Archives for posts with tag: Bill O’Reilly
As current President of the United States, can Donald Trump “legally” pardon himself from a possible Impeachment or any other crimes? YouTube blogger and podcast host, Bill O’Reilly builds a strong case for our soon-to-be departing President in this recent video presentation.
I’ve blogged about this a number of times before as to FOX News having the vast majority of its female on-air personalities appear as if they were either former cheerleaders, models, or beauty pageant contestants (like the Plaintiff in this Sexual Harassment lawsuit, former Miss America Gretchen Carlson) rather than mediocre-looking women who possess intelligent journalistic savvy.
If it’s true that Ratings are everything in the TV network business — and we all know that Sex promotes viewers to watch a certain TV program/network — then, I guess, there’s no place for mediocre-looking people on television despite how much “journalistic integrity” they may possess.
Granted, Mr. Ailes is certainly entitled to his ‘Day in Court’ on this lawsuit, but, perception-wise, Ms. Carlson’s charges in her lawsuit sound extremely “Believable” right about now, in light of FOX’s history with on-air female personalities. If Ms. Carlson’s allegations are true, then this is a Text Book case of Sexual Harassment — and Pattern of Behavior — in its purest form. And now, the Huffington Post has reported that about 10 former female employees from FOX News have already come forward to support Ms. Carlson’s allegations in this case.
Prediction: I think Roger Ailes and FOX News will pay Gretchen Carlson a “ton of money” to settle this lawsuit, out of court, in much the same fashion as it did with its top-rated star, Bill O’Reilly when he got whacked with a Sexual Harassment lawsuit several years ago from — you guessed it — a then-FOX News employee.
P.S. This now begs the question, Why was Andrea Tantaros terminated from FOX News a couple months ago? Did Tantaros ever engage in a sexual relationship with either Mr. Ailes or one of the other ‘big wigs’ at FOX News? It’s sort of amazing how none of the specifics of Ms. Tantaros’ firing (just before her Book was about to be publicly released) ever came into fruition.
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/05/fight-breaks-out-whcd-afterparty-between
Fight Breaks Out At WHCD Afterparty Between HuffPo’s Ryan Grim And Fox’s Jesse Watters
By Heather
Why is it not surprising in the least to hear that Bill O’Reilly’s favorite “ambush reporter” was the one that started this dust up? Apparently the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim and Fox’s Jesse Watters got into an actual fight at the MSNBC White House Correspondents’ Dinner afterparty:
In the early-morning hours of Sunday, a scuffle broke out between Fox News correspondent Jesse Watters and Ryan Grim, the Huffington Post’s Washington bureau chief. The fight — unusual among a tuxedo-clad crowd more used to venting their differences with Twitter snarks — briefly caused ripples in the party, where political staffers and journalists were grooving to tunes spun by DJ Biz Markie and noshing on mini servings of chili cheese fries.
Here’s how it went down, per several witness: Grim and Watters were among a group located in a heated tent just outside the main party area. The two apparently don’t have a personal relationship, but Grim realized who Watters was and recalled a beef he had with the “O’Reilly Factor” correspondent that dated back to 2009, when Watters, known as an “ambush journalist,” had engineered an on-camera confrontation of writer Amanda Terkel, now a HuffPo colleague of Grim. Terkel’s account of the incident was headlined “I Was Followed, Harassed, And Ambushed By Bill O’Reilly’s Producer.” […]
Grim decided to give Watters a taste of his own medicine, whipping out his camera phone and filming him. Watters didn’t take well to this, eventually snatching the phone away from Grim and putting it in his pocket. Grim set out to retrieve it, and a scuffle ensued. No cinematic sparring or broken beer bottles, witnesses said, but the two flailed around a bit, upending a table and bumping into several people.
“Punches were definitely thrown,” said one witness.
Before any damage was done, several bystanders, including RNC executive director Sean Spicer, separated the two. Spicer said he didn’t see the lead-up to the fight and said he was just attempting to stay true to the party venue. “Just trying to keep the peace,” he said.
Watters couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, but reached for comment, Grim was unrepentant. “Ambush guy can’t take getting ambushed,” he said. “Maybe he should think about his life choices.”
He’s giving Watters way too much credit for being capable of thinking.
[And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him…
Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. — Acts 8:26-31, 35]
I can sort of relate to what the Ethiopian eunuch is saying here in this Biblical passage of Acts, chapter 8 – ESPECIALLY on the subject of the Trinity, a.k.a. the Deity of Christ.
