in Revelation 12:15, attempting to destroy the woman, symbolizing God's Church.

Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on some final exams given to 8th graders during the early 20th Century in Salina, Kansas, appearing frequently on the Internet, marvels at the dearth of practical thinking and reasoning skills demonstrated by the clients of today's 'progressive' educational system. Pupils a hundred years ago often demonstrated more skill at cause-effect relationships, geographical knowledge, historical details, phonetics, and meteorological concepts. 'Progressive' liberals, citing the 'reliable' Snopes.com, complain that these questions were too fact- and date-oriented, as well as too U.S.-centric. Liberals ignore the fact that 'progressive' education has failed to teach basic skills and knowledge and principles of sound reasoning. 'Progressive education' does away with cursive handwriting, home economics, memorizing times tables, phonics, spelling, drills and time tests. History and social studies have been yanked leftward, smearing the accomplishments of the Founding fathers, branding them as racist. 'Progressives' have dumbed down civics, government, and economics, again aligning them hopelessly leftward, away from the concepts of checks and balances, the rationale for the Electoral College, the basic economic principles. Instead, students are taught "techniques" they can use to score high on standardized tests. What is missing in 'progressive' education are practical life skills which would safeguard individuals from being led around by the nose.

Richard Ritenbaugh, describing the state-controlled media as thunderstruck after all their bogus polls blew up in their faces, maintains that America is just beginning to reap what it has sown, evidenced by the on-going meltdown and temper-tantrums displayed by the 'spontaneous' demonstrations from Oakland to Minneapolis to New York (bankrolled by George Soros). Some demonstrators called for Donald Trump's assassination, as they 'peacefully' smashed windows, beat white people, and taunted the police. The 'progressive,' leftist educational system has been teaching these clueless youths how to whine and complain, demanding that life should be fair and that there should be no winners or losers. Now the poor "snowflakes" are demanding safe-spaces, coloring books, playdough, pets, cry-ins, and time-outs to cope with the 'overwhelming' stress for which they are ill-equipped.

The terms "safe spaces" and "trigger warning" have cropped up frequently in the past year or so in the media, often accompanied by photographs or videos of protesting young people on college campuses. Joseph Baity helps to define these terms and the philosophical/political movements that have propelled them onto our national consciousness.

Our culture appears to be in steep decline, a fact we can see in the undermining of marriage throughout society. Despite having served mankind well down through the millennia, the institution of marriage is crumbling under a three-pronged attack engineered by Satan the Devil. John Ritenbaugh teaches that marriage is vital to understanding God's purpose and learning to live in harmony with one another.

John Ritenbaugh, acknowledging that America is a politically and culturally divided nation, expresses concern that those who really care about what is happening to this country are too few to make any difference, and the gullible youth from college down to Kindergarten have been schooled for decades on the poisonous 'progressive,' humanist secular education which has expunged any knowledge of God from their consciousness. Satan has planned this subversion for centuries, influencing the thoughts of philosophers who have left their imprint in education. Even the Ivy League schools (Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) ostensibly started as Puritan theological schools, abandoned their religious moorings soon after their founding. For those of us alive in these years, we must have God in our focus before we can perceive what is going on. The rest of the populace is floundering because clearly neither God nor His laws are in their minds. God's called-out ones have a mandate to know what is going on in society and how it relates to the future.

John Ritenbaugh, observing a gigantic chasm between conservative talk radio, alternative media, and the 'official' Federal Government's portrayal of the American economy, concludes that the Obama Administration's calculations of economic indicators are not only full of equivocation and sleight of hand, but also weighed down by shameless prevarication. The rosy 5% unemployment figure touted by the government is deceitfully achieved by counting a plethora of part-time entry-level jobs, enough to provide spending money for teenagers but not enough to support a family, under-employed workers compelled to make ends meet by cutting the neighbor's grass or driving Uber taxis, and tens of thousands of unemployed people who have given up looking. Government statisticians and economists smugly count people working 30 hours a week at a minimum wage as fully employed. The real statistics, suppressed by the government-controlled media, bare the truth that only 41percent are employed, with most people skimping by, succumbing to indebtedness. Not even considering the shameful national debt amassed by the current Administration, personal indebtedness is now in the trillions of dollars: College students owe one trillion dollars in accumulated tuition debt, while millions of Americans will never fully "catch up on the credit card debt. A recent article in the Atlantic Monthly exposed the fragility of the disappearing middle class, suggesting that most Americans, because of governmental economic policy, are so cash poor that they could not scrape $400 together for an unexpected bill unless they sold something or borrowed money from a friend or relative. 47% of the American citizenry are dependents of the Federal government, which sadly, because of gross incompetency, is also cash poor. Most of our citizenry is ignorant about the causes of this demise, failing to realize that God is plaguing this nation for its blatant, calloused sin.

