As a conservative Bible believing Christian with strong liberal leanings in places, I often feel caught in the middle when there are big crises plastered all over social media.

The shooting of Alex Pretti and the political/societal landscape around it is the current crisis of the moment. I’m sure there will be another one next week.

I’m distraught that another man is dead.

I’m distraught that deconstructing and slow-moing violent bystander video has become as common as rewatching a game day play that’s questionable.

And then… there is a sinking terror that comes with the realization that objective truth (even complicated nuanced truth) is no longer a standard we can mostly agree on as a people.

We all have access to the same footage of the shooting, and the conclusions being drawn couldn’t be more different.

There are two sides. These two sides are polarized. Extreme. Unwilling to integrate complex nuanced details. In some cases, there’s outright lies and gaslighting.

And with the speed of social media… there’s absolutely no incentive to wait and see what an investigation concludes.

Also?

We don’t trust the people doing the investigation. We don’t trust the media.

Every principled foundation we use to agree on a standard of truth (eyewitness accounts, evidence, video, investigations) are all torn apart to shreds.

This is where we are, and it’s frightening.

Still… I’m attempting to find the objective truth in any story that comes my way because I believe there is an objective truth that can be witnessed.

I also believe that the truth can hold nuances and realities that feel opposing and messy. And many of them may be morally neutral even if people scream otherwise.

Lastly, I do believe there is true right and wrong, and I personally align myself to scripture and the Word of God on what that is.

It’s not even been 24 hours since the shooting, but based on currently available footage, eyewitness accounts, and public statements — all of which may evolve — this is how I understand the sequence so far.

It goes without saying, I’m willing to update or change my position as time goes on.

• Tensions are extremely high in Minneapolis (and around the country).

• Some protestors are actively trying to interrupt and resist this federal enforcement agency operating with expanded authority (ICE). Some are just peaceful protestors. Some may just be curious and filming everything to feel “a part” of it, with no intent to interrupt or be violent.

• ICE has exploded with new agents as the government is pouring billions into this program. Some agents are well trained. Some are not. The training has been shortened to get agents into the field faster.

• The reason for the explosion of ICE is a high amount of illegal immigration and fraud due to complex border issues that weren’t dealt with. This is how the administration has chosen to solve the problem.

• Alex Pretti is a US citizen who was at the protest and filming. He also had a gun on his person with a legal permit.

• ICE agents were conducting an operation and were met with resistance from some protestors (who you could argue - a few were acting like agitators).

• When ICE forcefully pushed a woman, Alex stepped in.

• As he tried to protect her, the ICE agent sprayed them both at close range.

• A scuffle ensued as he resisted (or perhaps he was trying to rub his eyes - it’s not clear). This is when 8 agents were on him.

• Someone (an ICE agent) saw Alex’s gun on his side and yelled “GUN!”

• One of them took it away and it appears to have discharged accidentally at some point. That was the first shot.

• Then there were lots of additional shots fired (8-9 shots).

• Multiple eyewitness accounts and video have given written statements about what they saw.

• Some official White House accounts and government officials have written statements and gone on camera to the media, reciting the incident with untrue statements, insinuations, and outright lies that do not match the footage that we can all see.

• Alex Pretti did take a calculated risk by attending the protest, by engaging with law enforcement, and by carrying a weapon. He did not break United States law unless his resistance was true resistance or whether it was related to his eyes being sprayed. It’s hard to tell.

• In the United States, you have a right to life, even if you break some laws. There is a small limited justification for lethal use of force in situations where there is imminent danger.

• Alex presented no imminent danger but the accidental discharge of the gun clearly spooked ICE agents and they reacted.

• The reaction was to shoot the victim 8-9 times. This is a judgment call on my end, but this was excessive.

• Biblically speaking, I believe that we’re to submit to local law enforcement. I believe that some protestors don’t do this. And I also believe they have a right to life even when breaking this moral law.

• I also believe that local law enforcement is to submit to the training and regulations of what it looks like when you carry authority in a city.

• I also believe if you are a leader with a lot of power, you choose your words carefully and always speak the truth.

The right is blaming Alex and the left. The argument is primarily about submission to law enforcement and how the left is organizing insurrection and agitation.

The left is blaming Trump and the right. The argument is primarily about unnecessary use of force and fascist ideology leaking into a free country.

What I can conclude is that a LOT has gone wrong.

Biblically speaking, people in power have more responsibility than people who are not in power.

That means (starting from the top down), the people who are obligated to find and speak the truth and have the highest standard of responsibility (and need for moral restraint) are…

1. The President and his cabinet

2. State and local law enforcement & ICE

3. Then citizens

Right now that doesn’t appear to be happening. Scroll on any official account (Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, DHS) and you will notice what they are saying is in cases, objectively false, but also - deeply inflammatory.

So how do we (all of us in category 3) respond?

That is the question of the hour.

At what point does resisting authority become something that is morally correct? Are we there at this moment in history? Or are we not there yet?

Honestly… I don’t know the answer to that question.

I am sad today. I am also distraught that objective truth feels hidden from view. I feel chaos is winning.

Some things I plan to try….

1. I will exercise mercy and patience. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry (James 1:19).

2. I will seek out conversations with people who sits on each side of the issue.

3. I will write to my government representatives with specific objective questions to demand institutional integrity.

4. I will stay in grief instead of converting it to anger immediately. God dedicated an entire book to grief (Lamentations). This prevents cynicism from taking root.

I hope you are able to do the same.

xx

Excitement because my efficiency skyrockets with every new tool I try.
Dread because I realize if I can do it in seconds… so can everyone else.

For example, a beautifully designed slide on a presentation used to signal to the viewer high end branding, a trustworthy reputation, and quality teaching. It had value because there was work, sacrifice, and time involved. Not everyone could do it.

Now? Stunning design is instant.
If everything is beautiful, beauty stops meaning anything.

So why am I writing about AI here on The Dandelion Report?

Because these changes are not just economic or technological. Those surface-level changes are symptoms of something deeper happening.

AI is reshaping the three core things Scripture already defines: society, work, and humanity.

And when we forget those definitions, we start interpreting AI through utopian or dystopian lenses instead of a grounded, biblical one.

Is society really heading towards utopia?

This world is fallen. Sin broke it, and it will only fully be put right again when Jesus returns.

“For the creation was subjected to frustration…the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”
- Romans 8:20-22

We can safely assume (without getting into nuanced arguments about eschatology and the end times) that until Jesus returns, things will continue to be broken.

Utopia does not exist and it won’t. No matter how much AI extends our lives, erases poverty, or makes hard work obsolete. People who say “It’ll be a rough 15-20 years and then all of society will transition into the AI world and we’ll be happier and healthier than ever before” are serving up a big ol’ dose of hopium.

Of course, you could look at life and times in the 1800’s and say, “Look at how much better life is in the 2000’s due to technological advances” and surmise that AI will accelerate this for us, and perhaps AI will eliminate cancer or stop car accidents and plane crashes.

But if you ask people today if we’re living in a Utopia compared to the 1800’s, many of us would say they had it better back then. 🤣

The point is… utopia is not coming for us. Jesus is the only One who will finally put the world right again. AI won’t restore the world, it’s just going to amplify the broken one we already have.

AI can change work, but not how we’re made.

Next up… the idea of work.

AI is changing (and eliminating) work. But what is work and why do we do it?

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” - Genesis 2:15

Work was a part of our makeup and design from before the world broke. We were placed in a Garden and told to work it and keep it.

Work is good for us. It’s how we’re made. The word here in Scripture means:

• creating

• cultivating

• managing

• stewarding

• building

• serving

• repairing

• protecting

The struggle and pain involved in work happens after the fall as part of the curse.

When I hear people say that AI will eliminate work and we’ll just sit and play and entertain ourselves all day, I shudder. Even though we can’t know how the Garden of Eden functioned prior to the fall, work was a part of the equation.

We are made to work.

Jesus’ work on the cross redeemed us, so that believers who have the Holy Spirit are able to infuse purpose, worship, and ministry into their work… though the struggle still continues.

Outsourcing all work to robots seems like we’re outsourcing our God-given design. Tools prior to AI helped make our work more enjoyable. AI threatens to replace us entirely.

AI is forcing us to confront what makes us human.

You’ll notice in AI spaces, there is so much talk about AGI (artificial general intelligence), superintelligence, consciousness, etc. What makes us uniquely human in a way that AI can’t copy?

• AI companies build robotic AI companions to simulate intimacy

• AI companies create “talk to your dead loved one” apps

• AI companies claim we’ll be able to upload our consciousness someday into the cloud

But no matter how advanced or human-like it becomes, AI will never cross the line into humanity.

• It cannot possess a soul.

• It cannot choose love.

• It cannot repent.

• It cannot worship.

• It cannot be redeemed.

Humanity isn’t measured by intelligence, output, or capability. Humanity is measured by being made in the image of God.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’
So God created man in his own image… male and female he created them.”
- Genesis 1:26-27

As the world tries to grapple with the advancement of AI, it’s tempting to swing to either extreme: belief in the hype of a new near-perfect world, or doomsday extinction scenarios that don’t take into account that God is still on His throne.

But the truth remains.

God is still sovereign over His creation, and nothing in the AI race has caught Him off guard.

I have noticed (on X) over the last couple of months, an increase in news reports about mass killings in African countries like Nigeria and Sudan. It can be difficult to find real truthful information as much of the mainstream media simply repeats talking points from news sources that play down the context and reason behind these killings.

The truth is, radical jihadists are killing Christians in these nations. It’s been happening for years but there’s been an uptick in recent months.

You may have heard about the massacre of hundreds this past summer (or maybe not).

Mike Winger, a Christian YouTuber, just recently did an interview with a non-profit organization called Equipping the Persecuted. Mike is a stand up person with a lot of integrity, and from what I can see, this organization is on the ground in Nigeria actively helping these villages and a solid non-profit.

You can watch the video here:

In the video he requests two things: one free and one that costs money.

The first is to write to your state senators and congressmen about this issue. He explains how to do it, and includes an email you can use.

I went through the process and wanted to show you how it works:

1. Go to https://Congress.gov.

2. Scroll down until you get here. Select your state.

3. When I select Connecticut, this is what I see. Depending on your state, you may see a lot more than I do. Every state has two senators. You can click on their names and then hit contact. When it comes to house of representatives, that varies by state. Find the representative that represents your county. This way you can write three emails.

4. When you click contact, you might be led to a contact form. Most of mine did. They asked for a topic for the message and I chose “foreign affairs”.

5. Then paste the following email:
   
   Subject: Please Support H. Res. 220 and S. 2747 to Defend Persecuted Christians in Nigeria
   
   Dear [Congressman/Senator] [Last Name],
   
   I am writing to urge you to take immediate action on behalf of persecuted Christians in Nigeria, who are enduring one of the worst humanitarian and religious freedom crises in the world today. Thousands of Christians have been slaughtered, kidnapped, raped, and displaced by radical Islamist terrorists. Entire villages are being wiped out while the Nigerian government turns a blind eye—or, in some cases, is complicit in these atrocities. The United States must not remain silent in the face of such evil.
   