As with the whole concept of Algebra, which I never could comprehend back when I was in high school, I DEFINITELY need someone of higher intelligence (or perhaps, Holy Spirit) than myself to sincerely “guide me” when it comes to believing that both Jesus Christ and God are the exact same entity. OR, is this one of these things in the Bible that we’re just supposed to, “take on Faith”?
• Jesus walked on water – I can’t really explain “how” he did that, but the Bible states it, that settles it, I believe it really happened.
• Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead – I can’t really explain “how” he did that, but the Bible states it, that settles it, I believe it really happened.
• God parted the Red Sea – I can’t really explain “how” He did that, but the Bible states it, that settles it, I believe it really happened.
* Jesus stated that “the meek shall inherit the earth” more than 2000 years ago yet there’s been no sign of that happening, but the Bible states it, that settles it, I believe it’s going to happen someday.
Perhaps the whole concept of the Trinity is supposed to be just like the aforementioned examples, something that we’re not suppose to be able to explain but just take on “Faith”, like God is omnipresent (everywhere at once), or, God has no beginning or no end.
But what I think makes the subject of the Trinity rather confusing is that there are approximately 40 verses in the New Testament of the Bible, which might indicate that God and Jesus are two separate entities. The word, “Trinity”, incidentally, is not mentioned even once in the Bible.
Granted, there are probably even more verses than that indicating that Jesus is God, including the fact that the Jews had Jesus crucified and nailed to a cross on the charge of Blasphemy (claiming he was God).
$64,000 Question: To a normal individual, how are they supposed to make heads or tails on what the Trinity is all about? In the book of 1 Corinthians, it states that God would not have us ignorant on spiritual matters, and it also states in the book of 1 Timothy that it’s God’s Will that all individuals be saved (eternal salvation) and come to the knowledge of the truth. So with that said, why did God make it so difficult for people to comprehend the whole Trinity concept? More than that, why is the Trinity such a “taboo” subject, which nobody in the Christian church really wants to discuss?
Personally, I was the local access TV coordinator for my church — New Beginning Fellowship — in Nashua NH (in 2015, this congregation moved to nearby Merrimack NH and renamed itself, New in Christ Bible Church). After seeing the YouTube video of the Evolution (Creation Debate 2014) debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye earlier this year – which I believe was excellent – I thought I could try the same type of televised discussion with the Trinity.
About 4-5 months ago, a woman who was a relative of a couple people from our church attended a Wednesday night Bible study and, out of the clear blue, raised the question – “Why do Christians believe that Jesus Christ is God? That makes no sense whatsoever.”
Our Pastor for whatever reason, then decided to change the topic of what we were supposed to discuss that evening to that of the Trinity. I thought, at the time, it was a little flippant on the Pastor’s part since it wasn’t exactly a national emergency, like 9-11, or the death of a church member.
Why would any Pastor automatically change the whole subject of a Bible study’s discussion based solely on a new visitor’s interruption? Shouldn’t there be some type of respect or protocol followed in this type of church service?
To add even more salt in the wound, the woman’s response to just about every scripture the Pastor cited was, “but it doesn’t make any sense that Jesus is his own Father, or that God is his own Son”, and yet he chose to pander this woman for two straight Bible study sessions (or a little more than two hours in two weeks). I mean it was pathetic enough that the original topic of that evening got completely sidetracked just to pander to this woman, but she offered no new questions to the discussion other than the Trinity doesn’t make any sense.
All through this “display”, I wasn’t quite sure if the Pastor was really zealous on pushing the “truth” about the Trinity, OR, obsessively flirting with this woman in a vain attempt to get in her skirt. Within about a month, I would get the answer to this question.
I knew for a fact that there are Christian groups who view themselves as anti-Trinitarian based on Biblical scriptures. In my younger years, I was even a member of one of these groups. I’m currently a member of a Facebook group, which holds fast to this belief that I joined when I noticed a couple of mutual Facebook friends were also members. Now let me say, up front, I never actually met the coordinator of this Facebook group, who resides in the Seattle area, but I did talk to him once on the phone to sort of gauge if he was mature and versed enough to discuss the Trinity on local access TV — although the false perception later on by Muster was that I must be “bosom buddies” with this guy because I joined his Facebook fan page.