John Ritenbaugh, citing Romans 1:18-20, asserts that, even though the existence of the Everlasting Deity can easily be accessed by reason and observation, Satan, having worked feverishly through philosophers and educators in the western world, to where Jacob's children had migrated, employing the distorted 'luminaries' (such as Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Marx), succeeded in deceiving and dumbing-down the overwhelming majority of the citizenry in the world to accept immorality as the norm and righteousness or morality as the aberration. Philosophers and educators have been Satan's chief tools in recent history. God has allowed Satan to do his work, realizing that all humans, including Adam and Eve, Job, Abraham and his offspring, desperately required testing, adjustment, and character-shaping. God does things in patterns; the kind of rigor our original parents Adam and Eve were subjected to as well as all the subsequent biblical luminaries, is the same kind of rigor. His current work—- the Israel of God, the called-out Church—is subjected to. We are now the chief focus of God's work on this earth.

John Ritenbaugh, observing that secularism (a belief that morality should be based solely on the collective mores of mankind, and that religion should never enter into state or public education) has effectively eclipsed the influence of nominal Christianity in the western world, asserts that this unsettling state of affairs has been the result of deliberate planning by Satan’s human henchmen over the last 600 years, bringing the world full circle to the condition of the world when Nephilim negatively influenced the world’s culture. Just as Noah’s cultural milieu was saturated by Nephilim, our culture has been saturated with the torrent of words emanating from the pens of Nietzsche in Germany, John Stewart Mill in England, and John Dewey in the United States, all rabid anti-God secularists, believing that mankind’s entire life is bound within the present time, with no time devoted to anything beyond death. These influential Nephilim, consisting of presidents, prime ministers, authors, and teachers have purposefully sabotaged and destroyed all vestiges of religious power and influence, replacing it with secular, ‘progressive’ humanism, setting themselves up as sole arbiters of the proper conduct for mankind, defying the Sovereign God of the Universe.

John Ritenbaugh reminds us that although Charles Darwin was a racist and a mentally-ill sadist, nevertheless his influence is titanic, outstripping not only the influence of every other philosopher who as ever lived as well as the influence of the Holy Bible. Before his writings (now thoroughly debunked by responsible scientists) filtered into the university curriculum, only a modicum of scientists claimed to be atheists. That number has shot up exponentially over the last hundred years or so. Even though most of modern science have rejected his scientific conclusions (no missing link joining one species to another species has ever been found), modern science did not reject his atheism. Higher education, thoroughly contaminated by the theory of evolution, has filled young skulls with the mush of anti-God progressive humanism. Even in church-related colleges, less than 1% maintain a God-centered educational program.

John Ritenbaugh, continuing his exposition of the angry, demon-possessed, dark fellow from Trier, Karl Marx, a mad man responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people, asserts that legions of leftist, 'progressive' humanist academics of American and European universities have proclaimed Marx the most influential voice of the last millennium. These Marxist-adoring educators are responsible for spreading their socialist/communist venom into the government, the public schools, and the churches, mis-educating the hopelessly gullible populace of western civilization so thoroughly in covert Marxist doctrine that a military takeover would not be necessary. The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 and referred to as the bible of Marxism, calls for the confiscation of all private property, making the populace the slaves of the state, a Satanic doctrine which is totally antithetical to God's Word, which awards a promised land with private property to every subject in both the Old and New Covenants.

