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end-o-the-line · 7 years ago

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A Captain America: the First Avenger Timeline for Fic Writers

(I’m so sorry I erased the original post I’M SO SORRY! You can read this without the visual aids on AO3.)

March 10, 1917 - James Buchanan Barnes is born, and we were all officially fucked.

July 4, 1918 - Steven Grant Rogers is born, and somewhere in Brooklyn Bucky's mother wept . . .

June, 1924 - Steve's mother is bedridden from illness associated with Tuberculosis.

September, 1930 - 12-year old Steve and 13-year old Bucky meet for the first time in Hell's Kitchen, where Bucky scares off bullies trying to steal Steve's money. What were they doing in Hell's Kitchen? No one knows. Steve tells Bucky he's been living in the orphanage 'on 8th' since his mother's death. Which is odd since Bucky was apparently at her funeral when they're both legal adults in a flashback scene from the Winter Soldier. For the purpose of this timeline, info from the movies will take precedent over info from the various tie-ins. Meaning Sarah Rogers is basically Schrödinger's Ma for the next 6 years.

1936 - Shrodinger's Ma finally actually dies fo sho of Tuberculosis. Bucky breaks everyone and their mother's heart with his 'til the end of the line' line. (Also, per MCU canon, Bucky's 'folks' are still alive . . . and own a car.)

February ish, 1940 - Colonel Phillips first approaches Howard Stark, in Los Angeles, about working for the SSR. (Stark Industries was formed in 1939, and 'a year later' Howard is at a nightclub in West Hollywood called Ciro's, demonstrating the properties of Vibranium. Ciro's opened in January of 1940. So keeping in line with the MCU canon and with real world history, as you do, January 1940 is the absolute earliest that Howard could have been recruited.) They're pursued and Stark deploys rockets from the ass-end of his car to escape them because Howard Stark.

Agent Margaret "Peggy" Carter, aka Agent 13 is already in deep cover working for Schmidt as a maid in his personal mansion.

November, 1940 - Peggy rescues Dr. Erskine from Schmidt's mansion two days after Johann Schmidt forces him to inject the experimental serum, proving that we all could have saved a lot of time if Peggy had done that three fucking days earlier, Jesus.

May 25, 1941 - Steve goes to the Dodgers-Phillies game at Ebbets Field. Was Bucky with him? We don't fucking know. It was a Sunday, so maybe. It’s not like Steve knew other people . . .

December 7, 1941 - Steve and Bucky are in an art class - like . . . how can anyone write these two as dirt poor when they're fucking around on their Sundays at baseball games and art classes? By this point the economy was booming as the work force was being drafted left and right, these two would not have been in need of jobs. And two Irish-Catholics (honestly, Bucky is probably Scottish, lbr) skipping church? tsk tsk - when the class is informed by a runner that Pearl Harbor has been attacked.

Okay real talk here, for a second. The draft officially started in 1940, pulling men 21 years of age and older. In 1940, Bucky was 23. He was single, no kids. He absolutely could not have given conscientious objector status as a way to avoid it because if he had, when he was drafted later on he never would have seen combat. He should have been drafted in '40 or '41. The only reasons he wouldn't have been was if he was a student, or if both his parents and/or his siblings were considered his dependents. Since some sources say both Bucky and Steve were orphans, then it is entirely plausible that both Bucky's parents died close to the time Bucky turned 19 or 20, in which case he could have become the legal guardian of his younger siblings.

PS: Bucky is not an orphan in the MCU (nor is he poor in that suit, jfc):

So either Bucky was working like a damn dog supporting his family, in which case the fuck are you doing in an art class, kiddo? Or he was actually a student at a college or university.

.....he could also have, during the years the US was gearing up in case they were forced into the conflict, held a job that was considered vital to the coming war effort. This sort of deferment was limited to jobs in war production, and jobs that involved national 'health, safety, or interest'. Literally the only job I can think of without actually like . . . researching it, that Bucky could have been in where he would have been skipped the first few times but taken in '42, is if he had been a police officer. That would fit very well with his ability with a gun, plus explain why he made sergeant so fucking fast, with prior training other inductees would not have had.

Considering what a golden child Bucky was in Brooklyn, all three of those scenarios would be a perfectly valid reason for Bucky to have avoided the first several waves of conscription. Just thought that was interesting.

Anyway! Steve wants to enlist right away, so Bucky (a three-time YMCA welterweight boxing champion, suck it) trains him for two whole weeks because Bucky is apparently of the opinion that Steve is an idiot who won't get in anyway so why fucking bother going hard.

