Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons, Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness by James Tissot, Brooklyn Museum, Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>This child is destined \u2026 to be a sign that will be spoken against. <\/i>Simeon<\/p>\n
The world has corrupted many of our religious people. This can make us outliers on our own \u201cteam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus Himself experienced this sort of thing. Simeon prophesied that Jesus would be opposed when Jesus was only eight days old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThis child is destined \u2026 to be a sign that will be spoken against,\u201d he said. He went on to tell Mary that a \u201csword\u201d would pierce her own heart also, which certainly appears to be a prophesy of the day that the soldier rammed a sword through Jesus\u2019 heart on Calvary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJesus was indeed \u201ca sign that was spoken against.\u201d Throughout His ministry, He was mocked, reviled and attacked by the most powerful priests of His day. They ultimately succeeded in getting a corrupt politician to murder the Son of God for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCatholics call this being a \u201csign of contradiction.\u201d Jesus was a sign of contradiction to the politicized, cold-hearted and rule-oriented preaching and teaching of His day. He was a sign of contradiction to the same political heresy that we are forced against our wills to oppose.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThere is not one of us who wants <\/i>to be a sign of contradiction. Being a sign of contradiction hurts.<\/p>\n
Do you remember how Jesus answered the devil? He used Scripture. When satan tempted Him with political power, \u201call the kingdoms of the world,\u201d He answered \u201cIt is written, Worship the Lord your God, and Him only.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn other words, do not succumb to the idolatry of power. Worship God.<\/p>\n
I believe that Jesus was fully human when Satan tested Him. He was one of us. If He had been fully God, He wouldn\u2019t have been tempted. He wouldn\u2019t have needed to quote Scripture. He could have just said, \u201cBe gone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut we can\u2019t do that, and Jesus, in His human weakness, couldn\u2019t either. Not then, not during His first great trial against the powers of darkness. Just as Jesus the human did not step down from the cross, so Jesus the human was tempted by the same things that tempt us in our desert.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHe didn\u2019t use His divine powers to cast Satan away. He fought with the same tools that we have at our disposal. He used faith, Scripture and trust in God and Him only.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cBeware that, when fighting monsters, you do not become a monster yourself,\u201d Nietzsche said. He understood the danger. But he turned his back on the protection of the Protector.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe loneliness of worshipping in churches that are in love with power of this world is painful. The sorrow of losing trust in our religious leaders runs deep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat is the Abyss, staring back at us. It is the devil, pricking us here and there to see what works. It is old scratch, poking us to find the method or means he can use to drive us to fall down and worship him, or if not him directly, one of his creatures, his petty little false idols that he dangles before us like charms on a bracelet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI promised I would talk about the Way out of all this misery. We cannot be rogue planets without a sun. We must find our orbit. That orbit for all of us is Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHe not only suffered as we suffer. He showed us the Way. He gave us clear commandments and teachings to follow that will lead us through this or any other time of peril.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m going to talk about that in detail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut this subject is too important to discuss superficially. Tomorrow is Part Four.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This child is destined \u2026 to be a sign that will be spoken against. Simeon The world has corrupted many of our religious people. This can make us outliers on our own \u201cteam.\u201d Jesus Himself experienced this sort of thing. Simeon prophesied that Jesus would be opposed when Jesus was only eight days old.\u00a0 \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":35114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[726,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-following-christ","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Don't Become the Evil You Oppose, Part Three<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This child is destined \u2026 to be a sign that will be spoken against. Simeon The world has corrupted many of our religious people. This can make us outliers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/02\/dont-become-the-evil-you-oppose-part-three\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don't Become the Evil You Oppose, Part Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This child is destined \u2026 to be a sign that will be spoken against. Simeon The world has corrupted many of our religious people. 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Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. 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