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating that, although Transcendentalism never achieved a major following in American religious practice, Emerson’s teachings were highly influential in the Ivy League universities—Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. His teachings were said to provide a jolt to Christianity as practiced in New England following the Puritan/Separatist leanings of the Bay Colony Pilgrims, much like a blow to the stomach in a vigorous pillow fight. Even though Emerson was married and fathered a son, he had apparently written in his earlier journals of a torrid affair with one Martin Gay, leading to speculations that the etymology of the term ‘gay’ may have derived from this reference. Emerson also amalgamated strains from Buddhism and Hinduism, leading to some of his nihilistic references to blending into a nirvana-like Over-Soul. His insistence that every person is free to be his ‘own god,’ determining what is right in his own eyes, serves as the underpinnings of the ascendant, emergent religion of humanism, rapidly and savagely neutralizing all mainstream religions in North America.

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating that although Transcendentalism as a movement never had an abundance of adherents, submits that Emerson's teachings did permeate the schools of philosophy of American Ivy League Schools, institutions , ironically, which were started as Puritan Theological Seminaries. Harvard welcomed him with open arms, giving him an honorary doctorate and placing him in an influential teaching and advising role. In this capacity, having already jettisoned his Unitarian roots, Emerson waxed syncretistic, absorbing ideas from Mormonism, Paganism, Buddhism, and other Eastern philosophies, including the idea of "The Over-Soul"—a blobby plastic-like bubble where everything blends together without individual parts, making no distinction between Creator and creation. In Emerson's analysis, the only God to which we are beholden is the "god" in our own minds, trusting in ourselves rather than trusting in our Heavenly Father.

John Ritenbaugh, in his exposé of philosophers who have impacted culture generally and education specifically, focuses on the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, America's foremost practitioner of Transcendentalism and Pantheism, philosophical viewpoints somewhat akin to those mentioned in Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19, which suggests that the Creator is revealed through his Creation. Sadly, Transcendentalists, Pan-Theists, and Neo-Platonists fail to bifurcate the identity of the Creator from the Creation, calling it one and the same. This blurring of Creator with His creation gives adherents of Pan-theism the ability to declare themselves God, and not subject to any power higher than self.

John Ritenbaugh, while agreeing that philosophers may not be as well-known as movie stars, rock stars, or athletes, asserts that philosophers in academia have had a greater influence on our thoughts, as well as on the precarious turns our culture has taken. When the works of academic philosophers come in contact with political movers and shakers, they wreak havoc on liberty and morality, exalting the state over the family, removing God from the equation altogether. Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, following in the self-centered, sociopathic teachings of Rousseau, ushered in the radically, politically left-wing progressives (called the Jacobins), bringing in a reign of terror using the guillotine and vindictively slaughtering all ‘dissidents.’ Rousseau’s and Robespierre’s philosophies encouraged abortion, the destruction of the family, and the ascendancy of the state. Even though mass abortion is higher in Russia and China, American leftist liberal secular ‘progressives’ have murdered (in the name of ’women’s’ rights) 60 million children, far outstripping the atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin and Pol Pat combined.

John Ritenbaugh, reminding us that the depressing quality of life our culture is currently experiencing, with the secular progressives systematically destroying the sanctity of the family, relegating education and child care to the State, had its origins in the philosophy of Rousseau, a self-centered sociopath, who after fathering five children, placed all of them into orphanages. In his narcissistic, twisted genius, he crafted the blueprint followed by all proponents of communitarian, collectivist, welfare-state, socialist, communistic governments, disparaging any private property, free enterprise, and the sanctity of the family, hell-bent on making the State the official substitute for God and His Commandments. Satan's timetable is on schedule; thankfully, God's timetable is also meticulously on schedule. The days of leftist, liberal, 'progressive' secular humanistic governments are thankfully numbered.

John Ritenbaugh, continuing his exposition of the French philosopher Rousseau, pointed out that he fathered five children, but because of his narcissistic devotion to himself and his precious creature comforts, he abandoned every one of them to orphanages, believing that it was the State's obligation to care for children, not the family's. In his pompous self-centeredness, Rousseau charged that Christians make poor citizens. Those who knew Rousseau intimately claimed that he was a pathetic figure, an arrogant mad man, claiming to be a lover of mankind, but through his practices proving he was a failure as a responsible human being. Even though American educator John Dewey may have referred to Rousseau as the 'greatest genius,'his narcissistic, self-absorbed endorsement of collective welfare practices from cradle to grave, ultimately forcing citizens to be serfs of a welfare state administered by overweening bureaucrats, have hopelessly damaged modern society. Many current politicians and educators, following in Rousseau's drive toward mindless communitarianism, are on a mission to destroy the family, replacing it with a government ("It takes a village") welfare state. The family structure of one ethnic group is largely destroyed, with 70% of the 'families' having no father. Rousseau's disciples, gaining ascendancy in today's political climate, have plans to dismantle the family, replacing it with the State.