*at the time, under the regulations of the New York State Athletic Commission, welterweight was a weight class of 147 to >160 pounds. Meaning post-war Bucky gained about 40 pounds of pure muscle after getting the serum....dude.

December 24, 1941 - Bucky is right and Steve's first attempt to enlist fails so hard. Go to Midnight Mass, Steven.

March, 1942 - Red Skull fucks shit up in Tønsberg, Norway and finds the Tesseract.

September 21, 1942 - Bucky receives his draft card, and takes it to an intake facility and enlists in the US Army. The following dates are literally nowhere in canon, but I have research to back up what is essentially pure speculation on my part. His serial number is 32557038. There is a real world counterpart who actually had this particular serial number, and he was enlisted on this date. So, in order for Bucky to have gotten to the number before this guy, Bucky probably woke up early Monday morning to get shit done.

Desperate Historian's Note: I always assumed that since he was a Sergeant when he first shipped out, Bucky had been in service for at least a year and a half, which is still pushing it within the constraints of the timeline. Most NCO's at the start of US involvement in the War, Corporals and Sergeants, already had years of Army service under their belts. But no. 9 months. So. Bucky basically kicked ass and took names to become a Sergeant in 9 months of non-combat training (which took place at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin btw). That, or every NCO in his regiment came down with a sudden case of the Deads and he got promoted.....Bucky would have needed a special recommendation from the company commander - TWICE in 9 months - to reach that rank. Jesus. It is canon fact that Bucky was indeed an absolutely phenomenal soldier (and leader) . . .

He would have been sent to basic training and been gone for ten weeks, meaning it would have been over by the 1st of December, 1942, or thereabouts.

December 1, 1942 - Give or take a week or two, maybe, depending on how quickly he was whisked away after enlistment, Bucky would have been given a week's furlough after training at Camp McCoy ended.

December 8, 1942 - Since he is a designated marksman (not a sniper, the US Army didn't have those in WWII. A designated marksman was just a guy in a regiment who was an excellent shot and stuck with their regiment at all times and was used situationally, never went off alone to shoot people in the head and stuff), he absolutely would not have been sent to any sort of sniper training because, again, the US did not have those in WWII. He wouldn't have stayed in NYC, though.

He would have been on an Army base somewhere, with the occasional week-long furlough to return home. There were 114 mobilization camps by 1942, and only three of those in New York state; Madison Barracks, Camp Upton, and Pine Camp, with three more in New Jersey; Fort Dix, Fort Monmouth, and Camp Shanks. 17 were in California, 14 in Texas. Anyway. So, before Bucky leaves for war, he and Steve wouldn't have seen a whole lot of each other for the year before that, either.

June 7, 1943 - Bucky probably arrives in NYC on a final week's furlough before being sent to War. With the way Steve looks at him when he sees the uniform later on, and Bucky's cocky little head tilt, it's probably safe to say Bucky received his sergeant's chevrons not long before this furlough. (Honestly . . . I have never understood this part. Bucky damn well knew he was 107th from the moment he reported, and Steve should have as well. Also, ‘getting his orders’ had nothing to do with his uniform, soldiers were required to wear that shit everywhere they went. Unless Steve knew he’d gotten his orders simply because he was there and shouldn’t have been....whatever, movie exposition, blah blah)

June 14, 1943 - Steve's fifth attempt to enlist fails spectacularly because he had to claim to be from New Jersey. He then goes to get the shit kicked out of him in an alley behind a movie theater, that's what you get for saying you're from Jersey, Steven. He and Bucky attend the Stark Expo that evening, where Steve ghosts like an asshole - even though for all he knows this is literally the last time he will ever see Bucky alive!! - and is chosen by Dr. Erskine as a candidate for Project: Rebirth.

June 15, 1943 - Bucky and the 107th ship out for 'England'. Now, the troop transport Queen Mary left NYC on June 1, 1943, heading for Gourock, Scotland and carrying the 1077th Signal Company Service Group. It took 5 days; they arrived on June 6, 1943. On July 16, 1943, the Edmund B. Alexander carried 5,000 replacement troops to Liverpool, England. That journey took ten days; they made land on July 26, 1943. Maybe. The records are full of literal question marks, so I dunno. That's the closest thing I can find to Bucky's stated journey. Most of the troops leaving from NYC at this period were actually heading for Africa, landing in Casablanca, Morocco.

I know Bucky says he's shipping out for England in the morning, but it makes so much more sense that the 107th would have been sent to Africa and then swept up into Italy in the next four months of fighting, where Steve finds them later. It would be easy to deal with this by either saying Bucky's an idiot, or (my recommendation) that Bucky knew exactly where he was heading and he just wasn't telling Steve that he was being sent into the heart of the brutal African and Italian campaigns rather than a nice balmy Liverpool in the summer. The journey from NYC to Casablanca, Morocco would have been anywhere from 11-15 days.

