Christianity – Page 2

The Prodigal Band’s ‘Missions of God’: Snippets On How the Prodigal Band Carries Them Out (Part Six): Keyboard-Synthist Bryan’s Mission (Part A)

The final parts of this series on the band’s given missions of God concern the keyboard-synthist Bryan, also called Bry, who is also well connected with bikers, which mostly make up the band’s roadies. Bear in mind that his parents, also musicians, were hard-core atheists and obsessed with Darwinian evolution theory.

Here is an irony—the first biker Bryan had ever met was Christian!

The snippet below, from Chapter Twelve of The Prodigal Band (© 2018 Deborah Lagarde), explains part of why Bry considered accepting Christ, as he tells the rest of the band and manager Joe Phillips, in his ‘revelation.’ After telling then that a Christian summer camp worker convinced him Darwinian evolution was bogus, he then brings up this Christian biker he’d met at a previous local Walltown music festival in 1981.

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The Prodigal Band’s ‘Missions of God’: Snippets On How the Prodigal Band Carries Them Out (Part Four): Drummer Tom’s Mission

Next up is the prodigal band drummer Tom, who was born into great poverty within the slum district called the Hovels in the band’s hometown, his father being indentured along with other folks in this district. At age nine, a spirit being called the witch of the Hovels convinced Tom to leave the Hovels and become adopted by the band’s original manager, Billy Prestin—who also adopted guitarist and band leader Jack, who escaped an abusive father within a supposedly Christian cult. Upon becoming a wealthy rock star, Tom was determined to free his family from indenture (as well as the other Hovels indentured folks) by paying off the debt and also was determined to find out who indentured his family. In the meantime, he chose to hang out with other wealthy celebrities and aristocratic upper class associates so as to find some clues as to who held the indent over his family. That was how he met and developed a loving relationship with the princess of a fictitious principality inside Italy called Leandro, Princess Tina. The love that developed between the two was about more than just finding out who indentured his family. And the man who controlled the indent, another aristocrat named Marty, the Duke of Effingchester, having learned Tom paid off the debt—which was a curse on him as told to ancestors by the satanic spirit character Corion—vowed to get revenge on Tom by marrying the Princess! Tina, of course, was totally opposed to the marriage and despised the Duke and continued in secret to be with Tom when possible. Further, it was Tina who paved the way for Tom to realize he had to turn from his debauched celebrity lifestyle and (as she said to him in The Prophesied Band) ‘open the Bible.’ Further, in Chapter Eight of that second trilogy novel, both Tom and Tina witnessed a satanic ritual through a window of an underground room within satanic cult leader Cole Blessing’s residence. Thus, since Tom hung out with aristocrats and celebrities who were also influenced by the forces of evil and was partnered with a force for good, the Princess who was also fighting the evils of her Godless husband the Duke, God’s angels, the Tooters, gave Tom this mission they knew he could carry out…as long as Tom would not carry put what he promised his father in a letter stating he had paid off the debt—that is, to kill the man who indentured his father. Below, from Chapter Ten of The Prophesied Band, is the mission given to Tom by the Tooters as singer Erik held the final note of the final song at the hometown music festival:

Tom, his drums silent, also listened.

“You will know His Word by your band leader’s instructions. You must know these Words so that you can use them to fight Corion’s new order and the Evil of Corion you saw that night at Cole Blessing’s home. Your mission is to make your entertainment colleagues turn from their Godless ways and to take the tool of Godless culture away from the servants of Evil. Your enemy, the Duke of Effingchester, will try to stop you. You must defeat his influence, but you must not defeat him as you once promised your father. Remember, The Creator will deal with him.”

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy Controversial Topics Series: Episode Five-Evolution vs. Creation-Intelligent Design (Part 2)

Last week in Part One of Episode Five-Evolution vs. Creation-Intelligent Design, I explained that the founder of the Theory of Evolution, Charles Darwin, was indeed a controversial topic in that his original ‘Origin of the Species’ book, which concluded with the admission that God, the Creator, began the process of evolution. This later morphed into what we know today as evolution when the Creator was removed from his book after his death, likely by an atheist group of what were called Social Darwinists, a group including Thomas Huxley and Richard Dawkins. This was likely done to back their notion that God did not and does not exist. Yet neither Huxley nor, in the present day, Dawkins, can explain how something came out of nothing, or what particle or particles out of nothing caused the so-called ‘Big Bang.’

As I had stated in earlier posts, I never believed in the Theory of Evolution. If evolution was truth, it would be called the LAW of Evolution, not just a ‘theory.’ Theories need proof, right? So that, since no evolutionist has figured out what single particle or particles suddenly came out of nothing…I mean, what was the so-called ‘First Cause’? (Note: Saint Thomas Aquinas came up with that one, ‘First Cause,’ in medieval times; the ‘First Cause,’ of course, being God). Since the evolutionists cannot come up with their original particle, I simply cannot believe in the atheist-humanist-rationalist ‘Theory’ of Evolution. Do the math, folks—you cannot divide by ZERO or NOTHING!