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating FDR’s counsel to his son-in-law that events happen in Washington only by controlled planning, reminds us that two dominant spiritual forces work according to careful and precise planning: God’s purpose, which will take place, and Satan’s scheme, which he is vainly implementing, but is destined to utterly fail. Satan is a highly intelligent, but deceptive, merciless, and clever being, able to hide his existence and true motives. He offers things people cannot refuse (‘pleasure,’ ‘power,’ ‘wisdom,’ and ‘godlike’ attributes). Philosophers such as Locke and Descartes were not anti-religion or anti-God per se, but they were able to galvanize the popular disenchantment with organized religion, tearing down altars and replace religion with reason, rendering each human being free to choose his concept of truth apart from God. The Founders of this nation were not interested in establishing America as a “Christian nation,” but instead enabling people to choose their own beliefs, rejecting any existing order. According to Will Durant, Rousseau’s fingerprints are all over the educational system, dominated by self-centered humanism, finding truth ‘apart’ from divine guidance, creating a major test of faith to those not wanting to follow the peer pressure of humanist educators and political figures.

John Ritenbaugh, citing a statement made by FDR to his son-in-law that nothing happens in Washington that isn't planned, assures us that NOTHING escapes God's observation and that God's ultimate sovereignty guarantees that nothing occurs in history that hasn't been under God's control. What is now, and what has always happened is under God's control and has been guided continually from on high, even though man in his ridiculously pompous arrogance cannot see His purpose and design. Mankind has, from the time of Adam and Eve, attempted to drive a solid wedge between spiritual knowledge and physical knowledge, not understanding that they are all on one continuum. Well-meaning philosophers such as Aquinas, Descartes, and Locke, attempted to elevate humanism to the ultimate arbiter of truth and reason, pushing the Creator of all things out of the picture. John Locke , probably in an attempt to liberate western man from the tyranny of organized religion, rejected all contact with any influence of the will of God, promoting secular liberty and human reason as the final arbiter of all truth. The western democracies such as America, England, France, etc. derive their championing of rugged individualism and fierce hatred of any kind of coercion outside of human reason from the writings of John Locke.

John Ritenbaugh suggests that philosophers advance their ideas exponentially by charismatically persuading their peers, as was seen in the example of Thomas Aquinas, a popular innovator in educational circles, having the reputation of being a topnotch theologian and scholar. Aquinas revived the Greek Classical philosophies of Aristotle and Plato, driving a wedge between theological and humanistic philosophical positions. Jesuit educated Rene Descartes was not an apostate in the ordinary sense because he never embraced religion, but instead set his own experience as his parameters of creation, declaring "I think, therefore I am." Descartes felt no compunction to seek any other knowledge not found in Himself, feeling sufficient to determine truth on his own. Although he never denied the existence of God, he minimized God's sovereignty and control over His creation. Descartes believed that moral integrity was an unimportant construct, feeling that mankind alone was sufficient to determine truth and mores on his own, discarding any input from the Creator, dazzling his followers through philosophy and empty traditions of men.

Martin Collins, asking us if we have ever wanted to give up from our deluge of trials, reminds us that our predecessors have had similar sentiments. The conversion of the apostle Paul, his subsequent training, and lengthy service was not a walk in the park. His education prior to his conversion was extensive, even including instruction in the fine points of Pharisaic understanding under the feet of Gamaliel, a lead rabbi of the day. Having this background, he naturally found the emerging sect of Christianity deceptive and totally incompatible with Judaism. Wanting to emulate Phineas, he was determined to extirpate this blight before it loomed out of control. Jesus Christ evidently found some use for this intense zeal as He struck him down on the way to Damascus, diametrically reorienting Saul's priorities, forcing him to ask "Who are you?" and "What do you want me to do?" God can call anyone He wants, including a hopelessly stubborn, irascible drudge. Some progressive scholars would like us to believe that Paul faked this conversion for opportunistic purposes, forgetting that Paul had already garnered substantial prestige implementing the militant goals of the Pharisees. It would have taken extraordinary courage or audacity on Paul's part to witness to Damascus where his prior reputation was still known unless his conversion had been indeed completely genuine. Paul's lengthy apprenticeship, involving processing the guilt from Stephen's murder, the suspicions he faced from the people he had formerly persecuted, and his pastoral training in Arabia (lasting approximately three years) trained him thoroughly for the grueling missionary journeys he would later make, providing text and insight for the Epistles, a virtual roadmap for the totality of Christian living demanded of all God's called-out ones.

