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#Post#: 23136--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: December 31, 2020, 9:41 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnPgCUhLTJE
#Post#: 23694--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: January 13, 2021, 10:51 am
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/121489.png?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2021/january/vital-information-for-churches-and-christian-leaders.html
Will Churches be Back to Normal by Easter, Summer, or Fall?
Vital Information for Churches and Christian Leaders
A brief overview of Ed Stetzer's interview with Dr. Francis
Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health
Ed Stetzer: [Church leaders] are asking questions about when we
might be back together. Help us understand the timeline a bit
more, knowing thing might not go the way that we expect.
Dr. Francis Collins: I’ve been working from home for almost a
year and I expect I’m going to be in my home office for a few
more months. Here we are at the beginning of 2021, and this
pandemic across our country is the worst it’s been, with 3,000
people or more losing their lives every day.
The bright spot, of course, is the development of vaccines. We
do now have two such vaccines that are carefully reviewed, shown
to be safe and effective by rigorous means, and authorized by
the FDA for emergency use. We’re doing everything we can to get
those dosages into people’s arms because that is how we are
going to get past this.
I know people may have mixed feelings about the vaccine. For me,
as a scientist, it feels to me that God gave us the skills to be
able to understand how these things work, to identify this
pathogen, and to (in record time) be able to come up with the
vaccine, which has 95% efficacy. They’re actually a lot better
than most of us dreamed we would have at the present time. So
this is a gift from God, and a gift we all need to embrace to
get past this.
To be able to immunize 300 million people is not something that
can be done in less than a few months. I do think, by June or
thereabouts, we might be getting close to that point where
80-85% of the country is immune. At that point, the virus has to
start fading away, because there aren’t enough new people to
infect.
I don’t think that we’ll be able to bring churches together for
an Easter celebration this year, though I would love if that
were the case. It is going to take all of us to get there.
I am concerned that people of faith, in some instances, seem
reluctant to embrace this as a gift. If only half of Americans
take this vaccine, we will not be past this any time soon. We
have to get to the point where most of the population is immune,
or we haven’t really ended things.
Stetzer: What would you say to those who think this vaccine was
rushed?
Collins: We did move this more quickly than has ever happened.
Partly this is because of new technologies that were developed
in the last 25 years. Let me assure you, as a physician and
scientist who has been in the middle of these vaccine
developments for the past year, the only corners that have been
cut were the bureaucratic ones.
The science is as rigorous as anything we have ever done, in
terms of vaccine development. The ultimate conclusion about
safety and efficacy, which is in the public domain, is
incredibly compelling. 30,000 people enrolled in these trials,
and 95% efficacy showed up with no real evidence of any safety
concerns. The data is there! So, ignore the conspiracy theories
and look at the evidence. That is what we are all called to do.
[Dr. Collins also addressed question about stem cell lines, the
process, and conspiracy theories. Listen to the full interview
here]
Stetzer: You’ve said elsewhere that taking the vaccine is not
something you do for your just yourself, but as a way to love
other people. Can you tell us more about that?
Collins: There are two primary ways.
First, this virus is so hard to manage because you can carry it
and spread it without even knowing. Vaccination is a way to
reduce that risk.
Second, on a larger scale, if we are all part of a community, we
really need all of us engaged in the effort to generate herd
immunity.
We need everyone to succeed. This isn’t so different from
putting on a seatbelt or not drinking and driving. We don’t want
to make the vaccine a law, but it is a moral responsibility.
Stetzer: What do you think the level of mitigation will be at by
summer?
Collins: I wish I could be more precise. Some of this depends on
whether other vaccines get approved. There are six more being
studied. The more that get approved, the quicker we can
vaccinate.
We also have to study whether or not the vaccine is safe and
effective for children. There is still a lot of uncertainty.
Don’t have your heart set on June, but by the fall we ought to
be in a pretty good place. I don’t think it would be totally
unrealistic to think that by June or July that we might be in a
place to have a lot more public gatherings, including churches,
but I can’t promise that.
If 30% or 40% of Americans don’t take it, we don’t get out of
this.
Stetzer: When you say it’s going to be different in the fall,
what will it look like?
Collins: There is a big unanswered question.
We are intensely investigating whether or not those who have
received the vaccine can still spread the virus even if they
don’t get sick. If the vaccine means they don’t get sick and
they can’t convey the virus, mask wearing won’t be expected. If
you can still spread the virus even after the vaccination,
you’ll still have to wear a mask.
I don’t think so, but we have to keep the option open.