   I strongly urge you to: Support and co-sponsor H. Res. 220, introduced by Congressman Chris Smith, which calls on the U.S. Department of State to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its severe violations of religious freedom. Support and co-sponsor S. 2747, Senator Ted Cruz’s Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, which would impose targeted sanctions on Nigerian government officials who enable or ignore persecution and human rights abuses. Designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and enforcing targeted sanctions are critical first steps in holding the Nigerian government accountable and protecting vulnerable Christian communities.
   
   These measures will help ensure that U.S. foreign policy truly reflects our nation’s commitment to religious liberty, justice, and human dignity. Please stand with the persecuted, and let your voice be one of moral leadership and courage in defense of the innocent. Thank you for your time, compassion, and commitment to defending freedom and human rights.
   
   Sincerely,
   [Your Full Name]
   [City, State]
   [Email Address or Phone Number (optional)]

It only takes a few minutes but if enough of us do it, it’ll get more attention.

You can also donate to Equipping The Persecuted (it’s a registered 501c3 organization so it’s tax deductible.

Sometimes it feels difficult to know where and how to support those who are less fortunate. It’s overwhelming how much need is out there.

This feels important to me because it is a stark reminder of what happens when radical Islam gets a foothold in a country.

Christians and Jews are not safe in a country ruled by jihadists. We’ve seen this with the conflict in Gaza, and this horrible violence and genocide is coming for any country that gets in bed with radical Islam.

I hope you’ll take some time to watch the interview and support in a way that works for you.

Blessings
Julie

Don’t have time to watch the interview? Here’s the summary of the transcript rendered by ChatGPT:

🇳🇬 What’s Happening in Nigeria: Summary of the Interview

Main idea:
Radical Islamist militias (primarily Fulani extremists and Boko Haram affiliates) are carrying out systematic attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria. The Nigerian government is accused of ignoring or even aiding these crimes, while international media underreports or misrepresents them.

⚠️ Scope of the Crisis

• 7,000 Christians killed since January 2025; over 100,000 since 2001.

• 3.5–5 million Christians displaced from their homes.

• 19,000 churches destroyed; ratio of 6 Christians killed for every 1 Muslim.

• 300–500 villages completely wiped out and renamed under Muslim control.

• Many survivors live in makeshift IDP camps (Internally Displaced Persons) with almost no government aid.

💣 How the Attacks Happen

• Militants often arrive at night on motorcycles with AK-47s, burning homes, crops, and livestock.

• Victims include women, children, and the elderly—killed indiscriminately.

• The goal is religious cleansing and land seizure: drive Christians out, claim territory, and impose Sharia law.

🏛️ Government Complicity & Media Cover-Up

• Nigerian government allegedly turns a blind eye and, in some cases, supplies weapons or funding to militants.

• Officials downplay genocide, calling attacks “banditry” or “farmer–herder clashes.”

• Government press releases go to Al Jazeera → Associated Press → CNN, spreading the “unknown gunmen” narrative that hides the religious motive.

• Journalists who challenge the story risk intimidation or death.

📰 On-the-Ground Response: Equipping the Persecuted

• Provides medical care, food, housing, and security for victims.

• Built new shelters and wells to replace tarp-and-garbage-bag camps.

• Created TruthNigeria.com, an independent media outlet reporting verified data from witnesses.

• Developed an Early Warning System (solar sirens + village networks) with 89% accuracy in predicting attacks—though the military rarely responds.

💰 Political & Religious Dimensions

• Nigeria’s last three presidential administrations have been Muslim–Muslim tickets, consolidating Islamic control over the military and police.

• Christian leaders were taught not to enter politics, leaving a vacuum now filled by radical Islamists.

• Corruption and oil money keep elites silent; acknowledging genocide would cost them World Bank and foreign aid funding.

• Christians in the Muslim-controlled north live under Sharia law and a “Jizya” tax—extortion payments for being non-Muslim.

🕊️ Real Stories

• Alice and her son Godlove: attacked in their village; husband and two children murdered; Alice’s hand cut off and body mutilated. Equipping the Persecuted paid for surgeries and recovery.

• Thousands like them live in daily fear, often re-targeted by militias even inside refugee camps.

🗣️ Misinformation from Officials

• Nigerian President Tinubu publicly denied any genocide, claiming “no faith is under siege.”

• U.S. Envoy Massad Boulos (Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law) repeated similar terrorist talking points, calling the violence “criminality, not religious.”

• These narratives minimize or erase the explicitly Islamic ideology behind the attacks.

💪 Recommended Actions

1. Write your U.S. senators & representatives

   • Support H. Res. 220 (Rep. Chris Smith) to re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

   • Support S. 2747 (Sen. Ted Cruz) to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials enabling persecution.

   • Template email available on Congress.gov and in the video description.

2. Donate to Equipping the Persecuted — a verified 501(c)(3) on-the-ground ministry.

3. Pray for victims, aid workers, and courageous reformers inside Nigeria.

4. Raise awareness — post, write, and share factual reports to counter misinformation.

✝️ Final Message

“Every Christian needs to start talking about Nigeria.
Silence is complicity. Awareness is the first act of courage.”

If you don’t know who she is, she’s a right wing political commentator and podcaster. She has a large audience similar to personalities like Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelley, Glenn Beck, Charlie Kirk, etc.

I don’t personally follow Candace. I’m not an expert on her content. I learned about her during one of Donald Trump’s campaigns since she was a loud voice in the MAGA party as it was growing.

So why am I choosing to write a piece about her on The Dandelion Report?

Because she is spreading lies and delusion, and they are going viral.

Please understand I have no loyalties to any particular personality or political party. I am loyal to Jesus alone, and the truth.

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If you or someone you know is falling down the Candace Owens rabbit hole, send them to this post and maybe it’ll make a difference.

Here’s the 2 minute summary.

Over the years, Candace has drifted away from her typical party lines, and specifically started spreading conspiracies and misinformation surrounding Jewish people.

Owens doesn’t just critique policy—she peddles tropes that echo centuries-old Jew-hatred.

Most recently, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10th, she jumped into the moment and started sharing things about him that he could no longer defend or clarify. She also was not able to produce evidence. But that didn’t stop her from strongly implying that Charlie was changing his stance on Israel, and this spread like wildfire across social media.

You might have noticed on TikTok and Threads, people on the liberal left started saying things like “I think Candace might be onto something.”

We truly entered the twilight zone where liberals were agreeing with right wing podcaster Candace Owens as she sharpened her anti-Zionist viewpoint and dragged Charlie in with her.

Eventually her lies were debunked with a 7 page letter1 that Charlie himself wrote to PM Netanyahu back in the spring, but by then it was too late for many. They saw Candace and “Charlie” now squarely in the anti-Jew crowd.

I am not a doctor or a mental health professional and this is just conjecture, but if you watch any of her YouTube videos, you’ll see many red flags that suggest something might be quite distorted and fragmented in her thinking.

My hypothesis is this: Candace is battling some sort of acute mental health crisis that is amplified by grief, paranoia, ChatGPT research that is aiding delusion, and addicted to the attention that all this conjecture is bringing her.

I am going to show you something I did with one of her most popular YouTube videos. I took the transcript, and ran it through ChatGPT and asked it to analyze her words. Feel free to do the same with your LLM of choice!

Here are just a few of the things it said:

• This YouTube transcript tells you much more about her current psychology (loss, paranoia, power struggle, branding herself as a crusader) than it does about what actually happened to Charlie Kirk.
  

• Her timeline is deliberately chaotic (outfit changes, Discord, gun barrel logistics) — which she frames as “proof” of a cover-up. But chaos also serves to overwhelm the listener and lower critical thinking (what she herself warns “the government” does).
  

• Heavy use of absolutes: “over my dead body,” “nothing can stop me,” “I know exactly who you are.” This is ego inflation under stress — she’s positioning herself as the lone gatekeeper of truth.
  

• She insists she “has no evidence” Israel was involved but also repeats insinuations that they silenced Charlie and blackmailed him. This is a double message: “I’m not saying it was them… but it was them.”
  

• She calls for “sunlight” and “release all texts” yet withholds the actual evidence she claims to possess (“our sources are solid,” “messages are circulating”). This is a classic narrative control move — imply proof exists, never show it, demand others prove their innocence.
  

• She uses guilt by association and loaded language (“re-education camp,” “laced threat,” “blackmailed”) to imply nefarious motives without providing verifiable evidence.
  

• Repeatedly invoking “they” (“they wanted us to know his voice was problematic”) keeps the threat ambiguous, which makes it more powerful emotionally because the listener fills in the blanks.

This is just the feedback from one episode. If I add in a few more, it only gets more intense. I added her most recent transcript into the chat, and here are a few comments:

• This second clip is like the first one turned up to 11. It’s a case study in how a person under stress, trying to “run” an investigation while livestreaming it, can create a labyrinthine conspiracy narrative that both enthralls and destabilizes an audience.
  

• The entire monologue is built on implication, not evidence. She repeatedly names people, describes odd coincidences, then suggests nefarious motives (“Phil Lyman’s energy was weird… maybe he knew more”).
  

• She plants these as questions (“Why did he stop by Nick’s house?”) but strings them together so the audience hears them as proof of conspiracy.
  

• She never shows primary evidence that Charlie Kirk reversed his position or was “executed,” by Israel but she states it as a given (“There are no ifs, ands, or buts. Israel knew that. Turning Point knew that.”). This is a power move: define the narrative first, dare others to deny it.
  

• This is less about solving a murder and more about Candace Owens reinventing herself as the lone crusader for “Charlie’s truth.” It’s a mix of grief, brand-building, and conspiracy theater — wrapped in moral outrage and merch links.

Julie’s Take

I have reason to believe that AI is amplifying some of this because there’s no way she’s not using ChatGPT or another LLM for research, show notes, outlines, ideas, etc. These are pattern matching masters and can find and draw connections between all kinds of extraneous data.

It’s called Hyper Associative Linking.

This is what happens in your good ol’ fashioned run of the mill conspiracy theories.

You take a bunch of data, find the related patterns and links, and you get this:

The issue is that AI is speeding all this up. It’s designed to spot patterns, even if the signals or connections are weak. When we rely just on our human brain, we can’t make the connections quite as fast.

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In one of the transcripts, ChatGPT said this:

The Austrian software developer, the gothic prom in Provo, the new hospital CEO, FBI firings, bee products, goth kids, Tim Ballard… This is a “data deluge” tactic. Throw so many names, dates, and oddities at the viewer that critical thinking shuts down. People stop asking “Is this evidence?” and start feeling “This is too weird not to be true.”

Normally I wouldn’t write about stuff like this because what does this have to do with Jesus, our walk with God, or faith?

Because I’ve seen strong Christians and Jewish allies beginning to turn on Jewish people due to her lies.