June 20-25, 1943 - Bucky would have hit Liverpool, England right around this time, if that's the way he was sent.

June 25-30, 1943 - Bucky would have docked in Casablanca, Morocco, if this is the way it went instead. So I guess you could safely say he made landfall in the European Theater on June 25, 1943? Haha right in time for Mussolini to get his ass arrested and the Italian Fascist government to fall.

June 22, 1943 - Steve is injected with the super-soldier serum, right Steven? (Meaning he only had a week of basic training, at most, and everything else he knows about being a soldier he taught himself with all those books he brought to Camp Lehigh with him.)

September, 1943 - Ugh, okay, history nerds cover your ears, because there is just no way to make the real invasion of Italy match up with the MCU invasion of Italy. Unless the 107th just said fuck those guys and marched right into German territory past the . . . bombs and stuff. On September 9, there were Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto, Italy, and they didn’t enter Naples until October 1. I mean, is it really all that shocking that they got their asses kicked in Azzano? NO. But having a fucking USO show that deep into Italy means the MCU said fuck it, so you too can say fuck it when it comes to the real WW2 timeline in Italy, idfc. This is apparently what the MCU lines looked like at this point in time, and let me just tell you, see that bulge there, right under the Hydra flag? Those fuckers would have been surrounded and cut off so fast, so fast, just like in Bastogne. Assholes....anyway.

October, 1943 - The Battle of Azzano results in Hydra declaring war on anything that moves, including Nazis, and takes prisoners from various different regiments that historically were either still in training or in the Pacific Theater at this point, but that's fine. Prisoners are taken over 120 km away to a Hydra weapons factory in Kreischberg, Austria, where their Hydra captors separate the men into cages according to their nationality and other factors. The purpose of this is for the bickering hodgepodge of Allied soldiers to keep each other busy with in-fighting so the Hydra guards can forget to train and get beat up by Captain America in a month or so.

Dum Dum Dugan almost immediately makes a joke while Cage Team Howling Commando is introducing themselves, and a brawl breaks out. As you do.

In Bucky's cage are the following:

Jacques "Frenchie" Dernier, French Resistance, born January 2, 1911 (32). The fuck was your French ass doing in northwestern Italy, son? To my knowledge the French Resistance kind of worked mainly . . . in France. The Italian Resistance was very active in this period, so they could have been collaborating, but that's not what the Resistance did, mostly. So the only logical conclusion we can come to with Frenchie is that he was captured somewhere in France by Hydra and transported to the factory as labor. He lived in Marseilles before the War, and likely would have stayed close to it.

Major James Montgomery "Monty" Falsworth, born January 2, 1914 (29), of the British 3rd Independent Parachute Brigade, which historically first saw action in June of 1944, ha. Anyway, Monty was from Birmingham, England and was known in the comics as Union Jack, and the pin on his beret is a nod to that. Teeeechnically? Monty outranks Steve, but since they're not even part of the same Army, that's kind of a moot point. He winds up with the rank of Brigadier, which wtf, that means he outranked Colonel Phillips when the war ended . . . four for you, Monty.

Private Gabe Jones, born August 14, 1918 (25), was 92nd Infantry Division, a segregated unit that historically first saw action in September of 1944, haha. Gabe was from Macon, Georgia and was fluent in French and German thanks to pre-war studies at Howard University. Just as proficient in hand-to-hand as the others, he was often part of the team’s frontal assaults, as well as handling the radios . . . and he boned Peggy Carter in the comics.

Corporal Timothy 'Dum Dum' Dugan, born April 11, 1912 (31), was a member of the 69th Infantry Regiment, which is also known as the 165th or Fighting Irish, recruited solely from NYC, who were making landfall in the Pacific right about now. Frustrated historian's note: Had he been a real boy, Bucky Barnes would have been enlisted into the 69th Infantry as well, just like Dugan. Canon-wise it makes sense that Bucky and Dugan were from the same unit, even though canon thinks they weren't because canon made up the WWII-era 107th? Anyway, the fact that both Dugan and Bucky were in the same foxhole when the Hydra tank hits in the cut scene from First Avenger is all fucked up because you don't put your NCOs where they can be blown up together, okay. It's bad strategy. Add to that the fact that Dugan calls him Bucky like they've been buddies for a while, but the tie-in comic is still on 'Jimmy' and also states that Dugan and Barnes were in the same company after all, that cut scene is frustrating. Or I guess the comic is frustrating? Something's frustrating, anyway. I think the best way to deal with this is just to say that the 107th IS the Fighting Irish regiment because fuck it. Dugan will eventually take over leading the team when Steve goes splat, leading the Howling Commandos and being involved with SHIELD, and Nick Fury personally, well into the Cold War.