So a couple of months ago, the coordinator for that Facebook group posted a message which he titled, “5 Questions for the Trinitarian” — they are as follows, along with the Biblical verses this guy based them on:
1) Revelation 1:1 reads that God gave Jesus this revelation. Does this make sense if Jesus is God?
[ Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:]
2) Jesus referred to his Father as “the only True God” in John 17:3, and even declared belief in this fact to be part of the definition of everlasting life. Are you prepared to disagree with Jesus that his Father is “the only true God”?
[John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.]
3) 1 Timothy 6:16 states that God is immortal and invisible, that no one has ever seen Him; yet your theology sets forth that God not only became visible, but then died. Are you willing to make such claims in stark contrast to clear Scripture?
[ 1 Timothy 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.]
4) Paul wrote that “for us there is one God, The Father (and one lord Jesus messiah),” yet according to your theology, Paul should have written “there is one God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Shouldn’t I accept Scripture for what it plainly says? Are you comfortable adding your conclusions to clear Scripture?
[ 1 Corinthians 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.]
5) 1 Timothy 2:5 states there is one mediator between God and humanity, that is, the man messiah Jesus. Does it make sense for Jesus to be a mediator between himself and humanity? He would no longer then be a mediator by definition. Does God expect us to discard logic while reading His word?
[ 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;]
Had we actually done the local access TV show, I would’ve added another good Bible verse to this bunch which is a direct quote from Jesus himself:
{And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. — Mark 10:18}
This also generates numerous more questions on the Trinity such as:
* If Jesus Christ hates the anti-Trinitarian belief so much, then why does the Bible state he’ll set up his Kingdom following his Second Coming in a region of the world (Jerusalem) that never acknowledged him as being God?
* Or, how about, why are fundamentalist Christians so up in arms about the Trinity, and yet it’s no big passionate deal with a subject like, Speaking in Tongues? Specifically, does Speaking in Tongues still exist today or not? Isn’t the Truth, supposed to be “the Truth”?
* Also, what about those who encourage people to read the Bible “literally” in light of the previous 5-6 verses? If someone is making an attempt to understand the Bible on their own, wouldn’t these verses serve as contradictions to the belief that Jesus Christ and God are the exact same entity? At the very least, perhaps encourage people to fellowship with other Christian believers or join a good Bible-based church to better understand God’s Word, particularly verses that appear to contradict other scriptures?
Now, if a Pastor were to ask his Congregation if they had any questions about anything in the Bible, why would the aforementioned be “off-limits”??? ESPECIALLY when the Pastor specifically proclaimed, while pandering to this woman, that he would absolutely love to have a special “Discovery Night” just to publicly answer anybody’s questions about the Bible?
So when I approached the Pastor on doing a local access TV show about the Trinity, with these five questions being asked, his response was basically 180 degrees opposite from what he showed this woman 4-5 months earlier. I even arranged for the coordinator of that Facebook ministry from Seattle, to join in the TV discussion via Skype but the Pastor wanted nothing to do with it so it wouldn’t further promote, in any way, his Facebook fan page. Oh well.
After going back-and-forth with Muster for a couple months, he chose to address these questions before a Wednesday night Bible study – AGAIN — instead of the TV studio for a show. It should be noted here that this guy operates a secular business in the same building as our church, and the vast majority, about 90 percent of the folks who attend this middle of the week Bible study are either employees or relatives of those employees in his business. Go figure on that one.
The Pastor looked as if he could play on one of those “Have a Snickers” commercials – the ones that say, “You’re not YOU when you’re hungry”. For nearly the same amount of time he spent pandering (or should I say, flirting) with the woman of 4-5 months earlier, he appeared angry until the very end which he basically insinuated that I was possessed with an Anti-Christ spirit, even though he misquoted the verses cited in 1 John 2:22-23 and 2 John 1:1:7-11. It sort of reminded me of when former President Bill Clinton was being badgered by a reporter on his extra-marital affair and responded by saying, “I’m going to say this just one more time – I DID NOT HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH THAT WOMAN, MS. LEWINSKY!!!”
It was as if he was simply diverting his “secret sin” from the Congregation. Those verses talk about acknowledging and respecting the roles of Father God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I definitely always have respected these roles, even though I may not have always viewed Jesus Christ as God, or God as Jesus Christ. I think those particular verses are more relevant to Christians forming friendships, particularly marriages, with people of Eastern religions, who don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ or the Bible whatsoever in their particular faiths. Just for the record here, for the first 19 years of my life, I always started and ended my prayers by saying, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” — the Catholic church NEVER explained or taught me the significance of doing that, I simply did that because everybody else did it. I’m sure that has to account for something in God’s eyes.