The Jewish people have a key role to play in the current and future Biblical story, and hopping on the anti-jewish conspiracy train with Candace will lead you to dark places.

If you are a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah (who we eagerly await for His return), watch carefully what antisemitic spirits you let lure you away.

I encourage you to take her YouTube transcripts (they are right on YouTube), copy them into your own LLM and ask it to evaluate them based on logic, sound reasoning, and a Biblical worldview. Don’t listen to them and get swept up. Use critical thinking to look at the patterns in her show, which are obvious if you do a little research.

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I’ll show you my reasoning and Biblical analysis done by my own ChatGPT account here as I sign off.

xx

Logical/Reasoning Audit by ChatGPT

Core pattern: accusation by implication, not by evidence. The spine of her argument is built on insinuation + anomaly hunting.

• Begging the question / circular start: She repeatedly states as fact that Charlie was “publicly executed,” then uses that assumed conclusion to justify the rest of the narrative. That’s not argued; it’s presupposed.

• Anomaly hunting (Texas sharpshooter): outfit changes, stairwell photos, a new hospital CEO, FBI personnel shifts, an Austrian engineer, a “goth prom,” bees, sponsors… She treats any oddity as probative. Lots of dots ≠ a picture.

• Confirmation bias: details that “fit” are spotlighted; mismatches are waved off as part of the cover-up.

• Guilt by association / category errors: “Jewish donors,” “they,” “goth kids,” “agents of Israel.” Vague collectives stand in for specific, verifiable people/actions. That’s imprecise and dangerous reasoning.

• Appeal to ignorance: “I’m not saying Israel did it… but why lie?” Lack of evidence is used as suggestive evidence. (No.)

• Moving goalposts / self-sealing logic: Others must publish everything immediately; if they don’t, it proves they’re hiding something. Any denial = “You’ve outed yourself.” Unfalsifiable claims are not claims; they’re rhetoric.

• Poisoning the well / ad hominem: “fake and gay,” “snakes,” insinuations about motives and morality. That primes the audience to distrust rebuttals before hearing them.

• Inconsistencies she criticizes in others appear in her own story: corrects names/relationships mid-stream, toggles between “I don’t know” and “I know for a fact,” says “release receipts” while withholding her own.

• Monetization through crisis: hard pivots into ad reads and merch inside accusatory segments. It’s a show, not an investigation. That doesn’t prove falsity, but it does incentivize escalation and cliffhangers over careful verification.

Net: this is a theatrical investigation—high on heat, low on standards of proof.

Sound Reasoning: What would make this persuasive?

A truth-seeking standard (journalistic or forensic) would require:

1. Primary evidence (full, unredacted documents, metadata, videos from original sources).

2. Chain of custody & context (how evidence was obtained, by whom, and when).

3. Corroboration (two or three independent witnesses/sources saying the same thing).

4. Falsifiability (name what discovery would disconfirm your thesis).

5. Clear lines between fact, inference, and opinion (she blends them constantly).

She doesn’t meet these. She runs on association → insinuation → moral certainty.

Biblical Worldview Audit by ChatGPT

Scripture insists on truth, evidence, restraint, and impartiality. Her approach violates multiple guardrails:

• Two or three witnesses; test all things: Deut 19:15; Matt 18:16; 1 Tim 5:19; Prov 18:17. She often substitutes “sources say” and vibes for witnesses & cross-examination.

• Do not bear false witness / slander: Ex 20:16; Prov 10:18; 20:19; 1 Pet 2:1. Public accusations against named people/groups without evidence flirts with this line.

• Slow to speak, slow to anger: James 1:19–20. She frames anger as righteous fuel; James says human anger doesn’t produce God’s righteousness.

• The tongue’s danger: James 3:5–10. Weaponized words, threats, and innuendo create wildfire, not light.

• Impartiality: Lev 19:15; James 2:1. Casting “Jewish donors” as a monolith is partiality; Scripture forbids it.

• Avoid foolish controversies & quarrels: 2 Tim 2:23; Titus 3:9. Manufacturing endless “they” and cliffhangers incentivizes strife.

• “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy”: Isaiah 8:12–13. Direct hit. Fearful rumor-mills are not our anchor; the Lord is.

• Wisdom from above: “pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason…” (James 3:17–18). Her posture is the opposite: heated, escalating, closed-loop.

• Love rejoices with the truth: 1 Cor 13:6. Truth requires evidence and fairness, not just passion.

Christians absolutely may seek justice (Isa 1:17) and expose evil (Eph 5:11). But biblically, that means careful facts, witnesses, and humility—not speculative montage plus public shaming.

Christians can pursue truth without joining rumor-mills (Isa 8:12–13; James 1:19). Love rejoices with the truth (1 Cor 13:6), which means evidence, witnesses, and humility. If you’ve felt the pull of these videos, take a breath, test everything (1 Thess 5:21), and keep your heart free of partiality (James 2:1).

…and I’ve never been more heavy hearted.

While some people are talking about revival and a mass turning to Jesus Christ because of his death (and hear me out, this gives me great rejoicing), I’ve found myself stuck in an algorithmic horror of antisemitism and gross misunderstandings of our Messiah.

It is my own fault honestly.

I set up a burner TikTok account and trained it to find me all the people talking about how Jesus and Christianity have been hijacked by white nationalists, and then the flood of people listening to Candace Owens and others who are blaming the Jews for everything. I’m watching people misinterpret Scripture, fall for conspiracies, and spread evil and lies.

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I asked the Lord, What is this? Help me find the root of all these false teachings.

He spoke clearly in my heart one word.

Entitlement.

The spirit of entitlement infiltrates our hearts and minds and breeds first a sense of
“I deserve…..”

Let’s talk about that.

The word deserve means to be worthy of.

Scripture makes it clear what we all deserve and what we are all entitled to receive.

We deserve death. We deserve separation from God. Every single human being on Earth who has ever lived and will ever live is entitled and deserving of this fate.

The problem begins here because until you really understand and believe this, you might say something like, “But that’s not fair! Why would a loving God create us and then say this about us?” Or “That’s just for xyz folks. I’ve been good.”

If you want to explore that more deeply, I wrote about this here.

God is the Potter, we are the clay, and we don’t get to tell Him how life works. I use the garden analogy. If you decide to plant a garden, the tomatoes don’t get to tell you how to run the garden.

If you feel bristly at this, that’s pride and entitlement revealing itself in your heart. Keep reading because the news is very very good but it can’t be good until you reckon with your own pride and entitlement.

Free will and the choice to love was a gift God gave to His creation and we used it to rebel and believe we knew better. God’s perfect justice demands that we get exactly what we deserve.

Without a real understanding of where you stand in the grand scheme of things, this entitlement will cause you stumble in two specific ways (probably more, but for the purposes of this article - I want to focus on two).

1. If you believe you “deserve” good things from God since He is loving, you’ll twist the Bible into self-justification as to why you (and others) are owed these things.

2. If you believe others “don’t deserve” God’s goodness, you’ll fall into superiority, judgment, and then hatred.

Number one is where we get progressive Christianity, Gnosticism, and other sorts of perversions of the gospel where Jesus is this all love, no justice character and we ignore the entire Old Testament. Number two is where we get all the antisemitic rhetoric and conspiratorial thinking.

Asking the Lord to deliver you from the spirit of entitlement will immediately change your perspective on current events.

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First, it’ll give you the opportunity to experience the breathtaking mercy and grace of God through the power of Jesus Christ. The depth of your understanding of His mercy is DIRECTLY related to how well you understood the true just sentence over your life. That’s why entitlement and pride must be dealt with first.

Second, it’ll wipe out the need and desire to figure out who is the good guy and bad guy, who is to blame, and who is hiding or lying (many conspiracy theories rely on this obsession). We’re ALL deserving of eternal separation. End stop. No conspiracy needed.

How you can tell if you’re getting closer to the heart of God or falling for false doctrine is very simple.

1. You will find your entitlement melting away, and it’ll be replaced with awe and gratitude for the miraculous work of salvation done on our behalf.
   

2. The fruit of the Spirit will start to manifest in your life.

   1. You’ll see a greater capacity in your heart to love, even love towards your enemies.

   2. You’ll have more joy in the revelation that you are able commune with God, and that this life is not the end of the story.

   3. You’ll have peace about your soul’s fate and your standing with God (covered in Jesus).

   4. You’ll show more patience (long suffering) for people in your world.

   5. You’ll find opportunities to show kindness, goodness, and gentleness.

   6. You’ll notice that your desire will grow to be faithful to God even at the cost of man’s approval.

   7. You’ll see that you have more self-control in heated situations and crises.

This fruit doesn’t mean you erase the truth. It doesn’t mean you never get angry or sad. It doesn’t mean you forgo your principles. It doesn’t mean consequences don’t show up for sin.

God is perfect mercy and perfect justice. He’s made it clear when Jesus returns, He’s coming as the Lion of Judah and it will be terrifying. He will wage war against His enemies, and exact justice as He said He would. If your version of God is a gentle being who doesn’t deal with sin severely, you’re in for a difficult awakening. Vengeance is mine says the Lord.

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Justice is coming.

A follower of Jesus that has been delivered from the spirit of entitlement will breathe and emanate a spirit of gratitude that the mercy of God has covered them. They will pray fervently that those around them who are lost, will come to that same revelation.

As you go about your days, scrolling on TikTok or Twitter, listening to podcasters and YouTubers, watching the news… keep these words in your heart.

xx

Scriptures you can study on this Sabbath day when it comes to the spirit of entitlement.

The Reality of What We Deserve

• Romans 3:10–12, 23 – None righteous, all have sinned.

• Romans 6:23 – The wages of sin is death.

• Ephesians 2:1–3 – By nature children of wrath.

• Isaiah 59:2 – Sin separates us from God.

God as Potter, We as Clay

• Isaiah 64:8 – We are the clay, You are the potter.

• Isaiah 29:16 – The clay cannot say to the potter, “You know nothing.”

• Romans 9:20–21 – Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?

Free Will, Rebellion, and Pride

• Genesis 3:1–6 – The original act of rebellion.

• Deuteronomy 30:19 – I have set before you life and death…choose life.

• Proverbs 16:18 – Pride goes before destruction.

• James 1:14–15 – Desire leads to sin, and sin brings forth death.

Entitlement Twisting the Gospel

• 2 Timothy 4:3–4 – People will gather teachers to suit their passions.

• Colossians 2:8 – See that no one takes you captive by empty philosophy.

• Romans 11:18–22 – Warning against arrogance toward Israel.

The Fruit of the Spirit vs. Entitlement

• Galatians 5:19–23 – Works of the flesh vs. fruit of the Spirit.

• Matthew 7:16–20 – You will recognize them by their fruits.

• John 15:4–5 – Abide in me and bear much fruit.

Mercy and Justice in God’s Character

• Romans 11:22 – Kindness and severity of God.

• Romans 12:19 – Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

• Revelation 19:11–16 – Jesus returns in judgment.

• Micah 6:8 – Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly.