Private Jim Morita, born October 20, 1919 (24) - also, Happy Birthday here's a Hydra weapon NOW ASSEMBLE IT - wasn't in the same cage as the others, but he served in the US Army's Nisei Squadron as a Ranger, aka the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Their real fight in the European Theater began in June of 1944, so who the fuck knows how his ass wound up in Austria. And since the whole unit was made up of men of Japanese descent, it's safe to assume there's a 50/50 chance Morita was given the choice back in Fresno between enlisting and an internment camp. A lot of fics write Morita as the team medic, but I'm not entirely sure why. In WWII, medics held a rank of Private, Private First Class, or Technical Sergeant. So, the medic would either have needed to be Morita or Gabe Jones in keeping with this. But there is literally no canon mention of him being any better at triage than any of the others, and he is definitely not a medic by trade. None of them are. The more likely scenario here, because none of them wear the insignia of a combat medic, is that all of the team were equally trained and capable at the most basic of field triage, but the team itself probably flew without a safety net and used the medics from whatever regiment they were shadowing at the time.

Sergeant James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes (26) - who you will notice is literally the fourth James in a team of 7 men - contracted what can only be assumed to be walking pneumonia on the battlefield of Azzano, and as his condition gets progressively worse in captivity, hastened by the hard labor of the weapons facility, he eventually becomes so weak that he drops several components in front of the officer in charge of the Facility, identified only as Colonel Lohmer. Lohmer beats Bucky like a rented mule, and when he's deposited back in his cage, the other four realize that if he's made to work again the next day, he'll die. They devise a plan to kill Lohmer, which would put one of the kinder Nazi assholes in charge who would allow Bucky to remain in the cages until he was able to recover. Their plan works, crushing Lohmer under a ton of machinery and symbolism and signifying the first time the soon-to-be Howling Commandos had worked together successfully. The soldiers return everyone to their cages after the accident to keep order, and Dugan tells Bucky that he's safe from Lohmer now, with the only punishment being a reduction of the POWs food rations for a week since there was no one specific to punish. Bucky is an ungrateful dick and not only asks Dugan to stop calling him "Jimmy", but graces him with the nickname Dum Dum in the process. Bucky is saved from dying on the manufacturing floor only to be singled out by Arnim Zola and taken to the 'examination rooms'. And we all know what happens there.

August to Early November, 1943 - Steve Rogers sings and dances his way through over 200 shows and makes several badly conceived films while his best friend is slogging his way through Italy.

November 3, 1943 - Steve disappears behind enemy lines to go find his Bucky.

November 8, 1943 - The Man With A Plan dramatically re-enters the Allied base camp where Colonel Phillips is fixin' to tear Peggy Carter a new one for losing Captain America over enemy territory. If the Battle of Azzano happened on a goddamn Earth map at the real Azzano in the Province of Udine, and assuming the Allied camp was somewhat close to that area, the march from the factory back to the Allied base camp would have been well over 120 kilometers as the crow flies. Those prisoners were metal af.

I'm getting that date from the assumption that walking over 120 km back to (supposedly because in reality they'd have needed to walk to goddamn Naples) Allied territory with 400 sick and wounded men would take a few fucking days. An American unit in Sicily in WWII (30th Infantry Division) marched 54 miles in 33 hours across country. But it's safe to assume that the company Steve rescues from Kreischberg would not be moving at top speed, but rather a steady pace that would keep them moving, but not fucking kill them.

The closest thing I can get to this incident is in July of 1944, when the German armies began a forced march of POWs across Germany to delay their liberation by the approaching Red Armies. Groups of 250 to 300 men marched over bombed out roads in a meandering route because they were forced to skirt around various battles, kind of like what our POWs would have to do in enemy territory. The groups would march between 20 to 40 kilometers a day, with very little food, clothing, shelter or medical care to speak of. Using 30 km/day as our benchmark, that's at least 4 days that it would have taken to get back to the Allied encampment. If the Hydra factory went boom on the night of November 3rd, and Steve flounced into camp in daylight, November 8th is a very safe bet.