Stetzer: To close, give us a short vision on why Christians
should be engaged with the vaccine, and should advocate for it.
Collins: This is not the first plague that we’ve had to deal
with. Christians have always had the courage to figure out how
to help. We should do that now.
We won’t help the situation if we don’t get the vaccine and
continue to spread the virus or ignore protective measures.
One of the ways we evangelize is through our actions. Are we
creating a positive public witness? Are we a group people want
to be a part of? Are we helping our neighbors? Are we reaching
out to the lonely? Are we being a listening ear, virtually?
Let’s focus on being a part of worldview that others want to be
a part of. We can get through this, but we have to get through
this together.
Ed Stetzer is executive director of the Wheaton College Billy
Graham Center, serves as a dean at Wheaton College, and
publishes church leadership resources through Mission Group. The
Exchange Team contributed to this article and has updated the
article.
#Post#: 24133--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: January 24, 2021, 8:05 pm
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3rd stimulus checks: GOP congressman suggests $1,400 payment
only for those who get COVID-19 vaccine
[img]
HTML https://ktla.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/01/GettyImages-1218977241-1.jpg?w=724&h=483&crop=1[/img]
HTML https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/3rd-stimulus-checks-gop-lawmaker-suggests-1400-payment-only-for-those-who-get-covid-19-vaccine/
Now that he’s assumed office, President Joe Biden is expected to
try to get his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan passed as
quickly as possible. The measure includes a $1,400 stimulus
checks for most Americans.
With Democrats in control of both the presidency and Congress,
the overall plan has a good chance of passage. However, one
Republican congressman is throwing up a roadblock of sorts.
Rep. Steve Stivers, a Republican from Ohio, suggested checks go
to people who’ve received the coronavirus vaccine.
“I hope the administration will look at that option because we
actually buy something with our $1,400 — and that’s herd
immunity,” Stivers said in an interview with Yahoo Finance.
He suggested the quickest way to get the economy going is to get
people vaccinated and back to work or school.
“While I am not for giving a $1,400 stimulus check for anything,
I’d be willing to sign off on a stimulus check of $1,400 for
people who take the vaccine,” Stivers said.
While that suggestion is not likely to move forward, Biden’s
plan isn’t moving as quickly as some hoped. The checks are part
of a complex and layered plan that includes increasing the
minimum wage to $15 an hour, expanding paid leave for workers
and increasing tax credits for families with children.
#Post#: 27062--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: March 18, 2021, 7:50 am
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ws1gVXbkOk
#Post#: 27113--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: guest8
Date: March 18, 2021, 11:50 pm
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--- Quote from: patrick jane link ---
>
>
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ws1gVXbkOk
>
--- End Quote ---
to believe the pale horse seal is opened, then you donot believe
God's wrath starts with the seven seals.
Blade
#Post#: 27860--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: March 30, 2021, 9:54 pm
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HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e4KYgJbVqg
#Post#: 27866--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: guest8
Date: March 30, 2021, 10:28 pm
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--- Quote from: patrick jane link ---
>
>
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e4KYgJbVqg
>
--- End Quote ---
Dead On Target.....
Blade
#Post#: 27871--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: guest17
Date: March 31, 2021, 2:56 am
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The Amazon series “Utopia” filmed in 2019 and released September
of 2020, involves a created & released virus with a suspicious
jab that makes people sterile. Nothing surprising here, just
another show revealing the elite and their methods.
➖
“You created a panic and now everybody’s begging for the ‘jab’.
– Yes, and we now have exactly what we want. Hundreds of
millions of Americans lining up, offering us their arms and
letting us give them our creation.”
➖
“We intend to stop human reproduction for three generations. The
busy, endless, global assembly line of babies will grind to a
halt...In the first 5 years, we’ll start to see major birth rate
declines as teenagers today hit their child bearing years”.
HTML https://www.facebook.com/367850210448374/videos/167078761909273
#Post#: 28815--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: May 5, 2021, 11:48 am
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/123419.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/may/bible-reading-study-trauma-ptsd-covid19-mental-health.html
Study: Trauma-Informed Bible Reading Reduces Depression,
Anxiety, Anger
Research in Virginia jail could help churches deal with
emotional impact of the pandemic.
One day soon the pandemic may be past, and COVID-19, a memory.
But the trauma—from the isolation, seeing people die, facing
financial stress, and living with loss and the anxiety of the
unknown—will continue for a long time to come.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
percentage of American adults with recent symptoms of anxiety
and depressive disorders increased more than 5 points between
the summer of 2020 and the spring of 2021. One out of every 10
people reports having an unmet mental health care need.