So shortly after he mentioned these verses with his usual fake smirk on his face, the church’s Worship (song) Leader (whose wife works for this Pastor’s business, and is also an in-law to the woman I mentioned earlier) chimed in by saying to me in front of the congregation, “Hey you want my notes, I’ve got some good notes here on this subject.”
Phony-baloney Wednesday night Prayer Requests
Now let me just interject a little bit on this Worship Leader — it seemed like at every Wednesday night Bible study, when the Pastor would openly ask for any prayer requests, this guy would quickly chime-in, “I would like to pray for Bill (or whoever, just fill-in the blank) who’s a guy at work I’ve been sharing the Gospel with”. Now at a quick glimpse, that’s fantastic, except that at a workplace, you’re primarily there to work and do a job, NOT to spread the Gospel. But week after week, month after month, this Worship Leader would request for prayer at the Wednesday night service, another person he “supposedly” shared the Gospel with at work, YET, the new people visiting this congregation, were few and far between. Nobody ever dared challenged this Worship Leader on “how was ‘so-and-so’ doing at his job, who we prayed for last Wednesday night”, that would be sort of insinuating the guy was a Liar (heaven forbid), so everybody in that congregation just sort of blindly took this guy’s word for it that he was “sharing the Gospel” with all these folks that he works with.
Funny thing — a few months after I left New Beginning Fellowship, I hooked up with a former high school classmate of mine and that guy’s wife just happened to work for the same company as this Worship Leader. When I asked her if she ever heard about this guy “sharing the Gospel” — or the Bible — with any of her fellow colleagues at work, she told me that she never came across any stories about that guy doing anything like that. Something like that would’ve spread like wildfire — especially at a secular type company. Maybe even prompt a few employees to file complaints with their superiors on Religious Harassment against this guy. Now she did tell me that the guy had some type of Christian-related article displayed at his own work space, but nothing which he was actually initiating conversations with his fellow employees’ beliefs on God.
Unfortunately, this Worship Leader continued perpetuating this Lie week after week, month after month (maybe even year after year) — probably all in a vain attempt to impress everybody else in the congregation — to pray for a supposed specific person at work that he had recently ‘shared the Gospel’ with. Keep in mind too, this was all while the self-proclaimed ‘Holier-than-Thou’ Pastor ignored any specifics whatever this guy was actually saying in his prayer requests and simply pretended like there was nothing wrong with this rather weird and bizarre arrangement every week. So much for, Truth and Honesty on prayer requests in churches, I guess.
This particular guy also had an uncanny knack for chiming in with his opinion on Biblical discussions he had absolutely no clue about. For example, one time when we were talking about wine and being drunk as cited in Biblical scripture, this guy would spout out, “Alcohol just wasn’t as potent back in those days.” Everybody would look at this guy, seemingly asking themselves in unison, “Really??? According to WHAT source??? Chapter and Verse on that, please???” It just appeared that this guy would say things like this just to dupe everyone else into believing that he’s “the smartest guy in the room”, or maybe a “spiritual heavy”, when in actuality, he really doesn’t know jack BLEEP.
So getting back to the Worship Leader’s offer to get his Trinity notes, I did take this guy’s notes, which came in really handy for me about a month later.
The Pastor, when it was time to do the TV taping, played ignorant on the specific date and said he was really busy with Integrity Laser and couldn’t possibly do the studio taping till after the New Year. So I asked him if he’d have a problem with me doing this show with our church’s Worship Leader instead since he claimed to know the Trinity so well during the Wednesday night Bible study. The Pastor agreed.
When I saw this Worship Leader that Sunday morning, I asked him what was a better night for him to do the Nashua TV show taping, Tuesday or Thursday? Can you say, “Deer in the Headlights”? It was obvious by the look on his face that this guy didn’t have a BLEEPIN clue on this topic, despite the fact that a month or so earlier he publicly boasted and bragged on just how “simple” the concept of the Trinity was all about.
And besides serving as the Worship Leader, this guy has done a number of Sunday sermons to fill-in a few times when the Pastor was away either on business or vacation, so I assume the man was more than willing to preach on topics he was familiar with and shy away from topics he wasn’t too versed on.