November 15, 1943 - Steve pinpoints the Hydra facilities on the map in the SSR bunker in London (which was located in the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall) and is given permission to form his own elite special ops unit. Sidenote, the Howling Commandos were never called the Howling Commandos until after the War ended, they were merely called the 107th Tactical Team. Another nickname bandied about in 'non-canon because it contradicts the movie ahahahahahah' was The Invaders, which is probably what other soldiers would have known them as when encountering them. Neither Steve nor Bucky would know what the fuck a Howling Commando even is until they read up on history, and even then neither of them would likely ever think of himself as a Howling Commando.

Now, in trying to find this date, my inner frustrated historian has begun to weep, because I just cannot find a base in Italy that makes sense for any of these damn movements to have been based out of. The Allies hadn't even gotten through the Gustav Line at this point, which ran across the boot and through the town of Cassino, south of Rome. For them to be in Northern Italy close to the Austrian border, dude. WTF were they doing there? And how did they get in and out?? I mean was anyone really surprised when their straying asses got pounded by enemy forces deep in enemy territory??

I have no idea how to judge how long it would have taken for the future Commandos to get to London and drink in a pub because there is literally no rational logic to pinpoint their starting location, and therefore no way to guess what modes of transport were even available to them so close to enemy territory. The easiest way to find this date would have been to find out what date Captain America was awarded his Medal of Honor, but . . . even I'm not that good, apparently, 'cause I can't dig up shit. The Medal of Honor ceremony that happens at the same time as this scene would have been at least a week and probably more from the action on the night of November 3rd simply because it took that long for the paperwork to travel back to Washington. It was usually months before soldiers received their Purple Hearts, for instance. But let's assume this was fast-tracked because it's Captain goddamn America. Let's also assume they didn't have Howard Stark fly them back to London in his plane and tell the other 400 POWs to go make like a leaf and fuck a tree or something.

So the trip back to London probably took at least 7-10 days. We also need enough time to have passed that they expected Steve to get from the front lines all the way back to DC for the ceremony. My first instinct is to say up to a month could have passed when this scene comes around, but a month just seems way too long when looking at the context of the scenes, from the celebratory pub crawl of the POWs to the fact that Steve is being debriefed here, which would have been literally the first concern of an agency whose job is gathering intelligence.

TL:DR version, this could be anywhere from a week to a month later, idfk.

It's safe to assume this is also the night of the pub when Bucky reveals how heterosexual he is not by asking if Steve is going to keep his stage suit for no apparent good reason.

Mostly I'm putting this date here because it is the day the Allied Expeditionary Force for the invasion of Europe is officially formed. Having the SSR gearing up for - or as a result of - that meeting seems to make a lot of sense.

November 15, 1943 to March 4, 1945 - Steve and the Invaders, often along with other military forces, plow through HYDRA factories like an enraged ex with a John Deere tractor and a bottle of Jim Beam, and also join the larger battle against the Axis Powers on the Western Front. Essentially this period is Band of Broooos: Howling Commandos Edition. This period is where you can really have your fic fun, because canon doesn't tell us fuck all about it.

Well . . . that’s not necessarily true, though. Through the (paltry imo) Howling Commando montage of the movie, we see at least 10 distinct missions, and in clips from TWS there are hints of a few more; as many as 15 total. There are 6 Hydra facilities on the board, labeled 1-6. #4 was never taken during Steve’s time. But we can assume at least 5 of their missions were blowing the rest up. One was ‘in Poland, near the Baltic’, the other was ‘30-40 miles west of the Maginot Line’, thanks Steve. That doesn’t give us shit, son. But I will try.

1. A Hydra facility raid, #2. This is the one 30-40 miles west of the Maginot Line, labeled #2 on the map. West, in fact, of Liechtenstein, and southeast of Innsbruck, in a town that begins with RES. I think this is Resia, Italy, and the Reschen Pass (Resia Pass in WW2), which would make sense, tactically. I’d like to point out that they show Bucky entering with the team, show the team running out, show Steve riding out on his motorcycle, and then the place blows up. No Bucky. Take better care of your marksman, boys . . .

2. An approach with additional military forces through a forest, in the snow. Look at those BAMF motherfuckers. I got no clue what this mission could be, though. This has the feeling of a patrol, rather than a directed attack on anything. Bucky doesn’t even have his rifle.

3. A direct attack through a forest of exploding trees . . . no snow. This is probably a frontal attack intended to push at the enemy lines. With mortars like that coming at them as they advance, there’s no way whoever they were facing wasn’t dug in on a forward line.

4. This is most likely a harassment mission. They’re shown disturbing the lines of supplies to somewhere, and taking care to be covert, which is . . . not usually how Steve rolls, lbr.