“We’re going to see this level of trauma for many years," said
Nicole Martin, executive director of trauma healing at the
American Bible Society (ABS). “It’s not just going to go away
when everyone is vaccinated and everyone is allowed inside.”
Martin and the American Bible Society want to meet that need
with trauma-informed Bible reading, teaching people about
healing from trauma using Scripture.
A recent ABS-commissioned study by Baylor University researchers
found that combining education about mental health best
practices with Bible reading can have a significant benefit. In
their study, this reduced the symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder and increased forgiveness, compassion, and sense of
purpose.
“As America experiences a mental health crisis, this study shows
the potential benefits of faith-sensitive care for traumatized
people,” said Robert L. Briggs, ABS president and CEO. “The
Bible has been shown to be a vital source for emotional,
spiritual, physical, and mental healing.”
The study looked at the effectiveness of the ABS curriculum
Healing the Wounds of Trauma, taught inside Riverside Regional
Jail in North Prince George, Virginia.
A group of 210 incarcerated men and women volunteered to take
the five-session program, where trained facilitators read
Scripture with participants and walk them through a process of
identifying their pain, sharing it, and bringing their trauma to
the cross of Christ for healing, so they can be freed to care
for themselves and serve others. The participants answered
questions about themselves and their mental health before,
immediately after, one month after, and three months after
finishing the program. Another group of 139 incarcerated people
volunteered to take the survey without going through the
program.
Comparing the two groups, researchers found that the program
showed statistically significant results.
“Whenever someone says that a particular program is remarkably
effective based on the success rate of participants, they don’t
have an answer to the question, ‘Compared to what?’” said Byron
R. Johnson, one of the three researchers at Baylor University's
Institute for Studies of Religion who worked on the study.
“Having a control group that is comparable to the experimental
group allows us to determine if the intervention is having an
independent or unique effect.”
The study groups were broken up into 22 cohorts, 10 male and 12
female. Participants were about half white and half Black, and
ranged in age from 18 to 65. Most were in the Virginia jail for
a parole or probation violation, and they had been to jail, on
average, five or six times. The control group was fairly
similar, though they were less likely to be Christian, be
married, or have committed a violent offense.
The study showed that the group that went through the program
saw a drop in feelings of depression, anxiety, and anger, along
with “complicated grief,” which includes denial of traumatic
events, negative affect, and avoiding activities associated with
trauma. They also had less depression and fewer suicidal
thoughts.
At the same time, compared to the control group, the people in
the study experienced an increase in feelings of forgiveness and
compassion, and reported increased rates of resiliency.
Johnson said he and his fellow Baylor researchers, Sung Joon
Jang and Matt Bradshaw, expected to see some differences. But
they didn’t anticipate how clear it would be, even immediately
after the program finished.
“We saw a reduction in PTSD symptoms, an increase in emotional
well-being, and an improvement in attitudes toward God and the
Bible,” he said.
The impact may not be as clear in the general population as it
is for incarcerated people, according to Johnson. People in jail
have typically experienced more trauma in their lives, and there
are demographic differences and different contexts that make
extrapolation from the study uncertain. But Johnson said the
curriculum wasn’t designed specifically for prisons, and he
would expect to see trauma-informed Bible reading have similar
impacts on everyone.
Heath Lambert, the author of numerous books on biblical
counseling, said this makes sense if you realize how much the
Bible speaks to trauma, isolation, alienation, and crisis.
“That’s just what the Bible was written to address," said
Lambert, an associate professor at the Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, in Louisville, Kentucky, and senior pastor
of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida. “The Bible
explodes with relevance.”
Lambert has seen firsthand some of the traumatic impact the
pandemic has had on people. Some in his church have lost loved
ones. Many are dealing with unbearable loneliness—separated from
their church and their families.
“That is isolating and hard and wounding,” he said. “I’ve talked
to these people on the phone, and they’re in tears.”
Church can be a practical solution to loneliness and isolation,
according to Lambert. But with the Bible, Christian ministers
can also help people meet a sovereign God who is in control and
loves them personally.
“The church addresses the fear problem by talking about a big
God who holds the world,” he said.
While it’s still hard to say anything definitively at this
point, Lambert said he expects that there will be an increase in
the number of people who come to church after the pandemic,
because they’re searching for answers and community.
ABS wants to help churches be prepared, with Bible-based
material that helps people work through trauma.
“It changes the way you think,” Martin said. “It changes how you
think about pain. It changes how you think about suffering.”