I said to him, “wow, I never realized that you were Lying during those Bible studies just to impress your wife and in-laws.” He criticized me afterwards for calling him out like that, but then I responded that he publicly called me out in front of the whole congregation on not being able to comprehend the Trinity.
Incidentally, it should be noted here that this Worship Leader was the ONLY person – out of about 10 people that said ANYTHING during Muster’s rant on the Trinity. It was as if these people were simply taking the Pastor’s word for it rather than trying to understand what the Bible was actually saying about the Trinity. I seriously got to question if ANY of these other folks could logically explain the Trinity to one of their neighbors, co-workers, or relatives.
Getting back to the notes that this Worship Leader gave me at the Bible study several weeks earlier, I gave him back those notes and told him to study them in preparation for our TV show appearance. He still insisted that I keep those so I could better understand the concept of the Trinity myself — what’s wrong with this picture??? How the heck can I understand the Trinity through this guy’s notes when he doesn’t have the first clue on this subject with these same notes?? To quote Jesus, that would be like, “the Blind leading the Blind”. Absolutely ridiculous!
The Pastor, I think, was trying to hide his “secret sin” of openly flirting with this woman, despite that fact that he’s been married for over 30 years and still refers his wife as, his “beautiful bride”. Personally, I now see this man as phony as a 3-dollar bill, just like the fake smirk on his face and his usual statement, “Praise God, Hallelujah” which he repeats like a demented little parrot every 30 seconds or so to try to dupe everybody on just how religious he thinks he is. Muster is like Nashua’s answer to, Joel Osteen.
It should be noted here too that, not only didn’t the woman who believed the Trinity didn’t make any sense soon quit attending New Beginning Fellowship, but we also had in the fairly recent past a rash of established members, serving on the Worship Team, elders, etc., — mostly middle-aged females, who quit attending this church. When asked why, Muster would simply revert back to his “have a Snickers” mode and respond by saying, “why don’t YOU call them up and ask them yourself”? So rather than attempting to follow Jesus’ example cited in the Parable of the One Lost Sheep — Luke 15:1-7 (which, incidentally, most Christians ought to be following) — this Pastor would instead much rather use the standard practice of former FOX News icons Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly by simply insinuating: screw ’em, I didn’t really want these folks in my congregation any way. Unbelievable!
What this Pastor failed to realize is that a small congregation, which this church definitely qualifies as such, is like a tight-knit family – it’s only human nature to inquire why someone would choose to leave. It makes a heck of a lot more sense to talk about that than it does, out of the clear blue, to simply pander to a visitor of the opposite sex and discuss the Trinity for two straight weeks.
…there is no new thing under the sun. — Ecclesiastes 1:9
Just for laughs and giggles, I Googled the keyword phrase, “trinity debate” and immediately came up with 21.7 million items in response. Contrary to my now former church, is it fairly safe to assume that Yours Truly WAS NOT the first person in the world to come up with the idea of publicly debating the Trinity (or the Deity of Christ)?
For a better perspective on what exactly 22 million hits on a Google search means, compare these two hot button Christian controversies that most individuals would probably assume could draw a lot more attention than “trinity debate”: “born gay or choice debate”, 11,100,000; “abortion God debate”, 13,900,000; and, “Speaking in Tongues“, 16,300,000. From a secular standpoint, popular TV talk show hosts Oprah Winfrey (22,100,000) and Ellen DeGeneres (21,800,000) each have about as many Google search hits as, “trinity debate”.
Incidentally, when I Googled the key phrase, Most Frequently Asked Bible Questions, the “Trinity” somehow amply popped up in both the popular sites offering questions and topics. This just further established Muster to be in denial and just plain wrong about insinuating that I was the ONLY person on the planet who didn’t have a good understanding of the Trinity.
So again, why do you suppose that is; if we’re all to just assume that the vast majority of Christians and Catholics in the world – or even here in the United States of America – have a better than average comprehension and understanding of what the Trinity is supposedly all about? By process of elimination from any trinity-related research: Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims don’t acknowledge Jesus Christ as part of their religion; Jews don’t acknowledge Jesus as being the Messiah or God; and Atheists simply don’t believe in God — therefore, I would assume the vast majority of the 22+ million in the Google search on the keywords, “trinity debate” were confused Christians and Catholics on this topic.