5. Another Hydra base raid, Base #5. This is shown through only film, with Steve planning an approach to somewhere and a whole shitload of troops mobilizing with them. From where they are, he’s pointing south. God help me. Looking at the map he’s pointing to, the best guess I have based on the coastline is that it shows the northern bits of Belgium, and he’s pointing toward Hydra base #5, which is somewhere in the northeast corner of France, right below the border of Luxembourg.

6. Seek and destroy mission. This was another battle, not a base. Despite the fact that they’re in rubble, but then . . . most of Europe was rubble at this point, lbr. Peggy pulls a ‘Hydra battle lines’ flag from the map after this mission, so this was about pushing the forward line back. And we know this was the Hydra line, not the Nazi line. The scene we see was likely after the battle itself was over, when the search for the wounded and intel begins; that’s when enemy snipers made their last stand, like the one seen stalking Steve’s oblivious star-spangled ass. Bucky almost kills Steve for saluting at him and giving away his carefully chosen position.

7. A pitched battle in a town, somewhere. Steve is seen kicking ass and stuff.

8. Cool guys don’t look at explosions . . . The only reason I am separating these three clips is because the middle one is obviously in a forest, where the other two are in towns. We’ll call them three separate skirmishes. I would imagine all three of these are about pushing back that forward line.

9. The mega huge tank in the middle of town. I can see the team being sent out just to take care of this thing. Historian sidenote; the Nazis did indeed cook up some monster tanks. Hitler had a size kink. The Tiger II, or as the American GIs called it, the King Tiger, was . . . I mean, you were fucked if one of these rolled up into your path. They were damn near indestructible and they carried a big fucking stick. The problem with a heavy tank is that a Europe that has been bombed back to Creation for several years is a muddy Europe . . . if that Hydra tank wasn’t stuck in 5 feet of mud it was made of aluminum or something.

10. A last Hydra base raid, Base #?. This is shown only through the resulting smoking husk of a destroyed base and Red Skull being a diva. I don’t know which one this was, other than knowing it had to be #1, or #6. I hate to tell Steve, but I’m not sure any of the flags on this map are in Poland near the Baltic Sea, my dude. It would have to be #6 that he was talking about, though. #1 is just northeast of Lübben, Germany, in what appears to now be Briesensee nature preserve.

The only other hints we get at their missions are the clips of footage from TWS.

11. Hydra Facility #3. #3 is in the south of fucking Greece, near the northwestern tip of the body of water called Maliakos Kopos. There’s a marina in that area, Agia Marina, that would make a very convenient Hydra facility if I do say so myself. Now, this looks like a water landing! And it’s not an ocean landing, so that marina at facility #3 might be the ticket.

12. I’m going to call this a Hydra Facility Raid. Look at him go. There he go. Again, this is either #1, or #6. idfk anymore.

13. Prisoners. Cap is seen escorting surrendered German soldiers, It’s notable that they’re not Hydra, so that would be one of the ‘regular’ missions they ran with other troops. It could be part of any of the above missions, though.

14. Clearing out a town left by retreat. Those soldiers are not particularly the kind of alert that possible enemy combatants in the weeds will make you, so that town has probably been cleared.

15. Troop Transport/Advancement. This is notable because it’s a bridge, and not a little stone bridge, either, it’s a big one. In fact, this is the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine. (You can learn more about the capture of this bridge by looking up the Battle of Remagen.) Bridges were kind of a big deal at this stage when the German army was pulling out all the stops trying to prevent the Allied advance. Bridges large enough to convey heavy artillery got blown up but quick. This bridge in particular was front page news when it was captured by the Allies. Unfortunately, we can’t place Steve and his team at the Battle of Remagen, or at the Ludendorff Bridge, because this happened just days after Steve nosedived into the Arctic. So. We’ll call it an MCU bridge! This was either coming back from the front and they were deeper in Allied territory, or more likely after a battle, but on the way to the new front lines, as established by the winning of the goddamn bridge. Doubt this was a Hydra mission, either.

All in all, Bucky and Steve have 16 months of battle side-by-side. Bucky would have had 20 months total of combat service in the War.

I'm going to list some real events from the War during this time that the team might have been involved with or nearby for that could fill in some of those non-Hydra missions above, and some things they would definitely have at least talked about. You can skip these if you like, just scroll down to the next bolded bit. I am copying and pasting these because I can:

December 2, 1943: The Germans conduct a highly successful Air Raid on Bari, Italy. One of the German bombs hits an Allied cargo ship carrying mustard gas, releasing the chemical which killed 83 Allied soldiers. Over 1000 other soldiers died in the raid.

January 17, 1944: The first Battle of Monte Cassino begins when the British X Corps attacks along the Garigliano river at the western end of the German Gustav Line.

January 20, 1944: The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Gari River but suffers heavy losses.