And though the immediate suffering of the pandemic may soon be
over, the need to address trauma didn’t start with COVID-19 and
will continue long after.
“All of us have wounds. All of us have pain,” Martin said. “The
invitation to meet the ‘Wounded Healer’ through the Bible has
the power to change lives.”
#Post#: 28973--------------------------------------------------
Re: CORONAVIRUS - THE PALE HORSE
DIR By: patrick jane
Date: May 7, 2021, 3:18 pm
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[img]
HTML https://www-images.christianitytoday.com/images/123537.jpg?w=700[/img]
HTML https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2021/may/white-evangelical-pastors-covid-vaccine-hesitancy-preach-ch.html
White Evangelical Pastors Hesitant to Preach Vaccines
Advocates say more subtle approaches and one-on-one engagement
may actually do more to inform the unvaccinated without further
dividing the faithful.
As COVID-19 vaccination rates slowed this spring, Americans’
attention turned toward the groups less likely to get the shot,
including white evangelicals.
Black Protestants were initially among the most skeptical toward
the vaccine, but they grew significantly more open to it during
the first few months of the year, while white evangelicals’
hesitancy held steady.
With African Americans, many credit robust campaigns targeting
Black neighborhoods, launching vaccination clinics in Black
churches, and convening discussions featuring prominent Black
Christian voices for reducing rates of hesitancy. So for those
eager to see higher levels of vaccination, the question became:
Are white evangelical leaders doing enough to engage their own?
The latest poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit
research organization focused on health issues, found that as of
the end of April, white evangelicals (54%) were about as likely
to have received the COVID-19 vaccine as the country overall
(56%).
The difference comes with the attitudes among the unvaccinated.
White evangelicals are half as likely as Americans overall to
say they plan to get the shot ASAP, and 20 percent say they
definitely won’t be getting the shot, 7 percentage points lower
than the rest of the country.
Most evangelical churches in the country span a range of
perspectives on vaccination, which makes it difficult for
pastors to know when or how to address the topic.
“I know pastors who won’t even mention masks because people
would leave. I’d say vaccines are even more sensitive,” said Dan
DeWitt, who directs the Center for Biblical Apologetics and
Public Christianity at Cedarville University. “Pastors feel so
constrained. They want to take care of their people, but they
know one careless comment could cost them.”
The issues dividing the country in 2020 divided churches too.
While pastors tried to adapt worship services and continue to
provide spiritual care for the suffering and mourning,
congregational disputes over politics, racial issues, and
COVID-19 responses spiked. Church leaders fielded complaints for
being too cautious or not cautious enough, with members
threatening to leave or simply making the move over reopening
plans.
After a year like that, some don’t feel comfortable publicly
endorsing or rejecting the shot; maybe they would if tensions
weren’t so high. Even pastors who personally trust the vaccine
and would recommend it may worry that it’s not their topic to
preach on or that doing so would unsettle their congregation.
Curtis Chang, the former pastor and Fuller Theological Seminary
senior fellow behind ChristiansAndtheVaccine.com, says pastors
are in a tough position. “They’re really stuck. They’re feeling
paralyzed and muzzled,” he said. He challenges them to think
beyond Sunday sermons to other ways to engage the issue.
Chang’s site and campaign offer a slate of informative videos
for Christians and for pastors in particular. His message to
those leading evangelical congregations: “Don’t feel like you
need to preach on this from the pulpit. Look for other subtle
ways to exercise your influence.”
That’s what Kentucky minister Carl Canterbury did. He told the
Lexington Herald-Leader that he wouldn’t address the vaccine
from the pulpit, but, knowing that vaccine misinformation is
rampant in his small town in east Kentucky, he would talk to
fellow members at Louellen Pentecostal Church about why he went
ahead and got the Johnson & Johnson shot.
“So many people think it’s a conspiracy, and they want to know,
are you getting it? The day I had my shot, I had four members in
our church to stop by and ask, did I take the shot, and I told
them, yes,” Canterbury said, noting that every pastor in the
small town of Closplint had also been vaccinated. “Because I
did, they did.”
What happened at his Pentecostal church, where people changed
their mind after hearing a pastor or church member talk about
why they got the shot, is a promising trend.
And it makes sense. Though many people were eager to immediately
roll up their sleeves for the COVID-19 jab, having questions
about the new vaccines or wanting to wait for others to get the
shot is actually a common, natural response, wrote
epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz.