John Ritenbaugh, citing Samuel Blumenfeld's and Alex Newman's book Crimes of the Educators, a book which takes educator-philosopher to task for systematically dumbing down American education, transforming this nation's values and its system of government, criticizes these educator-philosophers for replacing God-centered ideals with 'progressive,' anti-God, secular humanist, socialistic values. The centers of American Higher education, Harvard and Yale, originally established as Puritan and Congregationalist theological seminaries, have become incubators of virulent atheism. Likewise the venerable European universities, originally established as extensions of the Roman Catholic Church, became more focused on controlling, promoting and extending government through the establishment of the 'holy' Roman Empire rather than promoting faith. Indeed, apostate educator philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas sought to bifurcate human reason from the protection of God's superior knowledge, compartmentalizing and isolating secular from sacred knowledge.

John Ritenbaugh, focusing on the etymological roots of apostate and apostle, acknowledges that both words indicate "taking a stand." While "apostle" refers to someone taking a stand in behalf of someone or an ideal, "apostate" refers to someone who once held loyalty to a person or ideal, but has now taken a stand in opposition. Adam and Eve were the first apostates, having transferred their loyalty from God Almighty to Satan the devil. Paul identified Demas as an apostate, and John warned of apostatizing teachers. Current political leaders have apostatized from the Founding Fathers, who had a far better understanding of God's ways than virtually all public servants seeking office today. The churches of nominal Christianity, once considered the bulwark of morality in Britain and America, have disintegrated to a mere shell of their former presence. Secular progressive humanism, smugly and presumptuously exalting the creation over the Creator, has replaced Christianity as the dominant religion on earth. Apostasy in nominal Christianity has come from major apostate philosophers, serving as 'educators' within the worldly churches, causing more damage from the words of their pens than the combined cumulative military power on the earth.

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating that philosophy claims to focus on reality and existence, allegedly allowing only that which can be verified by the five senses, suggests that educators steeped in worldly philosophy relegate the existence of God and moral principles to the realm of opinion rather than fact. Consequently, our culture, protectively 'insulated' from any reference to God or sustainable ethical values, has become fractious, divided, angry, and confused. Virtually all claims to value or ethical standards have been relegated to the realm of opinion. Elementary students have been brainwashed into accepting the moral relativity—'there are no absolutes'—mantra, while evolution is taught as fact (though the proof for this theory is even less sustainable than a creationist hypothesis). Young people entering the universities and colleges have already been conditioned to accept the colossal lie of the existence of a creation without a creator. Schools of philosophy, emanating from ancient Greek luminaries such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, have permeated the psyches of university students, eager to glom onto the rudiments of the world, conditioning them to follow charismatic leaders, tuned into the spirit of the cosmos, surcharged with the mind and spirit of the current ruler of this world, Satan the Devil. Satan has been feverishly attempting to gain control of the educational system of the world, recognizing that the educator (secular and religious) can do more lasting damage than any other member of society.

John Ritenbaugh, suggests that, although humanism as a philosophy came onto American campuses approximately 50 years ago, it has been a part of the world's culture since 1600, when technology enabled secular universities to counter-attack the explosion of Biblical knowledge, unleashed by the Protestant Reformation. Actually, humanism has been alive and well for thousands of years. American culture, steeped in materialistic humanism, is decidedly non-Christian in its current outlook, as Satan has achieved a measure of success by twisting and distorting the information disseminated by secular universities, savagely destroying faith and creating doubt in God's existence, let alone His ultimate authority.