January 22, 1944: Allies begin Operation Shingle, the landing at Anzio, Italy. The Allies hope to break the stalemate in south Italy, but they are unable to break out of the beachhead and the line holds until late May.

February 15, 1944: The second Battle of Monte Cassino begins with the destruction of the historic Benedictine monastery on Monte Cassino by Allied bombing. The Allies believed the grounds were used as an observation post by the Germans

February 16, 1944: Germans launch a major counter-attack at Anzio, threatening the American beachhead.

March 15, 1944: The third Battle of Monte Cassino begins. The small town of Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombers.

April 27, 1944: The Slapton Sands tragedy: American soldiers are killed in a training exercise in preparation for D-Day at Slapton in Devon.

May 8, 1944: D-Day for Operation Overlord set for June 5.

May 11, 1944: The fourth battle of Monte Cassino begins led by general Anders of the 2nd Polish Corps.

May 18, 1944: The Battle of Monte Cassino ends in Allied victory. Polish troops of the 2nd Polish Corps led by general Władysław Anders capture Monte Cassino. German troops in west Italy have withdrawn to the Hitler Line.

June 4, 1944: Allies enter Rome, one day after the Germans declared it an open city. German troops fall back to the Trasimene Line. Meanwhile, Operation Overlord is postponed 24 hours due to high seas.

June 5, 1944: Operation Overlord commences when more than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. And the first Allied troops land in Normandy; paratroopers are scattered from Caen southward.

June 6, 1944: D-Day begins with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.

June 10, 1944: At Oradour-sur-Glane (a town near Limoges), France, 642 men, women, and children are killed in a German response to local Resistance activities.

June 13, 1944: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England, in retaliation for the invasion. The V-1 attacks will continue through June.

July 3, 1944: The Allies find themselves in the "battle of the hedgerows", as they are stymied by the agricultural hedges in Western France which intelligence had not properly evaluated.

July 24, 1944: Operation Cobra is now in full swing: the breakout at St. Lo in Normandy with American troops taking Coutances.

August 15, 1944: Operation Dragoon begins, marked by amphibious Allied landings in southern France. Elsewhere, the Allies reach the "Gothic Line", the last German strategic position in North Italy.

August 19, 1944: The French Resistance begins an uprising in Paris, partly inspired by the Allied approach to the Seine River.

August 25, 1944: Paris is liberated. The German military disobeys Hitler's orders to burn the city.

September 2, 1944: Allied troops enter Belgium.

September 6, 1944: The "blackout" is diminished to a "dim-out" as threat of invasion and further bombing seems an unlikely possibility.

September 9, 1944: The first V-2 rocket lands on London.

September 17, 1944: Operation Market Garden, the attempted liberation of Arnhem and turning of the German flank begins.

October 18, 1944: Hitler orders a call-up of all men from 16 to 60 for Home Guard duties.

November 1, 1944: "Operation Infatuate", an Allied attempt to free the approaches to Antwerp begins; amphibious landings take place on Walcheren Island. It would become a major supply port for the Allies by the end of the month.

November 20, 1944: Hitler leaves his wartime headquarters at Rastenberg, East Prussia, never to return; he goes to Berlin, where he will soon establish himself at the bunker.

December 16, 1944: The Battle of the Bulge begins as German forces attempt a breakthrough in the Ardennes region. The main object of Hitler's plan is the retaking of Antwerp.

January, 1945 - The only mission the MCU gives real details about comes from the Smithsonian Exhibit's interview with Peggy Carter (which you can watch in its entirety btw). The 'difficult winter, 1945' has to be January, and they were outside Stalingrad, Russia. During - or possibly in the aftermath of - a blizzard, Steve (and presumably the Commandos but fuck those guys amirite Agent Carter?) fight their way through a Hydra blockade that had been there 'for months', and saved half a battalion, over 1,000 men, who'd been penned down behind German lines. That's literally all we've got for mission details, and none of that makes any sense. Like any. At all. Why the fuck were they near Stalingrad?? How did they get to the Eastern Front, STEVEN???

February 1945 - Bucky falls from a goddamn train in the Alps. There is no resource to tell us how much time passes between Bucky's fall and Steve's supposed death in the Valkyrie. So let me get my history on for a second. On February 17, 1945, the British Special Air Service executed Operation Cold Comfort, a parachute drop raid near Verona, Italy with the objective of blocking the main rail lines through the Brenner Pass by landslide. The Brenner Pass is a mountain pass through the Alps which forms the border between Italy and Austria. Sounds familiar, right? (It's also featured on one of the Captain America covers, Captain America No. 33, 1943).