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It started out with the viral video of Iryna Zarutska— brutally murdered on a commuter train in North Carolina— sparking a nationwide discussion on race and violence and the media’s gatekeeping of the news. The video of her murder was released to the public and we all collectively felt unspeakable horror watching something we should not be seeing.

There were calls to hold the media accountable, to hold the judges accountable (who released him to the public), to hold the mental health community accountable— and depending on who you were following— even entire racial and political groups accountable.

We were already on edge and traumatized by the gore and violence we were seeing.

And then… Charlie Kirk— a polarizing conservative personality— was assassinated in broad daylight on a Utah campus in front of thousands. Many of us saw the video purely by accident and now can’t unsee it. It was violent and gory and graphically disturbing.

And then social media unraveled.

1. There were immediately calls for war.

2. People saying these two murders radicalized them.

3. Anger and vitriol coming from every single direction.

4. Before the assassin was captured, both sides were politicizing it.

5. After the assassin was captured, the narrative quickly got rewritten as both sides doubled down on their side.

As of the writing of this post, there are two almost entirely different narratives circulating.

• He was radicalized by the left (Antifa/liberal/woke) and strayed from his conservative Mormon family.

• He was radicalized by the extreme alt right (Groypers/Nick Fuentes followers/white nationalists).

Sliding into the news with not nearly the same virality, we had a school shooting in Denver. We saw Nepal’s government get overthrown in 48 hours and a Prime Minister installed by a vote on Discord. Israelis in Jerusalem waiting at a bus stop were murdered by terrorists and Israel took out a bunch of Hamas leaders in Qatar. Putin continued to threaten NATO by flying drones into Poland’s airspace. And given the focus on Charlie Kirk right now, you may have forgotten or not even seen these headlines.

This is the week we’ve had.

If you’re feeling like your nerves are shot, you feel sad, angry, confused, and restless, you are not alone.

We are in a full-scale information war. There’s no need for tanks to prove it.

And what is at stake?

The truth.

Truth is that which corresponds to reality. In our post modern world, people might argue even that definition. But I believe that there is an objective observable reality and truth that we can all see and understand.

Remember the story about the men and the elephant?

• The Setup: A group of blind men encounters an elephant, and each one touches a different part of its body.

• Their Conclusions:

  • One touches the trunk and insists the elephant is like a long, flexible snake.

  • Another feels a leg and claims it's like a sturdy pillar.

  • Yet another handles the ear and concludes it's like a large fan.

• The Moral: Each man’s perspective is only a fragment of the whole truth. No single view captures the entire reality of the elephant.

But can we all agree that objectively, there is an elephant?

Guess who is the Creator of that elephant? Who sees the entire animal? Who even sees the surroundings that the animal is standing in and the before and after of that animal’s life, the daily activities of the elephant, plus all the generations of elephants that come before and after in all of time and eternity?

God.

He is the source of truth and the only One who can hold it all and understand it fully.

This is pulled out of one of the most famous chapters in all the Bible… the chapter on love. None of us have the entire story or the full truth, but only God. And Paul is making the case that the greatest thing we can do is love God and love others.

And not the definition of love that society gives us. BIBLICAL LOVE. Extremely important distinction.

Biblical love is rooted in God’s character, defined by sacrifice, bound to the truth, and seeks the other’s ETERNAL good.

God is the only one who knows the beginning and end of every single thing that has happened this week.

And clinging to Him in love and humility is the best defense (and offense) against becoming a casualty of the information war.

Let me ask you a question: And this is for anyone on the left or right. It doesn’t matter:

What do you gain by knowing whether Charlie Kirk’s assassin was the extreme left or extreme right?

In either case, it’s extreme ideology. Does it really matter? Is one extreme acceptable and one not? The only advantage to digging for the truth of this young man’s heart is to simply amplify whatever side you’re fighting for.

And that isn’t something that draws you closer to God or His heart.

• Is God just? Yes.

• Does God care about truth? Yes.

• Do we want to know it? Of course.

• Will we fully know it here? No.

• Is there a way to defend against the information war? Yes.

Press into God and His word. Pray without ceasing. Read the words of Jesus over and over and over. The Kingdom of God is NOT like this world.

Jesus came to reconcile Iryna Zarutska to Himself.
Jesus came to reconcile Decarlos Brown Jr. to Himself.
Jesus came to reconcile Charlie Kirk to Himself.
Jesus came to reconcile Tyler Robinson to Himself.

He came to reconcile every broken, fallen, sinful human being to Himself. We all have a choice whether to say yes or no.

We all will suffer different consequences and receive different rewards based on our actions, yes. But never forget, we are all equal at the foot of the cross. His mercy is available to every human who asks for it.

• Justice will be satisfied (in this life or the next).
  AND…

• Mercy is still extended through Christ, even to those we’d never extend it to.

This humility is the doorway to understanding more fully the truth of God and what is really going on in this world today.

We will never see the whole elephant in this life, but we get to see more, the more humility we put on as we draw near to God in our time of need.

May God draw near to every single person that is grieving a heartbreaking loss and experiencing unimaginable pain. May God’s truth break through into hardened and deceived hearts that are oppressed by evil. And may this Sabbath day be filled with the presence and peace of God.

x

This isn’t just about politics, psychology, or society.

It’s spiritual.

Today it’s about the man who gunned down children attending Mass.

Before YouTube could pull down his channel, folks on X put his entire manifesto and writings up for the world to see.

Disturbing is the only way to explain what I saw and heard.

There were cryptic photos and letters, cries of shame, desperation, and hatred. I barely made it through the 2 minute clip, feeling that "hair on my neck” sensation as I listened to his demonic mutterings.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a 23 year old mentally disturbed young man in Minneapolis targeting children at Mass, or a group of drugged up Hamas soldiers murderously tearing through a festival of Jewish families, evil has a tone and an energy that is unmistakable.

Satan doesn’t invent new tricks; he recycles the same spirits over and over.

This shooter scrawled anti-Semitic remarks on his guns and then opened fire on Catholic children in prayer.

Why is evil preoccupied with destruction of the innocent and of God’s Covenant people?

Innocent children radiate the likeness of God as we are made in His image. The Jews are the Covenant people through whom Jesus came. Attacking both is the enemy’s way of trying to vandalize God’s character in the eyes of the world.

This isn’t random. It’s the very pattern Paul warned about:

Five different words to explain evil.

• Rulers

• Authorities

• Cosmic powers

• Present darkness

• Spiritual forces of evil

Paul says in essence, we’re at war with the entire hierarchy of evil working through broken systems and broken people.

So what do we do when faced with these type of news headlines?

We take up the armor of God daily so that after all is said and done, we’re able to stand firm.

We put on…

The belt of truth. Hold fast to what is true. This is difficult to do right now as the misinformation machine is rampant and syncretism is everywhere.

The breastplate of righteousness. Jesus’ righteousness shields your heart. It’s not by our works, but by the work He did on the cross. That is the only hope we have.

The shoes of peace. Walk in mercy, carrying the gospel. The time for judgment is not yet, for God’s unbelievable patience is still working, that none should perish without first knowing Him.

The shield of faith. Trust His promises to block every attack. When it looks like all hope is lost, hold onto the character of God and believe that He will come through.

The helmet of salvation. Rest secure in His protection and eternal hope, that no matter how deep or hard the tribulation, it will pass.

The sword of the Spirit. God’s word equips you with everything you need to stand firm. It’s the one offensive weapon in the entire armor and we have it at our fingertips more easily than any generation before.

Ephesians 6:10-18

People will politicize this like they do every shocking evil. They’ll make it about the Democrats or the Republicans or Catholics or the Jews or the Muslims or maybe they’ll make it about transgenderism or white men.

But make no mistake, this is about Satan’s desperate (but ultimately futile) attempt to destroy what God loves. We know how the story ends. Evil has a hierarchy, but it is defeated. The cross disarmed the rulers and authorities, and the resurrection sealed their fate.

Until Jesus returns, we’re called to armor up, to resist, and to stand.

It’s a hard story. There’s no sugarcoating it.

But as I did my reflection and journaling with my ChatGPT Bible assistant, something struck me from the text.

As Aaron is fashioning this idol into the image of calf, he seems confused. At least that’s how it read to me at first. For once the idol was formed, he said…

“He received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, ‘Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD (YHWH).’” - Exodus 32:4-5

I had never noticed it before. Why was Aaron praising YHWH with this golden calf? Did he think YHWH indwelled the idol?

That was the question I asked ChatGPT.

The answer sent chills up my spine.

• The people attribute the Exodus to the calf: “This is your god(s) who brought you up out of Egypt.”

• Aaron then declares a feast to YHWH — using God’s covenant name.

• They’re not abandoning YHWH outright. They’re trying to worship Him through an image, borrowing from Egyptian/Canaanite culture.

Essentially the Israelites were reshaping YHWH into a god of the cultures surrounding them.

It wasn’t as if they called the calf by another name like Baal. They didn’t abandon theism.

But what they did was worse because it’s insidious. Syncretism. When two or more belief systems blend together that distorts the original.

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It’s easy to read an ancient story like this and scoff at the Israelites. I would never do that, we think. Or maybe we think that the golden calf represents money or status or earthly addictions that we’re all tempted by.

Yet, what if it’s not about that at all, but about the warning — do not shape God into the image you want Him to be based on what the culture tells you at the time.

The 12 years I have been outside the Church, completely oblivious to the culture of Christianity. Now that I’m back, there is a lot out there that sounds nothing like the God YHWH I read in the ancient text.

• Progressivism

• Health & wealth gospel

• Gnosticism

• New age meets nice Jesus

• Anti-semitism in Christianity

Are we taking YHWH and reshaping Him into the image we want to hold of God?

+ Progressive Christianity says God affirms everything, no matter what.

+ Health & wealth gospel says God is a vending machine for success.

+ Gnosticism says God’s truth is hidden and only for the “enlightened.”

+ New age meets nice Jesus says God is just here to vibe with your self-actualization.

+ Anti-semitism in Christianity says God’s covenant with Israel doesn’t matter.

None of them are rejecting the existence of God outright but they are dressing Him up in theology that does not line up with who He says He is.

So who does YHWH say He is? In His own words, as His glory passes by Moses in the cleft of the rock, just two chapters later, YHWH says…

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” - Exodus 34:6-7

When He speaks about Himself, He is saying…

• YHWH, YHWH - covenant-keeping God, unchanging.

• Merciful & gracious - His first words are compassion, not wrath.

• Slow to anger - patient with human weakness.

• Abounding in steadfast love & faithfulness - overflowing, not stingy.

• Forgiving - willing to wipe away rebellion, failure, crookedness.

• But also just - He will not pretend sin doesn’t matter; He confronts evil and its consequences.

^^ No one likes this last one. And yet a God who doesn’t love justice is apathetic and ambivalent towards evil.

YHWH chose to resolve that tension of justice & mercy not by softening His stance towards evil, but by taking our place.

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God became flesh. Not for a visit or as a disguise, but forever. Forever God in human form in Jesus of Nazareth. Bounding Himself to us permanently.