John Ritenbaugh, observing that God has planned the end time for thousands of years, giving us a tiny preview of what the world would be like in Matthew 24, reminds us that Satan, while limited by God, has done the same thing, orchestrating his plans for hundreds of years, employing not only his demonic forces, but gullible human beings who may not know that they are being used in his service. Technology exploded from the time of Gutenberg's press, unleashing the forces of the Protestant Reformation (which served eventually as a catalyst for the dispersal of multitudes of folk around the world) as well as the current advances in the Internet which enables, paradoxically, both God's work and Satan's education (misinformation and lies) to increase at meteoric proportions. Even though Satan has within his power the ability (and the desire) to destroy the entirety of mankind, God is sovereign over all and He has limited what Satan can do and has placed a protective hedge around His people. He has given them a priceless education through translations of the Bible—a priceless education that billions of people have been denied. It behooves us, as God's called-out ones, to resist the insidious mis-education and dis-information promulgated by Satan, and make use of the priceless knowledge God has given us through His Scriptures.

John Ritenbaugh, reflecting upon the developments currently taking place in Europe and the United States, asserts that Satan's fingerprints are all over the emerging New World Order, an entity that was conceived around AD 1700. The size of this conspiracy is immense, far beyond the capacity of any human being or human organization to comprehend or execute. People who are Satan's pawns in this conspiracy have no inkling that they are being manipulated. The religion of secular humanism binds this whole multinational, multicultural enterprise together. Hatred for God's Law and lust for wealth and power draw all these strange bedfellows together. The liberal-progressive mindset considers itself elite and superior to all other philosophies and religions. For the past several hundred years, secular humanist educators, steeped in the cunning and craftiness of the same serpent who corrupted the mindset of our original parents, have similarly advanced a crass material, secular education, throwing the thinking processes of our citizenry into confusion, debasing morality and ethics, and producing a hopelessly reprobate way of thinking and acting.

John Ritenbaugh, reflecting on Sir Isaac Newton's famous theorem, the "First Law of Motion: When viewed in an inertial reference frame, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by an external force" (more popularly, "a body in motion tends to stay in motion until something stops it"), applies it to the about-face by the CDC, attempting to make a distinction between airborne and a spread-by-droplets transmission of Ebola. The theorem is then applied to standards of morality in this nation which have eroded exponentially since the time of the Founding Fathers, and now over the past several decades at time warp speed as college graduates of liberal educational institutions, according to a recent poll, now believe that abortion (infanticide or murder) should be permitted up to the age of four, because at that point a child is allegedly not self-aware.

John Ritenbaugh, illustrating the tragic state of pastors withdrawing from their responsibility of preaching God's unadulterated word, plays a recording of a spoof from an Australian comedy show, mocking the politically correct pastors who may water down the Ten Commandments to "the Ten Negotiating Principles," or perhaps "Ten Helpful Suggestions." When pastors have abandoned their responsibility to uphold God's Law, government has historically stepped in to fill the gap, basing their decisions on humanistic preferences rather than biblically-based morality. The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, although crafted by men of nominal Christian persuasions (some of them having roots in the Separatist and Puritan experience of desiring religious liberty and even a kind of theocracy) and Deists (believing in God by inferring it from design and order in nature), did not establish the Constitution as a covenant with Almighty God, but did build into it common sense checks and balances so that if a moral populace lived by it, our people should be governed with the least amount of friction. Sadly, the populace has drifted from an ethical and moral climate into a relativistic, secular humanist point of view. Morality now consists of toleration for mass infanticide (termed abortion) and homosexual sodomy (called gay rights), enforced by a government voted in by people with a narcissistic, agnostic, or atheistic humanistic mindset (virulent secular humanism) which has totally displaced Christianity (real or nominal) as the dominant religion of our land, marginalizing anyone who insists on basic human ethics, let alone God's 'pesky' (because it is intolerant of sin) commandments.