The very first item in my Google search was a YouTube video titled: Trinity Debate: Is Jesus God or the Son of God? It was initiated by a group called, Restoration Fellowship in 12-27-11, which was almost three years BEFORE we were supposed to do our show on Nashua Access TV. This production has already got nearly 90,000 views and lasts a little more than an hour. This same organization made a Part 2 video to this same Debate, and that’s already gotten about 36,000 views on YouTube.
Now is it unrealistic to think (or pray) this church in Nashua would’ve had the same type of viewing success with our Trinity debate as Restoration Fellowship has already got with theirs? Or at least attract a fairly good amount of the Christians and Christian wannabes in the southern New Hampshire area to check out the show for themselves and watch it? Well, when your congregation membership has been floundering and stagnant with about 14 people for well over the past decade, why not try something new and give it a shot? Besides that, I’ve always been a firm believer in the cliche, “If a Church isn’t Growing, then it must be Dying”, and this particular congregation, for all intents and purposes, has been dead now for a long, long time.
In the great words of pro Hockey legend and Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky: “You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Bottom Line: I knew it wasn’t going to be a healthy situation for me to remain a part of a church, which Muster falsely insinuated that I had an “anti-christ spirit” – most of the Congregation soon viewed me like someone afflicted with AIDS or the Ebola virus. And that’s the “thanks” I got from others in this church for trying to initiate a Biblically provocative media production like this? Why didn’t this Pastor say that to my face, one-on-one, before going to the Congregation? Why didn’t he call the guy from Seattle (who authored these, “5 Questions for the Trinitarian”) an “anti-Christ spirit” personally on our local TV show via Skype? I certainly don’t need that crap in my life right now.
And getting back to that “Creation Debate 2014” between Bill Nye and Ken Ham — which has already drew more hits on YouTube in less than a year than any other video on Evolution — would Muster claim that the person(s) responsible for initiating and coordinating this event must have an “anti-christ” or a “Devil” spirit for having the audacity of teaming a Christian and an Atheist together for a public televised discussion like this? If not, then what would be the difference with having a similar type of televised public forum on the Trinity?
Nationally popular pastor John MacArthur was recently quoted as saying on his radio show that winning people to Jesus Christ is a lot more about “humility” than it is “knowledge”. Amen to that! The Pastor is pretty sharp when it comes to quoting Bible scriptures but is just plain ignorant when it comes to dealing with people on a “humble” and “meek” level — unless, of course, the person in question is a fairly attractive female then, at that point, the sleazeball would just rationalize his behavior as simply, different. Lucky for him, I guess, that he employs (or formerly employed) a good portion of the congregation in his business, which is also housed in this same church building. Looking back, it really doesn’t surprise me that even regular broadcast exposure on a Nashua local access cable TV station for almost three years hasn’t and won’t improve the membership numbers of this church.
Furthermore, with a church this small in its congregation, wouldn’t one assume that the guy would respond to legitimate emails and phone calls within a day or so? I guess that I happen to be the wrong gender for this Pastor’s liking, because when I would approach him a week or so later, he would bark and criticize me for not “downloading the message” for him. Heaven forbid!
This whole incident was like blessing in disguise for me, not only “shaking off the proverbial dust and moving on” from the potential Trinity show which never quite came into fruition on Nashua local access TV, but also leaving a church that had a stagnant membership of under 20 people for at least the past decade – most of whom are either employees or employees’ relatives of Muster. It sure sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen and I would just assume not be a part of that particular train wreck.
About a half year after this Trinity debate fiasco, which never took place, the Pastor uprooted and relocated his business and church — now a Southern Baptist church referred to as, ‘New in Christ Bible Church’ — to nearby Merrimack NH. What’s that old cliche they say about, Karma? I have no clue how well or badly his business is doing in its new location, but the New in Christ Bible Church appears to be doing extremely poor according to both its Facebook and YouTube sites under the guidance and direction of the same Pastor.