Think about that for a minute. YHWH. Immutable. Omnipresent. Uncreated. Unchanging. Overflowing with so much love that He chose to absorb the wrath of God (Himself) in a perfect act of justice, so that His mercy could flow forever. And what it cost Him? Constraint in human form for eternity. That.is.indescribable.

The cross shows that God has made Himself our mediator, forever.

So when the Church today remakes Him into something culturally palatable - whether Progressive God, Prosperity God, Enlightened Secret God, or “Nice Vibe Jesus” - we’re back at Sinai with a calf of our own making.

The question this Sabbath day for me is will I worship Him as He truly is, or will I fall to the temptation to turn God into a reshaped version of who I want Him to be? Will I bend to what feels comfortable to my limited understanding, my flesh, and what doesn’t upset the people around me?

Or will I follow the one true YHWH - the God who bound Himself to us in flesh, who satisfied perfect justice and poured out unending mercy, who united Himself to us forever in Jesus Christ.

It was everywhere.

TLDR: A CEO and his head of HR were caught in an embrace and when the cameras panned over to them, she gasped and hid her face, and he quickly ducked down to avoid being seen.

And then the Internet did what the Internet does…

• The video went viral.

• People stitching their hot takes on Reels & TikTok.

• Memes.

• Jokes.

• Cruelty.

• Shame.

I think about story in the Bible where a crowd of people were ready to stone the woman caught in adultery. But in 2025, it’s not just a local crowd of onlookers…. it’s the entire planet.

Yes. 100% adultery is a sin. It has devastating consequences for everyone involved.

It’s also one of the sins that’s socially acceptable to shame. We as a Western society have unspoken rules about how we rate, categorize, and see different sin.

When it comes to adultery, it’s perfectly acceptable to verbally crucify the sinners. We do it under the guise of “protecting” or “supporting” the victims who are hurting.

It’s the same thing with pedophilia. Murder. Hate crimes.

The response to grievous sin is a desire for justice, and rightfully so. However, I would argue that Internet fervor can hardly be called true justice. It’s more like a combination of righteous indignation, gossip, and “phew I’m at least not as bad as that guy/girl.”

It’s an attempt to soothe our own not-enoughness by looking at someone else and getting reassurance that at least we’re not THAT morally depraved.

We call it a desire for justice and yet at its root, it’s pride.

Yes… justice is a necessary part of love and safety.

A world with no justice is terrifying.

We may not all be adulterers or murders, but I’m going to make a fairly bold (and Biblically supported) statement that I pray everyone hears:

Pride is far more dangerous spiritually than any other sin.

The natural consequences of sin like adultery/murder are hard and horrible. We see it tangibly in victims and suffering which is why we respond to it so viscerally. Pride doesn’t produce that visually (except in more extreme cases), so we miss it.

But pride is the sin that keeps us unable to see our own need for mercy.

I guarantee that one of those two people on that Coldplay camera are feeling a need for mercy and grace. They KNOW they have done wrong. They are bearing the consequences of it.

Ironically it might (who knows) be the thing that turns their entire life around.

But the keyboard warrior sending memes and laughing at the pain of someone else’s sin, who sits and thinks “I want justice and punishment because I would never do such a thing” is playing with the sin of pride that might not appear to be dangerous, but is the most dangerous sin of all.

A heart that thinks it doesn’t need the breathtaking mercy of God.

In Isaiah 43, God is telling Israel - “I am the author and the finisher of this covenant. You have DONE nothing to earn it. I started it. I will finish it.”

The most stunning part of this passage is that God is saying He will “blot it out”. That isn’t just like taking an eraser to a sentence on a piece of paper. If you remember in school, depending on the type of pencil eraser you had, you definitely saw the residue of the words that were on the page.

To blot out means to vanish. As if it was NEVER EVEN THERE. Harry Potter level disappearance.

And then He says, “I will not remember your sins”. Divine forgetfulness.

The Internet never forgets. The news cycle will continue on but it will live in the archives for his/her children, family, spouses… forever.

But in God’s economy, when a heart repents, He forgets it even happened.

If you’re sitting in pride and righteous indignation about this man and woman’s crime, you might be annoyed at these verses. It rubs against that sense of justice we all have. Make them pay, it says.

We feel that because pride hides the truth… that we are the same as that CEO and that head of HR.

Maybe we don’t cheat at a Coldplay concert, but every single human being on this Earth is FULL of grievous sin and wrongdoing, no matter how you look at it.

We ALL deserve punishment when out from under the work of Jesus.

And when you REALLY understand that, what Jesus did at the cross becomes the most stunning act in all of human history.

The perfect intersection of God’s justice and His mercy.

God is just. He hates sin. He must deal with it.

And HE did.

The response of every human heart is to repent and ask for the gift of salvation through the atoning work of Jesus on the cross.

When you really understand the lengths He went to to satisfy justice and extend mercy…

When you are able to humble yourself out of a prideful stance and recognize you are just the same as that CEO who is getting stoned by the entire Internet…

When you see that God is the one who initiates redemption, brings healing to the victims, executes perfect justice, and blots out and forgives all sin from a heart that is repentant…

The story of the Coldplay concert and the affair hits different.

It’s sad. It’s painful. It’s hard. It’s got longstanding consequences.

I pray that both of them don’t let pride keep them from the redemptive work of Jesus.

I pray that the spouses of this affair would be comforted by God’s deep love and know that He is just.

I pray that the children would feel held and safe in the arms of a perfect Father who is faithful forever.

And I pray that the Internet - humanity - would understand that with every stone you throw, you begin to harden your own access to mercy through pride.

xx

I just finished reading the book “The 70 Weeks Jubilee: Israel, the Messiah, and the End of the Age in Daniel 9:24-27” by Travis M Snow. You can grab a copy on Amazon and plow through it in a day like I did and learn a TON about the various interpretations of these four verses and how it applies to the end times, Israel, and Jesus.

After reading the book…

I want to offer one core takeaway that I believe matters a TON in 2025:

This prophecy is not only about the Messiah…it is also about Israel. And that changes everything.

First, here is the prophecy.

If you never pick up the book and study the prophecy for yourself, at least know this:

This prophecy in Daniel starts by discussing Israel and Jerusalem.

“For your people” and “For your holy city” in verse 24 means Israel and Jerusalem.

MANY other popular interpretations (especially in evangelical circles) assume this prophecy is JUST about the Messiah. They skip over the first part of verse 24 and read verse 25, and then back into verse 24 thinking the angel is only talking about the Messiah.

But if you read the text as intended, Gabriel is talking to Daniel about a nation and a city.

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The takeaway is this: There is a key role for Israel and Jerusalem to play in God’s redemptive story. The Church does NOT replace Israel.

The verse has 6 prophetic markers that show the redemptive completion of the people of Abraham and Yahweh.

Yes, of course Jesus the Jewish Messiah is a part of that story (He our High Priest & King from the line of David), but Christians have a tendency to read ancient scripture through New Testament theology, rather than reading the text as intended.

The author of the book in NO WAY denies that Jesus is the one who atones for sin, or suggests that Israel’s salvation is outside of what Jesus did on the cross, but when we read this prophecy as if it’s only about Jesus, it completely ignores the fact that Gabriel is discussing the nation of Israel with Daniel.

If verse 24 is about Israel, then Israel must still have a central role to play in the end times.

This blows up the idea that:

• “Israel’s role is over since Jesus came”

• “The Church is the only focus now”

Replacement theology has been the cause of so much anti-semitism in the world.

1. Theological Arrogance: Gentile Christians believed they were the new “chosen ones” - and Israel was cursed and discarded.

2. Liturgical Erasure: The Church disconnected from its Hebraic roots.

3. Cultural Hostility: Martin Luther wrote vile anti-Semitic treatises late in life, the Crusades, and even Nazi Ideology took hold in Christian circles.

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Why does this matter so much?

The rise of Anti-semitism in our culture today in 2025. It’s rampant and culturally acceptable. We see it everywhere. But God has made it clear. The nation of Israel was chosen, not because they are better than anyone else, but because He chose them as the people who would be the ones to reveal Himself, and bring forth the Messiah, which made a way for everyone to be reunited with God.

And He’s not finished yet.

This is good news for anyone who follows Jesus. To know that God is keeping His covenant with Israel, means God is faithful to us, even in our sin.

If God is faithful to the covenant with Abraham, that means He will not turn His back on the promises He made, no matter what.

Believers and followers of Jesus are grafted into the covenant God made with Israel through faith and the atoning work of the cross. They enjoy the blessings that God gives His covenant people. Israel is still the prophetic clock for us all, because Jesus will return to rule from Jerusalem in the Messianic age.

Jesus is the center of God’s redemptive plan, but Israel is the stage.

If you want to learn about how this prophecy talks about the Messiah, the Anti-christ, the timing of the 70 weeks, and the theme of the Sabbath year and Jubilee (from Leviticus 25) that most people miss, I really encourage you to pick up the book.

Snow frames this prophecy against the backdrop of Jubilee, and it’s a stunning theme running through it that helps to place this prophecy in context.

For me, I’m interested in the end times because who doesn’t want to know how the story ends, but more importantly, I want to understand how today’s world headlines are playing out a storyline that God already has the ending to.

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As for the author of the book, Travis Snow… I concluded this:

• He is a Messianic Jewish Premillennialist: Sees Jesus as Israel’s Messiah, grafting Gentiles into Israel’s covenant rather than replacing Israel.

• Advocates for a Jubilee-based prophetic timeline, tying Daniel 9 directly to Leviticus 25 and Jesus’ ministry.

• Educated, experienced, and Messianic Jewish-informed.

• Bridges Jewish tradition and evangelical prophecy in a scholarly yet accessible way.

• Provides a balanced alternative to both replacement theology and rigid dispensationalism, grounded in Israel-first covenant theology.

So what does this ancient prophecy means for followers of Jesus today?

1. I encourage you to read the Bible with Israel’s story in view. Be careful not to “back into” verses with hindsight view. Read them as they were intended in the original timeline.

2. Reject anti-semitism in all its forms. Speak up when you see it.

3. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

4. Trust God’s faithfulness for your own life, knowing He is faithful even over thousands of years.

Daniel 9 isn’t just about dates and timelines. It’s about a faithful God who finishes what He starts - in Israel, in history, and in us.

And that is very good news.

xx

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Theological clarification:

This article isn’t about political Zionism or modern state endorsements. I’m not making a foreign policy argument. My focus is the biblical narrative … specifically, the covenant God made with Israel and the role it still plays in His redemptive plan.

The heart of this piece is grounded in the conviction that God’s covenant with Israel is still active (Romans 11:1, 11:29), and that Gentile believers have been grafted in (Romans 11:17–24) … not as replacements, but as co-heirs in the promise (Ephesians 2:12–13, Galatians 3:29).