John Ritenbaugh, reiterating that the entire world is under the sway of Satan the devil (I John 5:19, Revelation 12:9, Ephesians 2:1-3), warns us to analyze and evaluate everything that enters our minds from the contaminated, mendacious media sources, media sources primarily promoting a leftist, secular humanist agenda, bent on pumping a deluge of lies into our helpless nervous systems, impacting our belief system, throwing us into a state of utter confusion. Recently, the impact of worldwide media has painted the rocket firing Hamas as helpless victims and the Israeli's as Nazi exterminators. Ironically, both the Arabs and Jews are Semite peoples, but the collective leftist media wants to foment anti-Semitism in western Israelitish nations. Satan hates God's chosen people and will do everything he can to destroy both Israel and the Israel of God. In a hateful world, thoroughly dominated with Satan's mindset, where the UN ( in a vote of 33 to 1) condemned Zionism as equivalent to Nazism, God's called ones have a responsibility to analyze and evaluate everything through the sieve of God's Holy Scriptures, which the world we currently live in abhors with vehemence. Most of our opinions, prejudices and beliefs we accept unconsciously just as we acquire our dialects; we must scrutinize our own beliefs through the standards and principles of God's Holy Sciptures, making sure they are not contaminated and marinated with Satan's diabolical deception. God's people will be known for their fear of lying motivated by their fear of God.

Richard Ritenbaugh, cuing in on the "What is truth?" episode in John 18:32-37, suggests that John wants us to ask that question of ourselves. Pilate seemed to believe that all the charges against Jesus were built up on lies and trumped-up charges. Jesus, conversely, was the perfect witness and embodiment of the truth—the truth and the way to eternal life. Pontius Pilate was a Roman prefect, probably involved in intrigue and shady backroom deals. The reason behind Pilate's question—- the tone of voice he used when he asked "What is truth?", has been a matter of perennial speculation: Did he ask it sincerely, sarcastically, wistfully, curiously, or impatiently? Pilate realized that Jesus did not have a political motive. Perhaps, Pilate asked the question in a skeptical, world-weary, futile manner, despairing of ever finding a true legitimate answer, feeling that everybody shades their own realities to suit themselves and their preconceptions. Deceit is our most grave problem as we continue in the world and in the church. Post-modern standards deny the existence of truth. Some secular humanists, who control much of higher education, feel that some truths (as practiced by Christians) should not be tolerated. The Olivet Prophecy places deceit at the top of the dangers confronting Christians, who, at the end-times, will be living in the deluge of information age or the disinformation age, powerful enough to deceive the very elect. Satan wants to flood the environment of our minds with a deluge of lies. If a person practices what he preaches, he is likely to tell the truth; we judge by the fruit produced. We have to analyze everything we see and hear, filtering it through the standards and principles of the Holy Scripture, realizing that we have generally not been taught to do this. False teachers tend to chip away at truth one little piece at a time, trying to find an angle to cast doubt on the integrity of the entirety of our belief system. God's Word is the only pure thing in which we

Around the world, pharmaceuticals are big business, bringing in just short of a trillion dollars to the various drug companies, and U.S. companies can claim more than a third of that total. David Grabbe reveals just how pervasive and influential the drug industry and its money have become with patients, physicians, and governments.

"Things fall apart. The center cannot hold," wrote W.B. Yeats in his famous, "The Second Coming," a short poem about the declining morality of the twentieth century. ...

Once, reason and common sense were valued in America. ...

On Tuesday, April 14, 2009, crowds gathered in Bingham Hall, a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill educational building, filling the seats with college students, professors, and members of the community, waiting to hear Congressman Tom Tancredo speak about illegal immigration....

John Ritenbaugh warns about the dangers of the emerging, new paradigm, purpose driven, outcome-based churches. The fourth descriptor was borrowed from a movement in modern education, emphasizing that the ends justify the means, glorifying political correctness, tolerance for all manner of perversion, and relativistic human philosophy. People who have embraced these concepts are oblivious to their obligations to Almighty God, but instead have been enticed to return to the rudiments of this world, based upon Satanic demon worship, leading us away from a wholesome relationship with Christ and into a pragmatic compromising with sin. We have an obligation to strive for the faith once delivered, continually yielding to the sound scriptural doctrine and to the leadership of Christ. The purpose driven church derives its momentum from human psychology and modern marketing efforts rather than upon God's calling and His truth. The emerging church, not wanting to alienate anybody, has turned its back on sound biblical doctrine, becoming a social, religious, do-good institution, embracing flawed human reason as its only moral barometer.

