Surviving Pandemics: The Little Things Make Big Differences: Tackling Inflammation

The world has lost a giant, and his name was Charlie Kirk. We live in a world of silent cowardice. There are cities in America today where a woman can be raped on the subway in broad daylight and bystanders will say nothing. It is a world where selfishness and iniquity have caused the hearts of many to grow cold, as the Bible warns in Matthew 24:12. It is a world where wickedness unobjected to has strangled principled discourse. People have stifled the voice of conviction in their personal lives for so long that it has subdued independence and courage in the public square. Put simply: people who are cowards in their personal lives will be cowards in their public lives. Under the best of circumstances in such a world, it would be difficult for anyone to stand up in the public square and voice their opinion, even if that opinion is a majoritarian position. But it takes supreme courage to enter public territory where one holds a minority opinion and engage in public dialogue with those who hate everything you stand for. When Charlie Kirk went to a public university to speak on the Bible, the sanctity of life and marriage, or how it is impossible for men to become women, he was entering territory where he knew his opinions were hated and would be misrepresented. He knew he was going to be threatened and vilified. He knew there was a risk to his life. But he went anyway. Whether you agreed with him or not, liked him or not, whether he was right about everything or not, it is necessary to somberly consider and lament the killing of such a man. We mourn the loss of rare species of animals and insects, flora and fauna. Billions are poured into the fight to save threatened animals. But the rarest of all things in this wicked, cold-hearted world is the principled and courageous human being. The silencing of a principled man, killed for the express purpose of censoring his voice, is a tragedy of infinitely greater magnitude than this foolish, dissipated generation realizes. We live in a world where closeted podcasters voice their opinions from the comfort of their living rooms. Most have never faced a big crowd, let alone a big hostile crowd. Let’s face it. Some of the most brazen and cocky online personalities who bark the loudest from their private apartment cocoons would soil themselves at the prospect of standing at a microphone surrounded by hundreds or thousands of actual people. Especially real hostile people. But Charlie Kirk was not only courageous, he respectfully dialogued with the people who screamed at him, insulted him, and hated him. In a world of polarization and cancel culture, and naked, open hostility, Charlie was measured and polite. A perverse generation of leftist students celebrates the loss of Charlie Kirk. They bask in it. They do not realize that they are rejoicing in the loss of that rarest of blessings: someone who cared enough to come speak to them despite their hostility. And who will go now? The ultimate censorship is murder. Cain killed Abel to silence his conscientious and courageous, principled speech. The Bible records the deaths and persecution of the prophets, every one of them censored and punished for speaking the truth. Isaiah sawn in two, Jeremiah thrown into the pit, Elijah hunted by wicked Jezebel. The apostles faired no better. Peter crucified, James killed with the sword, Stephen stoned, Paul beheaded. The blood of righteous Abel cried unto the Lord from the ground, and “he, being dead, yet speaketh” – Hebrews 11:4. Does the blood of Charlie Kirk cry less loudly? It takes courage to speak in the face of hostile crowds, but it is not only courage which drives a person to take such a risk. It takes conviction. A love of the truth. And yes, a love of people. The world has lost a giant. And it is right to mourn the passing of such a man. … On December 9, 2025, Charlie Kirk’s last minority opinion will be published posthumously. The book is on a subject he felt to be infinitely more important than mere politics. It is on the subject of the ancient and forgotten seventh-day Sabbath of the Bible, and is titled, “Stop in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life”. A Christian world which has embraced the papal falsehood of Sunday sacredness will soon hear the thoughts of a martyr on the sacredness of the seventh day of the fourth commandment. These are doubtless words that the conservative right, and proponents of Project 2025 need to hear. These are words which the left, who have rejected Creator God and Redeemer need to hear. It is another sign of the times.

THE CURSE OF CHURCH AND STATE, PART 3: LIBERTY THREATENED Nearly a hundred and forty years ago there was a major national initiative to unite church and state in America and impose what was claimed to be Christianity on society. The push united representatives from at least eleven denominations, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. After a severe struggle the movement failed. i Today, America is facing another similar crisis. … THE HISTORICAL PUSH FOR CHURCH AND STATE UNION IN AMERICA In the late 1800s, the National Reform Association (NRA) ii achieved country-wide political momentum for its initiative for a religious amendment to the Constitution to make the United States a Christian state. Its proposed amendment was worded as follows: "We the people" would acknowledge "Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among nations, His revealed will as the supreme law of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government..." iii The stated purpose of the NRA was to unite church and state. It’s organizational constitution contained the following purpose: To secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as will declare the nation's allegiance to Jesus Christ, and its acceptance of the moral laws of the Christian religion, and so indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions and usages of our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land. iv The practical result of the proposed constitutional amendment was stated in the Christian Statesman, the flagship publication of the NRA, on February 21, 1884. Writer Rev. J. C. K. Milligan asked the question, “How is the Amendment to be carried out practically?viii In answer he stated: “In brief, its adoption will at once make the morality of the ten commandments to be the supreme law of the land, and anything in the State constitutions and laws that is contrary to them will become unconstitutional. v Another proponent of the NRA, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D., stated the following in a speech at the New York National Reform Convention: We want State and religion—and we are going to have it. It shall be that so far as the affairs of State require religion, it shall be revealed religion, the religion of Jesus Christ. The Christian oath and Christian morality shall have in this land ‘an undeniable legal basis.’ We use the word religion in its proper sense, as meaning a man’s personal relation of faith and obedience to God. vi Those who opposed the religious amendment to the Constitution were declared to be “infidels” and “lunatics”, and Jews, deists, Seventh-day Baptists, and all others, including Seventh-day Adventists, were classed with the atheists, and pronounced as ‘atheists’ themselves by Mr. Edwards: These all are, for the occasion, and so far as our Amendment is concerned, one class… They must be counted together.... they must be treated as [atheists], for this question, one party. Now look at it—look at the controversy. The question is not between opinions that differ, but opinions that are opposite, that are contradictory, that mutually exclude each other. It is between Christianity and infidelity. It is between theism and atheism, between the acknowledgment of a God and the denial that there is any God… They “are conjoined with the other members of this class by the accident of differing with the mass of Christians upon the question of what precise day of the week shall be observed… vii After stating that those who opposed the NRA religious amendment were only a “minority”, Mr. Edwards proceeded to describe the unfitness of such people for “advanced” societal participation: “I would tolerate him [the atheist, including Jews, deists, Seventh-day Baptists, etc] as I would a conspirator. The atheist is a dangerous man.... But he shall be tolerated. He may live, and go free, hold his lands, and enjoy his home; he may even vote; but for any higher, more advanced citizenship, he is, as I hold, utterly disqualified. viii The NRA ultimately failed in its initiative to have a national Sunday law passed and the push to unite church and state sullenly subsided for a time. Today, however, a resurgent coalition of parties, Protestant and Catholic, has largely already succeeded where the NRA failed. Christian Dominionism, including the Heritage Foundation/Project 2025, and adherents to the New Apostolic Reformation, have seized political power and are altering government to implement religious policy and goals, as Revelation 13 foretells. We believe this union of church and state represents the image to the beast recorded by John in Revelation: Revelation 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. ix EXAMPLES OF CHURCH/STATE UNION TODAY There is no shortage of examples to evidence that religious power is influencing, or outright controlling in some instances, the state. For example, Christian dispensationalism controls foreign policy in the Middle East, as Senator Ted Cruz recently admitted in an interview with Tucker Carlson. Ecumenical Christianity is convinced that whoever blesses the nation of Israel will be blessed, and whoever curses it will be cursed.