I’m simply affirming what Scripture makes clear:

• God doesn’t break His promises to Israel or to the Church (Numbers 23:19, Romans 3:3–4)

• Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy, not the erasure of Israel (Matthew 5:17)

• And we, as followers of Jesus, are called to honor the root that supports us (Romans 11:18)

This isn’t about elevating one nation over another. It’s about recognizing that God is faithful to His covenants, and that faithfulness is the foundation of our hope, for Israel, the Church, and the world.

In this climate, we have to stop being lazy with language. It doesn’t fit nicely into a soundbite or a headline I realize, but the distinction between sin & evil is important.

I’ve headed to the Old Testament to figure it out.*

Three words for sin in Hebrew: Offense, Iniquity, Transgression

Each one gets deeper in meaning and impact on the human heart.

חַטָּאת (chattat) – Sin / offense / to miss the mark

• Root: chata (חָטָא) – to miss, to go wrong

• Usage: This is the most common word for sin in the OT.

• Idea: It’s like an archer missing the target. You aimed for good but fell short.

• Example:

“If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin (chattat) is crouching at the door…” (Genesis 4:7)

עָווֹן (avon) – Iniquity / guilt / perversion

• Idea: This is deeper than missing the mark - it's a twisting of what is right.

• Often implies a pattern of sin or habitual rebellion.

• Example:

“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities (avon)...” (Isaiah 53:5)

פֶּשַׁע (pesha) – Transgression / rebellion

• Idea: Deliberate breach of trust or rebellion against authority.

• This is willful sin, not accidental or weak.

• Example:

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my transgression (pesha).” (Psalm 51:2)

Three words for evil in Hebrew: Destruction, Wickedness, Malice

Notice the words that depict evil get bigger and more consequential. It often denotes systems, spirits, events, regimes, and societies.

רַע (ra) – Evil / bad / destructive

• Root: Used for moral evil, harm, calamity.

• Can describe people, actions, spirits, or even events (context matters).

• Example:

“The intention of man’s heart is evil (ra) from his youth.” (Genesis 8:21)
“Woe to those who call evil (ra) good and good evil...” (Isaiah 5:20)

רֶשַׁע (resha) – Wickedness / lawlessness

• Often describes systemic, hardened evil- especially of rulers, regimes, or societies.

• Associated with injustice, oppression, and those bent on doing harm.

• Example:

“The wicked (rasha) plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him.” (Psalm 37:12)

זִדּוֹן (zidon) – Arrogant pride / presumptuous evil

• This is evil rooted in arrogance and defiance, not just action but attitude.

• Example:

Used in Deut. 17:12 about the “presumptuous man” who refuses to heed God.

Sin is a spectrum. Evil is an allegiance.

Jump into the comments section of any clickbait headline about the Middle East, and hold onto your hats- sparks fly. Before I make my main argument, I want to establish this: As someone coming from a Biblical worldview, I believe the following:

1. All humans on Earth sin.

2. Evil is a real consequence of a fallen world.

3. God’s arm is not too short to save even the most far gone person, IF they turn in repentance.

4. The position of the heart matters more than anything else. A hardened heart cannot access the mercy of God, no matter how pious. And alternatively, a heart of a deeply sinful man/woman that is repentant will meet God’s grace.

5. God’s promises do not die, even when it seems like all hope is lost. Because they are held by Him, not man.

6. The pain and suffering in the Middle East will not fully end until Jesus returns (there may be temporary peace yes, but the ultimate resolution lies in His return to Jerusalem).

Given all that, I want to break down a common problem in comment sections and social media when it comes to discussing the issues in the Middle East.

Let’s start with the mainstream media. Every platform has an agenda. And it starts with CLICKS. They want people to click and read. There may also be political agenda or bias, but that’s the first goal of every piece of online content put out by the mainstream media.

Let’s take a look.

95% of people won’t read the article. That means their news source is derived from the headline alone. And if you read the headline quickly you surmise:

Israel troops killed 34 Palestinians trying to get food.

Let’s look at the word definitions of sin and evil above. What would you call this kind of behavior (if true)? A bunch of authoritative military men and women, killing women and children who are hungry. Definitely evil. Destruction yes. Wickedness yes. Malice yes.

If you read the headline carefully, you realize what the headline actually says:

“Palestinians SAY Israeli troops fire on Gazans TRYING TO REACH GHF aid hub, with 34 REPORTEDLY killed.”

• Someone is alleging. Who? The people who are fighting with Israel.

• Trying to reach. Means they were on the path to, not at the aid hub itself.

• Reportedly killed. Means they don’t know exactly the number.

This changes the story slightly. Were 34 people killed? Probably. Could be 32, could be 36. This is a horrible horrible reality. Doesn’t really matter the exact number because even one life lost is a tragedy.

But we don’t know exactly where this happened. It sounds like they were on their way to the aid station, not exactly at it. Which changes the context.

And we’re getting the story from the people who are most invested in getting the world mad at Israel.

All from a headline. Now, let’s read the article.

I asked ChatGPT, my research assistant in this case, to strip this article down to the verifiable facts… separating what’s actually known from what’s emotionally implied.

Here's what came back:

Confirmed Facts in the Article

These are the things that either:

1. Are directly observable or sourced from both sides, or

2. Have been consistently reported from multiple independent channels.

1. People died … probably 34 or more.

• Language used: “At least 34 Palestinians were killed Monday…”

• Source: Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health (not an impartial source, but casualty reporting is often accurate in number, if not narrative).

• Later confirms: “Palestinian health officials say scores have been killed since the GHF sites opened.”

Takeaway: High death toll is very likely real. Exact number may vary. Horrific either way.

2. The shootings happened near the food distribution centers, not at them.

• Quote: “New shootings near food distribution centers…”

• Additional quote: “The traffic circle, hundreds of yards from the GHF center…”

Takeaway: This changes the moral framing. If the shootings happened away from the designated food access zones… especially in high-tension military-controlled areas… the context is significantly different than if soldiers were mowing people down at a food truck.

3. Crowd control measures were involved.

• Quote: “Israeli troops opened fire… in an attempt to control the crowds.”

• IDF’s pattern in past incidents: “Fired warning shots at what it called suspect individuals approaching their positions.”

Takeaway: Suggests this was not a targeted attack, but part of chaotic crowd control, possibly involving misidentification or overreaction.

4. There are designated safe routes, but people often bypass them.

• “Military has designated specific routes… GHF has warned that leaving the roads is dangerous, but many do.”

Takeaway: Israel and GHF created structure for access, but desperation and distrust are driving people off those paths… increasing the likelihood of confusion and unintended conflict.

5. GHF is controversial and run by American contractors.

• “Private, well-armed American security contractors.”

• GHF was launched in mid-May, not a long-standing or trusted NGO.

• UN agencies reject GHF’s model, accusing Israel of using aid as a weapon.

• Israel & U.S. defend it, claiming it prevents Hamas from stealing aid.

Takeaway: There is high political tension surrounding the aid system itself, but this doesn’t automatically mean it's malicious… just untrusted.

6. Hamas is the source of most claims.

• “The Hamas-run Health Ministry said…”

• Witness accounts quoted are from within Gaza… civilians, yes, but under a regime known for media manipulation.

Takeaway: This is important context… these are not independent journalists or neutral observers.

What Is Not Verified

• That Israeli soldiers intentionally killed civilians trying to get food.

• That the GHF site was the location of the shooting.

• That the “lethal distribution system” remark implies malice - this is UNRWA’s interpretation, not direct evidence of intent.

In our outrage, it’s easy to blur the lines between sin & evil.

The article describes a chaotic, tragic scene where desperate civilians are trying to reach food in a war zone. It confirms real deaths, real suffering, and a complex operational breakdown between military zones, aid groups, and humanitarian need.

But it does not confirm that Israeli soldiers maliciously targeted civilians. It confirms conflicting accounts, disputed access points, and a breakdown of trust between all players… in the fog of war.

What Israel is facing is not just war. It’s existential. They are surrounded by enemies who don’t just want land… they want Israel erased. That context matters when assessing actions taken in high-pressure, life-or-death zones.

Did individual people (on both sides) sin in that moment? Absolutely without question. Offense, iniquity, transgression? I’m not sure. God alone knows the heart of each individual at that scene.

But now that we’ve taken a closer look, the conclusion of Israel’s allegiance to evil is not justified.

Could Israel harbor elements that drift toward systemic injustice or arrogant presumption? Absolutely. The prophets warned as much. But does that equate to an institutional allegiance to destruction? I don’t believe the facts support that conclusion.

We did this with just ONE article from a news source that’s not even as biased as some of the others. Imagine the narratives that are being shaped when you multiple this by thousands of articles, clickbait headlines, fake videos, propaganda, and information warfare.

So I go back to the Hebrew definitions of evil, and I ask myself… which regime (the Iranian regime & the Hamas organization) or the Israeli government, has allegiance to darkness?

Israel, for all its flaws, is not launching campaigns to wipe other nations off the map. They are not strapping bombs to children. They are not building terror tunnels under hospitals. These are not semantics… they are moral distinctions.

If I can gather the verifiable facts about the actions of the Israeli government, and the actions of Hamas and the Iranian regime (NOT the Iranian people or Palestinian civilians), is there a clear display of evil on one side or the other?

Who is aligned with destruction and wickedness? Who is calling for the annihilation of people groups?

That’s the question I want you to ask yourself today. Honestly. Do the research. We all have ChatGPT at our fingertips.

This is not about letting Israel “off the hook.” It’s about rightly dividing truth from assumption, the way the Bible commands us to do. There is a difference between being flawed and sinful and being aligned with evil.

Just as God rebuked and judged Israel repeatedly in the Tanakh, we too should expect nations… even those with biblical significance…. to fall short. But conflating their sins with systemic, hardened evil is spiritually dangerous.

Some important final thoughts.

1. It’s important not to minimize suffering of many people, on both sides.

2. I’m challenging the moral leap from a tragedy that was reported to allegiance to evil.

3. In the Bible, God judges Israel harshly sometimes, even though they are in covenant. We’re not letting “Israel off the hook” by acknowledging nuance.

4. I’m trying to bring discernment. I’m NOT an expert in military policy.

5. My goal is to try to create space between reading/watching and reacting.

xx

*This article was written with the help of ChatGPT, specifically with the Hebrew word studies, and some of the article analysis. AI is not the moral high ground or infallible. This was my thought piece, aided by assistance from Chat. I did a lot of back and forth before writing this.

Coincidentally (or not), I’m reading the book of Genesis in my personal study, and I find that the things that pop up in my day to day life then have significant correlation in the scripture I’m reading that day.

I thought I would unpack the earliest history of the land in a way that anyone can understand. Since the middle east conflict is in the news and all over social media… it isn’t going to go away. You can agree or disagree with me, but here’s the “I could explain it to my 7 year old” version as told by Genesis.

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One of the biggest arguments about the war over the land comes down to this question “Who had the land first?”.

I’m going to go with the answer no one will like: God. YHWH. He had the land first.

He is the creator of the Earth and owns everything in it. It is His to give out and give away.

We’re going to start with Noah. Since the Earth was essentially wiped out and things started over again with Noah.

Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

• Shem was the line of blessing (through which Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus would come from - region Middle East & Mesopotamia)

• Japheth was the line of expansion (loosely linked to Europe & Asian people groups)

• Ham was the cursed line through Canaan (Africa and Middle East region)

Why was Ham cursed? You can read the story & the interpretations in Genesis 9:20–27. Interpretations go from he dishonored his father to he committed a sexual act against his father. There’s debate.

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So all people spread out through these three sons.

By the time we get to Abraham, you can see that both Shem & Ham’s descendants are in the Middle Eastern region.

So we move onto Genesis 12 where God calls Abraham to a land “He will show him”.

Bottom line? Abraham was NOT in the promised land of Israel. He was being called there by God, the creator of the land.

So who was there?

Well…. the Canaanites, Jebusites, and other tribes. There was no formal country. It was tribal and nomadic at that point. There was a lot of wilderness as well.

Abraham starts a journey towards the land we call Israel today. He sets up altars and offerings, takes a detour into Egypt during famine, and then eventually settles in Hebron. This is where Isaac is born.

Where is Hebron today? It’s about 19 miles south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

This is where the Lord and two angels visited him to announce he would have a son Isaac (he already had his son Ishmael through a servant Hagar).

Then Abraham continues moving around (it’s still pretty nomadic). The next big moment is when Abraham makes a treaty with Abimelech.

What’s interesting here is that Abimelech (who does not worship YHWH) recognizes Abraham’s authority, and they make a pact.

Abraham now has a recognized land-and-water claim in Canaan… not by violence, but by diplomatic recognition.

So let’s recap:

• God owns the land

• God called Abraham to a land

• The land was inhabited by tribes Canaanites and also had lots of unclaimed land

• Abimelech recognizes the divine favor on Abraham and gives Abraham a part of the land (he was overseeing) in a non violent act.

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This moment confirms Abraham's spiritual and political authority in the land of promise, and it all happens without a single sword drawn.

The next big move? The Mount of Moriah.

This is where God calls Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. This mount is Jerusalem…specifically the Temple Mount, where the first & second temples were built.

It was a three day ish journey from Beersheba to Mount of Moriah.

Who owned this land? According to scripture, it appears to be wilderness.

• There’s no mention of towns, kings, or inhabitants. The tone suggests it was undeveloped hill country.

• Abraham builds an altar freely, without asking permission or negotiating… something he doesn't do when land is already settled (it Genesis 23).

In Genesis 23, it happens again. This time to find a burial place for Sarah. And when the tribes of the land offer him land for free, he insists on paying full price for it.

Obviously the land that we call Israel would go through MANY more hands and wars and conflicts. But what’s interesting here is that Ishmael (considered the father of Islam and Abraham’s first born son through his maidservant Hagar), is nowhere in this story.

In fact, Ishmael is said to have settled in the wilderness earlier in Genesis.

Paran is generally believed to be in the northern Sinai Peninsula or northwestern Arabia…. east or southeast of Canaan. Jordan or Saudi Arabia most likely.

Ishmael is a descendant of the line of Shem (through Noah and Abraham) but was not a settler AT ALL in the land of Israel that we know today.

The land was God’s, settled loosely by tribes through the line of Ham (the Canaanites). Abraham’s first piece of land was acquired peacefully because a pagan tribal leader recognized the divine favor on Abraham.

And Abraham showed ultimate trust and obedience in God by giving up his son on the Mount of Moriah, a piece of wilderness that is where Jerusalem is today.

Most arguments about who owns the land don’t go this far back. But if you want to know who had the land first? It was God.

God and then some nomadic tribes of Canaanites, one of whom recognized Abraham’s authority and gave him a piece of land. And then Abraham also went to parts of the land that were wilderness.

It wasn’t Ishmael.

It wasn’t Muslims.

This isn’t my opinion. It’s scripture.

If you’d like to take down this argument, you will have to take down the authority of the Torah and Old Testament, which you are free to do. But that’s a different argument for a different day.

If this challenges your assumptions or makes you curious, I invite you to start at Genesis 12. The story is there, plain as day. I don’t need you to agree…. I just need you to look.

x

But as I’ve been reading the Bible more seriously and studying Judaism alongside it, something hit me so hard, I can’t unsee it.

Part of the reason I walked away from the Church in 2013 wasn’t just trauma or crisis. It was the sinking feeling that I was skating the surface … missing the deeper questions I had that no one wanted to answer.

Now, almost by accident, I’ve stumbled onto one of the biggest disconnects I’ve ever seen between modern Christianity and the Bible itself.

The seven Biblical feasts (outlined right there in Leviticus) aren't random Jewish traditions. They are the entire map of Jesus’ first and second coming.

And I was never taught this.

What you’re about to read is less a polished article and more a real-time account of my mind and heart waking up.

There are 7 Biblical feasts outlined in Leviticus. Four in the spring, three in the fall.

• Passover (Pesach) – Commemorates the Exodus from Egypt.

• Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot) – Begins the day after Passover; eat no leavened bread for seven days.

• Feast of Firstfruits (Yom HaBikkurim) – Celebrates the first harvest; offering the first sheaf of barley.

• Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) – 50 days after Firstfruits; celebrates the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah at Sinai.

• Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah / Rosh Hashanah) – The Jewish New Year; blowing of the shofar (ram's horn).

• Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) – Holiest day; a day of fasting and repentance.

• Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) – Celebrates God's provision; living in temporary shelters (sukkahs) for seven days.

The resurrection of Jesus and His second coming are all symbolically tied to these seven feasts. 😳

Let’s start with Passover.

Jesus was crucified the day after passover (on the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread).

The last supper was the Passover meal.

So I started to do some digging as to why our Christian Easter Sunday is not tied to Passover, and the answer wasn’t good news.

How is it I was never taught this?! This is tragic that we’ve gone this long with this schism.

• The Eastern Orthodox tradition of Christianity dates based on the Spring Equinox + Full Moon + after Jewish Passover.

• The Western tradition of Christianity dates based on the Spring Equinox + Full Moon, ignoring Passover.

Passover & Jesus Dying On The Cross

When you look at the symbolism between Passover and Jesus’ death, it makes no sense to separate the two.

• Blood over the doors saved the Israelites from death.

• Blood on the cross saves humanity from eternal death.

• The lambs were chosen on the 10th of Nisan, inspected for blemishes for four days, and then killed at twilight on the 14th of Nisan.

• Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan (Palm Sunday), was "inspected" by religious leaders (questioned in the temple all week), and was crucified on the 14th … at the exact time Passover lambs were being slaughtered at the temple.

• Passover celebrated freedom from slavery in Egypt.

• His death accomplished freedom from slavery to sin and death.

And why haven’t we made it right? Easter should be celebrated along with Passover.

But it only gets weirder (cooler) after this.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Unleavened Bread started the day after Passover.

For seven days, they ate bread with no leaven (yeast). Leaven symbolized sin and corruption. The idea was: purge out all the leaven → be clean.

This is when Jesus (who is sinless) is buried. His body was the true "unleavened bread" … without corruption, without sin.

This is why we celebrate communion, and why He said “Eat this, it is my body for a new covenant.”

The Feast of Firstfruits

The Feast of Firstfruits was celebrated the Sunday after Passover.

On that day, the first sheaf of the barley harvest was offered to God as a promise of the full harvest to come.

Jesus rose from the dead on that exact day … the Feast of Firstfruits.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20)

When you look at the symbolism and the rich interweaving of these feasts God commanded the Israelites to celebrate, and then see how Jesus perfectly fulfills them, it feels like an absolute travesty that Christians don’t celebrate these feasts centered around Jesus.

I’m so blown away by this, I’m considering changing the day I celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, and it seems that a Passover celebration is fitting too.

And I have no idea why we haven’t made this right again.

Once I realized this, I kept going with the feasts… and the symbolism DOESN’T STOP.

Feast of Weeks

50 days after Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Shauvot) happens. This is to celebrate the wheat harvest and the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

This is the feast they were celebrating in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples in the upper room. 😳

• At Sinai, God gave the Law (Torah) on stone tablets.

• At Pentecost, God gave the Spirit to write the Law on human hearts.

The Jews were terrified of God’s fire on Mount Sinai.

Tongues of fire at Pentecost.

3000 people died when they worshipped the Golden Calf during Moses time.

3000 people became believers during Pentecost.

Again I ask… why do we Christians not celebrate this?!

This is more a rant than an educated newsletter or article, but you’re seeing in real time the awakening I’m having that as follower of Jesus, these should be holidays in my calendar too.

And when it comes to the fall feasts (Rosh - Trumpets, Yom - Atonement, Sukkot - Tabernacles)… we then launch into the 2nd coming of Jesus. For another day. But the symbolism is there and it’s so rich and crazy, it’s hard to understand how as a Bible believing Christian, I didn’t know this symbolism from the get go.

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s perfect law.

The Bible is a cohesive story of God’s redemptive work throughout humanity.

This awakening isn’t about abandoning the Church … it’s about returning to the roots of my faith with deeper reverence and awe.

God didn’t design the feasts as irrelevant ancient history.

He wove them into the very fabric of salvation, so we could see His fingerprints on every page of the story … from Egypt to Calvary to the empty tomb to the final trumpet yet to sound.

I don’t know exactly how this changes everything yet, but I do know this:

I want my faith calendar to match God's, not man's.

Maybe it's time for more of us to ask...

What else have I missed?

The drift isn’t extreme or instant. It’s a gradual slide.

We’re seeing the drift everywhere in our world, a principle that we cannot escape just the same way we can’t escape gravity.

• Currents: Watch a boat drift on the sea without an anchor. It’ll end up miles away from its destination even just a few degrees off at the start.

• Continental Drift: Tectonic plates shift and over time, land masses move.

• Erosion: No one wave etches out a cliffside, but over time, water reshapes the coast.

Religion tries to counteract the effects of spiritual drift through rituals- prayer, fasting, holidays, accountability, confession, etc.

God gave the Jews many such rituals to keep them close to Him.

What do we see happen though?

Despite the intent for these rituals to help draw you close to God, keep you from drifting away, they often slowly slide into legalism. When the heart detaches from the behavior, it becomes rigid, legalistic, empty.

The drift is happening even though the routines might still be present.

Jesus showed up and taught this truth OVER and OVER as the Pharisees and teachers of the law had drifted significantly in their hearts, despite outward piety.

It appeared to happen again when the Church went through big breaks and schisms (the Catholic / Orthodox split in AD 1000’s, and then again with the Protestant Reformation in the 1700’s).

It’s happening again and still. Drift.

Politically. The drift away from decency and logic into heralding a demagogue.

Spiritually. The drift in the contemporary Christian church (as one example) away from scripture.

Economically. Inflation.

Socially. Our acceptance with ever changing ideology of what we consider acceptable.

Drift is so deeply human.

It’s often not caused by anything nefarious. We don’t intend to drift. It’s caused by neglect, comfort, distraction, and success.