Charles Whitaker expresses alarm about liberal education's drive to destroy the faith once delivered by introducing a mode of questioning they sometimes refer to as 'critical thinking,' an obsessive drive to bring every value and assumption held by society and parents under question. The ultimate effects of this practice has led to: (1) a disengagement from the past, (2) a state of lethargy, and (3) an abandonment of the traditions that have bound us together as a culture- leading to isolation and fragmentation of society. We need to guard against forces that would systematically undermine the faith once delivered to the saints, and learn not to denigrate the 'old stories' passed down from our forebears.

Martin G. Collins:  Statistics show that the more education an American citizen has, the more likely he will support such human perversions as abortion and homosexuality. ...

Richard T. Ritenbaugh:  Most of us probably remember the series of commercials run on television several years ago by a financial services company with the tagline, "We make our money the old-fashioned way: We earn it. ...

John Ritenbaugh focuses on a deadly enemy within our borders, every bit as dangerous as the radical Islamic fundamentalists from without- an enemy composed of amoral radical agnostic multi-cultural, anti-Christ, anti-God secular humanistic educators in our universities and schools. Political correctness, sponsored largely by the Democrat party and the far left has ushered in deviancy, perversion and shameless self-indulgence in the name of diversity and multi-culturalism. Secularism, founded on the philosophical underpinnings of Rousseau, is, in effect, the official state religion for the majority of our nation. In the multi-cultural agenda, extermination of the white race and culture has top priority. Anyone who objects to this agenda becomes branded a racist, a member of the religious right. The love for truth gives us the only protection from this insidious threat.

God's sovereignty is one of the most important issues a Christian must consider. Is God supreme in all things? Have we acknowledged that He has total authority over us in particular?

We frequently hear our culture labeled as postmodern. What is postmodernism? How is it related to relativism? Richard Ritenbaugh explains these terms and shows examples of them in politics, music and advertising — and gives God's opinion of it.

John Ritenbaugh asserts that the pressures and conflicts that the church has undergone is part of a larger Zeitgeist (spirit of the time) that has embroiled institutions religious and political institutions worldwide. The mindset reflects (and is a function of) an unseen spirit world under the sway of the prince and power of the air. This Zeitgeist or wisdom of men (evidenced by carnality) could well dominate our lives. We need to be extremely careful about what we allow into our minds, from academia, psychology, politics, and especially from people supposedly speaking for God (false prophets), but having their taproot in the world and Satan the Devil. Any message, true or false, has the capability of producing a faith. Faith in the wrong thing will bring deadly consequences. To counteract the heresies emanating from the spirit of the world, we must have union with Christ (through His Spirit), giving us direct access to God's wisdom.

A Statement of Purpose and Beliefs of the Church of the Great God

In the end, philosophy is merely man's search for answers without God. Mike Ford exposes philosophy's fundamental faults and directs us toward real truth, found in God's Word.

John Ritenbaugh reiterates that Jesus was baptized, not because He had committed any sin, but in order to fulfill God's Commandments of righteousness. Baptism is used symbolically to represent one's total commitment. Perhaps if people knew what was required, there would be fewer baptisms. Every thought, every attitude, every action (the totality of our life) is to be brought into obedience to Him. When Jesus was baptized, He was demonstrating His total commitment to what was laid out before Him. Jesus had to overcome, defeat, displace and disqualify Satan as ruler as part of His commission as Head of the body. As we are joined to the Body, it is part of our commission also. We also wrestle with spiritual wickedness in high places. We are in a war with an enemy we can't feel, see, or touch, an enemy who is trying to take control of our thinking processes. In order to win the battle with Satan, we must counter his deceptive arguments, not with human reasoning, but with the knowledge of God. Satan broadcasts attitudes into our minds, tilting them in certain directions. God uses Satan as an instrument to test for weaknesses, enabling us to be strengthened. In our struggle with Satan, we are admonished to be sober, exercising control over our minds. If a person is under the influence of the world, he is not able to resist Satan. Familiarity and usage of God's word along with yielding to Him and drawing close to Him will help us resist Satan. Jesus resisted Satan with the knowledge of God, resisting appeals to vanity, using power selfishly resisting to lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life.

Men have searched for centuries for the keys to success in life. Many have found rules to live by to bring them physical wealth and well-being, but all of them have neglected the most important factor: God!