Referring to the owner of NiC’s condo unit as: Psalm 24:1 LLC
One thing that Muster claimed he disliked were T.V. evangelists who would name their Ministries after themselves rather than something which would prompt people to worship God instead. I’m not quite sure if this had anything to do with God hopefully blessing the condo unit for the New in Christ Bible Church, but the name of the entity listed on the Property Deed for this particular congregation as the “Owner(s)” is, Psalm 24-1 LLC. To break down what exactly this Bible verse states, it’s as follows:
The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. — Psalms 24:1
Now don’t get me wrong, knowing God Almighty is fully responsible for Heaven, Earth, the entire solar system, and everything therein, is just a truly awesome thing to imagine — but what the heck does it have to do with, the New in Christ Bible Church??? Other than, of course, if the congregation ever wanted to terminate Muster from being Pastor of the NiC church, HE now owns the condo unit which the church services were taking place. So in all likelihood, if Muster chose NOT to either rent or sell that condo unit to the congregation, NiC would be legally forced to move to another location. But since the vast majority of these church members were either Integrity Laser employees, or relatives to Integrity Laser workers, this had little-to-no chance of ever taking place. Think of Muster as both their Pastor and Boss (AT LEAST most of these folks) at the same time. Hence, if you tweak Psalms 24:1 a little bit, it’s almost as if Muster wanted people to think of himself in that honorary status, at least regarding the operations of NiC, and Integrity Laser.
Why wouldn’t Muster refer to the owners of the LiC condo unit on the property Deed as, for example: 2 Corinthians 5:17 LLC ? Translated, this verse is interpreted as: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. I mean, when the property in question is called, ‘New in Christ Bible Church’, wouldn’t the perfect Biblical segue be: 2 Corinthians 5:17 LLC ? It makes sense to me, I’m fairly sure it would also make sense to most people as well.
Hopefully and prayerfully, God will inspire someone, somewhere to do a YouTube production on the Trinity to make it more comprehensible for just about anybody to understand. Incidentally, I came across a popular YouTube video that I posted in the Comments section of this Thread, which might help people better comprehend the subject of the Trinity in the Bible.
UPDATE August 2019: Less than four years after New in Christ Bible Church established itself in Merrimack NH, Jeff Muster chose to finally close its doors and dissolve itself as a congregation. Having been associated with this congregation since its inception when it was called, New Beginning Fellowship, I’m not quite sure who was more ‘at fault’ for this establishment going “belly up”, Muster for duping the church membership that ‘prayer alone’ would prompt God to do something supernatural while Muster peddled his bike around the country, or the Board of Elders (one of whom actually worked for Muster’s laser business when he got laid off from a job) for allowing Muster to continue to serve as Pastor for 17 years when he should’ve been justifiably fired after about two years. But since New in Christ Bible Church was floundering at the end with somewhere between a dozen to two dozen members, it was just a great blessing to end it all and have the members go their own separate ways.
FILE UNDER: Thank God for small miracles.
Boston Marathon bomb terrorists: Tamerlan Tsarnaev (left); and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
When FOX News TV anchor Bill O’Reilly asked his guest Boston columnist and local radio show host Howie Carr last Friday on, The O’Reilly Factor — when it became apparent that the second Boston Marathon Bombing suspect, 19 year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would soon be taken into custody in Watertown, MA – what would be tomorrow’s headline in the Boston newspapers, Carr aptly replied, “No good deed goes unpunished”.
I couldn’t agree more with Howie Carr’s response to O’Reilly’s question.
Carr went on to say how these two terrorist brothers who immigrated here from Russia in the past decade, were given all the freedoms afforded American citizenship YET still turned on their new homeland, killing at least four innocent people and permanently injuring hundreds more – all for the Muslim cause. Soon after immigrating here and residing in Cambridge MA, the boys’ mother became a convicted felon herself by shoplifting about $1500 worth of merchandise from a local Lord & Taylor department store. Their father, who still resides in Russia, was quoted as saying that these two sons are “good boys” and if American law enforcement officials wind up killing the youngest son, like they did the eldest, “there will be Hell to pay” – a rather poor choice of words in light of all the death and destruction these two young men had just initiated in the city of Boston.
What’s especially amazing is how much taxpayer money was spent last week to bring these two thugs to justice. Even though they both still remained in the Boston area after detonating about three, pressure-cooker pipe bombs at the annual historic marathon race, Boston, as well as its immediate suburbs, were in a virtual “martial law” situation for the next five days with local, state, and Federal police everywhere monitoring the streets with roadblocks and investigating every home in Watertown on Friday, hoping to find Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Taxpayer costs had to be AT LEAST in the millions of dollars just to bring these two brothers to justice.