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I drifted spiritually for 12 years. Some of it would probably not even be considered drift, but active RUNNING away.

I’ve spent the last few weeks reading the book of Matthew (I’m about halfway through), and I see this drift all over the place just in the few chapters I’ve read.

Pharisees attached to their traditions while their hearts have drifted.

Disciples drifting away from belief just days after witnessing wild miracles (the bread and loaves- feeding 5000 and then worried about what they will eat just days later).

John the Baptist drifting in doubt while in prison after preparing the way for the Messiah.

People in Nazareth (Jesus hometown) drifting away from believing He was the messiah because of familiarity.

• Pharisees – Drifted from holiness into pride.

• Disciples – Drifted from faith into fear and forgetfulness.

• John the Baptist – Drifted from certainty into doubt.

• Nazareth – Drifted from wonder into familiarity and offense.

• Crowds – Drifted from awe into apathy.

I know there’s entire books of the Bible that deal with drift, but the theme is strongly coming alive in just 16 chapters of one gospel.

So how do we combat drift?

Even our tools (like rituals) are subject to stop working after a time. For example, if we say “We should pray three times a day”… we could in theory do that practice, but if our heart is drifting from God or not in it, the action becomes meaningless.

And then dangerous.

Dangerous because the action brings pride. A sense of “I’ve got this. I’m doing good works.” And pride is the primary sin that pulls us out of God’s presence and into our own strength.

The very tool we use to combat drift can actually be a dangerous mechanism that leads us a hardened heart.

The very tools we use to combat drift can, over time, become the mechanism of drift… not through failure, but through success without surrender.

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The ritual stays, but the reverence fades.

The discipline continues, but the devotion is gone.

For me personally, I didn’t experience this because I left both the tool & the heart position.

But as I come back, bringing with me some tangible habits like daily scripture reading, I’m so aware that these tools have a double edged sword if my HEART doesn’t stay engaged.

I need to keep my heart awake.

The answer is in the same 16 chapters I’ve read.

Repentance. Humility. Faith.

These are the three things that Jesus has shown me in Matthew that keep the heart awake.

Repentance means to change your mind. It’s ultimately a heart that is teachable and willing to do something a different way.

• The crowds at the Jordan – Confessed sins and were baptized by John. (Matt 3:5–6)

• Tax collectors and sinners – Drew near to Jesus, open to change. (Matt 9:10–13)

• The people of Nineveh – Recalled by Jesus as a model of true repentance. (Matt 12:41)

Humility is an understanding of your place. Of the grace & mercy extended to you. It’s an awareness of the gap between what you can do and what God must do through you.

• John the Baptist – Recognized his unworthiness to baptize Jesus. (Matt 3:13–15)

• The Centurion – Said “I’m not worthy” for Jesus to enter his home. (Matt 8:8)

• The Canaanite woman – Accepted her outsider status, yet still sought mercy. (Matt 15:21–28)

Faith is belief in His word, His character, and His purposes. It’s trusting God fully.

• The Centurion – Believed Jesus could heal with just a word. (Matt 8:5–13)

• The bleeding woman – Reached out in quiet desperation, trusting He could heal. (Matt 9:20–22)

• Friends of the paralytic – Brought their friend to Jesus; He saw their faith. (Matt 9:1–2)

Faith positions you to encounter God. Humility ensures you will be able to receive what He gives you. Repentance positions your life to look differently and your mind to think differently.

When a person has success, awards, accolades, power, money, status, fame… it builds pride, confirmation bias, as well as self-reliance. These are things that put the heart to sleep.

The natural human stuff we crave in life, brings drift.

It explains why the sermon on the mount was so fundamentally upside down.

While God’s kingdom is full of love, hope, joy, peace, health, all of those things… your ability to enter it is dependent on your faith, humility, and repentance. The things you need in order to rely on God’s power to move through you.

On the one hand, it’s terrible news for our flesh.

On the other hand, if we recognize the beauty and delight of being close to the God of the universe, that fulfillment is far greater than anything we could do here on Earth.

A heart awake means ultimate joy, peace, love, hope, meaning, regardless of what our life looks like here on Earth. And it can be experienced here and now. We don’t have to wait to be in heaven to experience that relationship with God.

The drift is real. Whether you acknowledge it or not.

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This is why “staying still or static” is a lie. There’s no such thing in this world. We’re either moving forward or drifting away.

You can’t stand still in life anymore than you can stay still in an ocean without an anchor.

Drift happens slowly, quietly… often without resistance… because the forces pulling us away from God are constant in this world.

And it plays out in other areas that aren’t spiritual. It’s a truth that echoes across all of our life.

We don’t need a perfect ritual or flawless track record.

We just need a heart that stays awake.

I’m not just talking about misinformation, rage bait, mainstream media vs social media, conspiracy theories, deepfake lookalikes, glossed over pretend internet moguls, or subjective algorithms… though all those things swirl around every single one of us daily.

Are we (me, you) anchored to something that’s unchangingly and objectively TRUE?

Julie ages 6 - 32 would have confidently answered yes. She was anchored to the truth, and knew the ins and outs of her worldview appropriate to the age she was.

Julie ages 32 - 44 undid all of it.

If you’ve never experienced existential angst, I pray you don’t. It’s one of the most terrifying and unrelenting experiences I’ve ever gone through in my life, and during that time I could not find an anchor anywhere.

It wasn’t just one or two nights. It was nonstop for years. I’m actually starting to wonder if my nervous system issues today weren’t just from life crisis and burnout, but from this constant state of terror about the fate of my soul and the meaning of life.

When I couldn’t trust my own emotions or thoughts, I went searching for answers from people who’ve wrestled intellectually with this exact question. Because the truth- if it exists objectively- has implications not just spiritually, but logically and philosophically, too.

What exactly is truth?

Truth is that which corresponds to reality, is consistent regardless of perception or belief, and remains constant independent of opinion, interpretation, or circumstance.

Philosophers and scholars1 often approach this question through logical frameworks2. Two of the most compelling arguments used to explore objective truth- and specifically the existence of God or an ultimate anchor for truth- are:

1. The Moral Argument

2. The Cosmological Argument

The Moral Argument

This argument appeals to our innate sense of right and wrong, good and evil. Scholars reason that since we all intuitively recognize certain moral truths- like the existence of justice or the intrinsic worth of human life- there must be an objective standard or source from which these truths derive.

If you deconstruct your way down to the idea that morality is separate from the existence of God, you end up in an argument that goes something like this… “Moral right and wrong was an evolutionary concept human beings developed so we could live in communities and survive.”

This argument doesn’t work all that well however because in many cases, survival includes things like lying, stealing, murder, etc. What about rape? If the species is about to go extinct because women refuse to have sex, then raping women to propagate the species is the moral right thing to do.

Also, what about moral progress? Over time we’ve seen (societally) better treatment of women, abolishment of slavery, protection of children. This march towards “better morality” suggests we’re headed towards an objective standard.

Ultimately, it becomes difficult to defend morality as merely an evolutionary adaptation for survival. Instead, it points strongly toward some objective truth or unchanging being from which our collective sense of moral obligation originates.

The Cosmological Argument

This argument focuses on the existence of the universe itself. The logic goes something like this: Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist (as science strongly suggests3). Therefore, the universe must have a cause outside of itself- something uncreated, eternal, powerful enough to set the cosmos in motion.

If you go toe to toe with an atheist on this one, they might say something like “Just because the universe had a beginning doesn't mean it needed a god to start it. Maybe the universe began from something natural that we don't fully understand yet.”

However, if things could truly pop into existence from nothing, why don't we ever observe this happening anywhere else? Even if we say a "natural" cause created the universe, what explains the existence and fine-tuning of that natural cause itself?

This is why… even in the worst of my existential dread, I still held onto the idea that God existed. This truth never really left me, but that was part of the issue.

If I *knew* that God existed, then that meant I had to understand God in order to know that I was going to end up somewhere okay after death. And that’s where I swam in dark horrible waters for more than a decade.

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So back to the Internet and it’s overwhelming amount of slop and subjectivity.

I believe there is an objective reality that we can know and a Creator who started this whole thing. There is a way to find and know what’s true, not just with the news, but with ideas as well.

Disclaimer: Just because there is an objective reality, doesn’t mean one person can always hold the entirety of it. This is why humility and wisdom are such powerful virtues. They are the way in which you recognize you might not see the whole picture.

Let’s tackle something really polarizing and divisive right now. The war between Israel and Gaza.

Depending on your news sources, friends, social media feeds, or even your own heritage, you'll find entirely different stories. One narrative describes Israel as a nation defending itself from terrorism, another portrays Palestinians suffering deep injustice and oppression. Both sides speak with passionate conviction, supported by facts, images, and history they consider irrefutable.

Is there a way to know what’s objectively true? Or even just a part of the whole truth?

I believe the answer is yes.

How do we practically do this?

• First, we identify facts that are verifiable and independently confirmed.

• Second, we assess sources and evidence carefully, looking for consistency, reliability, and transparency.

• Third, we intentionally listen to multiple perspectives, even those we instinctively disagree with, to understand the broader context.

With the Israel-Gaza conflict as an example, we can know objective facts like:

• Specific dates and locations of events.

• The exact words stated by political leaders (via recordings, verified transcripts).

• Verified historical context that both sides acknowledge (for instance, agreed-upon past conflicts, treaties, or ceasefires).

By starting with facts that both sides can agree on, we create a common ground. This common ground doesn't immediately solve every conflict, but it does help anchor us in reality rather than emotional reactions or propaganda.

Intellectual discipline is a lost art.

The algorithm favors emotion and rage bait. Because of this, 90% of what you read online is pandering to a different value (the algorithmic value) and it’s easy to let yourself get carried away by ideologies and stories that are not based on the truth.

To resist this pull toward emotional manipulation and misinformation, we must intentionally anchor ourselves in what can be known and verified… facts grounded in reality rather than emotion or ideology.

This is essentially where and how I ended up when coming back to my faith. I needed to find the ground I KNEW I could stand on.

• God exists.

• Jesus was a verifiable Jewish man living in 1st century Israel.

• He died and was raised to life three days later4

The Church I left in 2013 is not the one I am coming back to today.

I meant “Church” in the sense of Christianity as a movement. 11 years out of it and a lot has happened. I feel a strong intuition to continue to stay out of the Church right now, as I fear getting carried away by the bickering and drama I see.

I’m too fragile to re-enter right now honestly, and I think this is honestly what God wants from me. But I do miss speaking to people about these matters, and know I can’t stay in a vacuum forever.

The ability to know what’s objectively true is not something I take for granted anymore.

It’s only because I lived without an anchor that I can sit in the gratitude and peace that comes with understanding and certainty.

The amount of things that have gone from feeling foggy to clear, with just three solid certain truths re-embedded into my spirit, is absolutely wild.

And I know that I am only holding a tiny fraction of objective reality in my heart. But that’s the funny thing with truth. You lose your appetite for anything less, even if that means shedding your ego or your need to be right.

-Julie