So the best I can explain why Darwin or anyone would come up with this theory deals with the notion of a ‘construct.’ Darwin, a former Christian-turned-agnostic, did in fact believe in God, but what about those who came after Darwin such as Huxley and Gould and others? Since they didn’t believe in God the Creator, they had to find a way to explain how creatures and plants, etc., came to be, so they used Darwin’s ‘Origin’ book while taking God out of their narrative or equation. Thus, they came up with their own ‘construct,’ which I ‘define’ in Chapter Twelve of The Prodigal Band in a conversation between future band member Bry and a Christian biker-preacher.

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Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy Controversial Topics Series: Episode Two-Religion

Nothing—according to many pundits and persons—is as controversial as these two topics—politics and religion; politics was covered in Episode One of this Controversial Topics Snippet Series within The Prodigal Band Trilogy. Ipso Facto, Episode Two deals with religion.

While the trilogy books do mention Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the Druids of Wales (in the context of their practices against their fictional enemies, Crynnwagg and the Crag-Dwellers who were cannibals, whom the Druids ‘tied to oak trees’ as revenge for their rituals against the Druid priesthood youth), only the fictitious New Age cult led by Swami Negran and Cole Blessing, the Church of the Circle of Unity—and its red crystal of Corion, and Christianity are prominent. I made up the Unity Church cult based off the real cults of Hare Krishna (I had a friend years ago victimized by this cult) and Transcendentalism (led by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who influenced the Beatles and others).

I look at Christianity in a different way than most Christians and non-Christians do—a true Christian follows the Way, Truth and Life of Jesus Christ and accepts the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God the Father, and puts these ahead of doing what most folks think Christians do—go to church, tithe, hand out religious tracts, go to ‘mission conferences,’ and engage in conservative politics, among other things… and partake in Communion, baptism, marriages in churches, and other rituals that attach to various denominations (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and other groups not affiliated with these). Yes, I was baptized (three times—as a baby, in a church where I was teaching in the 80s during Bible study sessions, and in a local baptistry). Yes, I do Communion at the local non-denominational church. Yes, I was married in a Catholic church (because my parents wanted it that way…I really wasn’t a practicing Catholic then). Yes, I read the Bible (without which I never could have completed this trilogy!). Yes, I pray. But that is not what makes me a committed believer on Christ. And that is not why God gave me the trilogy-writing mission to tell the world why they should consider accepting Christ as Savior. It is commitment to Christ by one’s own free will and then doing as such, not religious doctrines, dogmas, and rituals, that makes one a true Christian.

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Snippets of Reality within The Prodigal Band Trilogy: “Christian” Cults

I guess this ‘cult’ thing is just too interesting! After posting several snippets about the reality of New Age and Cult practices within the entertainment industry which influenced my The Prodigal Band Trilogy I took a break from that, posting about the reality of eating disorders within the fashion industry influencing a main female character.

Now, back to the ‘cult’ thing, only this time the cult is a ‘Christian’ one! That is, it is a cult that claims to be Christian, but is anything but.

Many atheists (one atheist has a YouTube channel which claims Christianity is a cult but Satanism is not) think all religions (except Satanism?) are cults–I know a few atheists, and that is what some of them think. Same with agnostics–and I used to be an agnostic (I could not quite bring myself to becoming atheist but the thought did cross my mind) so I know what I am talking about. But the funny thing is, Christianity is the only ‘cult’ or religion that atheists tend to attack…not Judaism, not Islam, not Hinduism, not Buddhism…they only attack Christianity. I will let the reader figure out why, but I have my own opinion which at this time is neither here nor there. I believe an atheist can think what they want; it’s between them and God (or the “flying spaghetti monster” or whatever).

Folks, I am being facetious, okay?

But while Christianity is a religion (IMHO) not a cult, there are in fact actual cults that claim to be ‘Christian.’ I am not talking about (what some consider cults) Mormonism or Seventh Day Adventism or Jehova’s Witnesses or any denomination or sub-denominations (by the way, I am strictly non-denominational), but actual cults that claim to be ‘Christian’ and are led by actual cult leaders. These cult leaders are actually looked upon by the followers as actual Messiahs or ‘gods.’ These folks live in cult-like cloistered-type communities. ‘Good behavior’ is awarded handsomely and ‘bad’ ones are punished severely. These bogus Christian cults are in many if not all nations.

The one that inspired the bogus ‘Christian’ cult in my trilogy is based on a movie I saw in the 1990s about a supposedly Christian cult in a rural region of Quebec, Canada. I do not remember the name of this cult but the name of the movie was “Savage Messiah.” This movie was based on an actual event where the cult leader was convicted of murder and other crimes. The cult I bring up in my books is loosely based on the notions set forth in the movie, but in the case of the books one form of punishment is getting hit over the head with a hard-cover Bible. A true Christian group, a true Body of Christ, would never do such a thing!

For the sake of making a simple and quick point, I will only include one snippet instead of the usual three or four. I could get more graphic, but that would be too much of a spoiler if you know what I mean (and if you want to read a much more dastardly snippet about this bogus Christian cult, buy the trilogy!

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