The oldest son in question, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was previously arrested on a domestic disturbance charge and quoted as saying that he didn’t even have one friend in the United States YET nobody here held a gun to his head forcing him to become an American citizen in 2007. The younger brother, Dzhokhar, who’s now in custody, became an official U.S. citizen last September 11th (how very appropriate).
As the old cliché goes, “that’s gratitude for ya.”
Howie Carr also mentioned on, The O’Reilly Factor, that the Tsarnaev family automatically qualified for Welfare and Food Stamps upon immigrating here to the United States – go figure on that one. To pour even more gas on the proverbial fire, prior to be taken into custody last Friday night, young Dzhokhar received a $2500 scholarship from the City of Cambridge to the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, which he was an enrolled full-time student. Somehow, I seriously doubt the Tsarnaev family would have it this nice if they were still residing in “Mother Russia”.
So where do we go from here?
1) Immediately implement the Death Penalty in Massachusetts and every other State: Use the Tsarnaev brothers as the proverbial “poster children” to pass this through every State’s legislative body. At 19, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev could easily live at least another 50 years in our Federal prison system at a cost of about $1 million to keep him alive – AND HEALTHY — for the rest of his natural life. Dzhokhar’s medical and dental needs will be paid 100 percent by WE THE TAXPAYERS!!! Also, if Dzhokhar chooses to have a medical procedure, like a Sex Change operation, perhaps to please his fellow inmates, and would probably cost YOU or I a couple hundred thousand dollars since it’s not covered by most employee health insurance plans, we taxpayers would be required to pay for that as well. Wouldn’t initiating the Death Penalty on this guy be A LOT better for society than keeping him alive and rehashing this story year after year after year???
2) Lobby President Barack Obama NOT to pull our military troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan next year: Keep in mind, this Boston Marathon bombing incident was just two (2) little thugs who converted to Muslim, working independently from al Queda. Had this been a plot initiated by a couple dozen Muslim terrorists, the USA would probably be in its second week here of full-fledged “Martial Law”. I’d say, keep the Muslim whack jobs occupied in their section of the planet while keeping the North American continent as safe as possible. If Obama is going to lie or “flip-flop” on any of his promises to the American people, I sure as heck hope he changes his mind and leaves our military troops in the Middle East for the rest of his second term. Otherwise, I think it’ll be a VERY BIG, BIG, BIG MISTAKE!!!
3) The FBI official who allowed Tamerlan Tsarnaev to remain in the United States after being warned by Russia that he was a “terrorist” ought to be immediately terminated: After the whole 9/11 fiasco, how the heck do you screw up something like this??? BTW, didn’t then-President Bill Clinton have an opportunity to capture Osama bin Laden and lock him up at Gitmo? I believe he did. But I definitely want to hear how this guy managed to “slip through the cracks” and then subsequently cause all the death and destruction he did in Boston last week.
4) The Tsarnaev family ought to be legally prohibited from making any financial profit off any book, movie, or any other media outlet deal from this incident: First Amendment or no First Amendment, this particular family – which the United States of America was gracious enough to accept as “immigrants” here – should have ZERO opportunity to cash-in on this tragedy by virtue of the fact that they’re related to these two guys. Under the same circumstances, most other countries would probably deport them for pulling a stunt like that. If the Tsarnaev family feel they’re getting royally screwed here, let them immigrate back to “Mother Russia”. As far as I’m concerned, any financial profits generated by a book, movie, or any other media outlet deal regarding this tragedy ought to go straight to the victims and their families.
5) Two ironic twists to this whole incident – bumper sticker on the carjacked vehicle & name of the boat Dzhokhar was hiding in: A couple things which I found rather fascinating concerning this incident. First, the vehicle the brothers had carjacked in Cambridge had a bumper sticker on the back which stated, “Coexist”, that is basically a Liberal type credo after the 9/11 tragedy urging all Americans to hold hands and sing, Kumbaya, with all our Muslim brethren. Somehow, I think the owner of that particular vehicle might’ve reconsidered his overall liberal philosophy since the Boston Marathon bombing escapade and is looking to remove that stupid “Coexist” bumper sticker off his vehicle. Secondly, the name of the boat in Watertown that Dzhokhar was hiding in last Friday was, “Slip Away 2”. Somehow, if they do have a book or a movie about this tragedy, I sort of think that bumper sticker and name of the boat will be aptly included, for nothing else, giving it some interesting perspective.
One Bad Decision Away From Homelessness 