“It’s also worth reiterating that most of these hesitant people
do eventually get vaccinated. Sometimes they are late, sometimes
they take a while to convince, but most of them are reasonable
people worried about something they don’t yet fully understand,”
he said. “Most can also be reassured with time and adequate
information shared by medical providers.”
PRRI found in March that among churchgoers who are waiting to
see if they’ll get the vaccine, nearly half of white Protestants
said engagement from their faith community—either seeing others
get vaccinated or hosting events like forums or clinics—would
make them more likely to do so.
The poll also found that white evangelical Protestants who
attend church more often are slightly less likely to want to get
the vaccine (in March, 43% said they had done so or planned to
ASAP) than those who attend less often (48%). Among Black
Protestants, it was the opposite; church attendance was
correlated with greater openness to the vaccine.
Chang suggested that the Black church tradition has primed them
to see health as a community issue, and that Black churchgoers
are more likely to trust the model set by their pastors—many of
whom signed up for the vaccine early in public-facing
vaccination campaigns.
As vaccine access expanded in March and April, many prominent
pastors touted their decision to get the vaccine, such as
Southern Baptist Convention president J. D. Greear, who posted a
#sleeveup selfie on Twitter. Others opened their churches as
vaccination sites, such as First Baptist Dallas pastor Robert
Jeffress, a former evangelical adviser to President Trump.
But many white evangelicals see vaccination not as a mandate of
their faith but as a matter of personal conscience. It’s between
them and their families, them and their health care provider, or
them and God.
There are a few who embrace conspiracy theories about the
vaccine and the coronavirus, of the sort promoted by evangelical
leaders such as Eric Metaxas, and some who claim the inoculation
is somehow connected to the “mark of the beast.” More commonly,
though, evangelicals who are hesitant to receive the vaccine
were resisting what they saw as cultural pressure to take away
their freedom to make an individual decision.
Chang said that for some the attitude is, “I made my decision.
Don’t tell me what to do,” or “I prayed about it, God told me
not to take the vaccine, therefore end of discussion.”
Christian messaging around the COVID-19 vaccine has employed a
range of theological reasoning: Vaccination is a way to take
advantage of the blessings and protections God gives us through
science. It’s an expression of love and care for our neighbors,
especially those who are medically vulnerable. It allows us to
participate in God’s healing of the world.
As stances on masking and vaccination become conflated with
ideological positions, evangelicals are also sensitive to how
they talk about the issues in faith terms.
At Madison Baptist Church in Georgia, pastor Griffin Gulledge
models wearing a mask to church and prays during services to
thank God for the vaccine and for effective treatments against
the coronavirus—“That sends a message,” he says—but he also
believes that he’s not a public health expert, and people may
have good reasons for waiting to vaccinate.
“Christ tells us to love your neighbor as yourself, then the
apostle Paul tells us to maintain the unity of the Spirit and
the bond of peace. I think those are two things we need to
balance,” said Gulledge. “I don’t think it is reasonable for
people to say in all cases, universally, to love your neighbor
you must follow this or that precaution and you must get
vaccinated at this time. … These things are complicated.
Reasonable people are going to come to different conclusions.”
Despite assumptions about COVID-19 approaches in the rural
South, 30-year-old Gulledge said the “vast majority” of his
church was eager to get vaccinated, so much that they helped him
find an appointment to get the shot.
Being a pastor and being a part of Christian community has
always involved designating between matters of gospel importance
and individual freedom. Lately, those issues have come up in
particularly visible, fraught ways as the country takes sides on
pandemic responses and vaccines.
DeWitt at Cedarville points out how much tone and perception
matter when it comes to how churches address COVID-19. What some
people see as an act of caring, others see as overreach.
“How do we stay committed to the gospel and committed to this
message that we care for body and soul?” he asked. “If there is
no good evidence that the vaccine is hurtful, and if there is
evidence that the vaccine is helpful, then church leaders should
be vocal—not for virtue-signaling but because it’s an actual
good and leads to flourishing.”
DeWitt also sees the attitudes over coronavirus responses as
tied to deeper issues in the American church, where he worries
too many people are conflating “scriptural identity” and
“political identity.” “We’re in a culture in which things that
are superficial are seen as deeper loyalties,” he said.
The fact that American evangelicalism is so fragmented—that the
big-name ministry leader who inspires one group of evangelicals
may totally turn off another—makes it a challenge to engage the
movement as a whole, even when calling on shared beliefs and
values.
“The recipe here is information plus trust,” said Chang. “We can
provide the information. The trust has to come from a person
who’s sending this along and saying to their friend or their
church or their family, ‘Hey, would you be willing to take a
look?'"
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