The operation would ultimately be a failure, but since Schmidt wouldn't have known that, hearing rumors of this operation, or even word that it had been attempted and fearing a second try, this could have been the inciting incident behind why he had Zola hauling his evil ass along that railway at a speed described as 'moving like the devil'. So we can safely put Bucky's fall between February 15 and February 25th. You could also stretch and say it was February 14th, if you are the reborn incarnation of Satan.

Now, by the end of February, the Red Army was sweeping through the northern regions of Poland toward the German border, moving north and west. It's a Russian soldier who finds Bucky in the Alps, so either that patrol was way the hell out of their lane, or . . . Bucky laid there for a while, folks. Seriously, the Red Army didn't even sniff the border of Austria until March 31, 1945 with the Upper Silesian Offensive. Which leads one to postulate that, a. the Russians who found Bucky were lost as fuuuuuck, b. the Russians who found Bucky were a rogue group who defected to Hydra after Hydra declared itself a separate entity from the Axis forces (doubt it), or c. neither Steve nor any of the rest of the team ever actually looked for Bucky's body, even after Steve went down in the Valkyrie, and he laid there for weeks. I honestly choose to believe one of the former, since the latter is just . . . I can't.

[No, you know what? Fuckin......frustrated historian meta addition.]

It's always bothered me that they might never have looked for Bucky's body, y'know?

I always assumed the arm got ripped off when he hit the side of the ravine. Like maybe he grabbed for or hit a ledge and the speed/height of his fall was just too great and it got ripped off. Because it's not crushed like it would be if he'd landed on it, it's a traumatic amputation. It almost had to have happened during the fall. Which could mean he'd have landed close to the edge, or maybe like hit higher up and tumbled until he was at the bottom instead of freefalling the whole way?

In his flashback, you can see he's still bleeding as the soldiers are carrying him. Bleeding a lot. If he'd been in the water or motionless in the snow for any amount of time, the bleeding would have at least become sluggish. He'd be hypothermic; his body would route blood away from his extremities to protect his vital organs, plus the blood vessels in the wound would be constricting due to the cold. But, if he'd been moving under his own power trying to get to help, it would explain why he's still bleeding; his movement kept the blood circulating where it would otherwise have clotted up.

In this gif, it looks almost like the blood trail starts just a few meters away. If we take a leap and assume that when they started moving him it jogged him awake, then this scene shows where the Russians found him. Those are trees, aren't they? Meaning he moved under his own power after he landed. Meaning he got the fuck up after falling off that train, and walked through that ravine toward help. What a fucking badass, jfc.

Two things I think we can say with certainty; one, the Russians were definitely searching for someone. He's on a stretcher, which wasn't something a normal patrol would've been carrying, especially over rough terrain. They had it with them for a reason. And two, the Russians weren't there because of Zola. Between Bucky falling and Gabe taking the control room, he had very little time to get off a communication with sitrep and location. And even if he was able to, it would have been to Hydra troops, who would have shown up wearing Hydra gear. And Russians are almost certainly not part of Hydra at that stage in the War.

Those Russian soldiers were probably an Allied search party that was sent out to find Bucky. That would tick off a lot of problem boxes, wouldn't it? It would mean someone - the SSR, the Army - did order a rescue/recovery for a damned war hero like a fallen Howling Commando, and Allied Russian troops were closest or something. It would explain why Russian soldiers were in such a remote area, with a stretcher, when they had zero other reason to be there! It would explain why Bucky is listed as KIA instead of MIA even though they obviously never found his body. It would also explain why Bucky didn't struggle as they were carrying him off; he thought they were on his side, rescuing him.

My theory after writing all this up? He lost the arm in an impact with the side of the ravine, but contacting the ravine walls also slowed his landing and put him on dry ground. He then got up like a BAMF and moved, either until he found shelter under some trees, or he simply collapsed from shock or trauma or exposure or all of the above. An Allied rescue/recovery party found him, but they were Russian, and they reported him KIA and kept him because they knew he must be enhanced to have survived that sort of fall, cold, and blood loss, and they wanted their own Captain Comrade.

March 4, 1945 - The SSR and other forces raid the secret Hydra bunker and Steve Rogers boards the Valkyrie on his way to getting fridged, literally haha, so Peggy Carter can become a hero . . . good job Captain Cannonball.

March 15-24, 1945 - The Commandos assist in Operation Undertone, which was part of the Allied invasion of Germany by the U.S. Seventh and French 1st Armies of the U.S. Sixth Army Group. It was a very real operation, so info is easy to find about it if your heart is still in your chest after watching both our boys plummet to their supposed deaths.

Some time in April probably?? 1945 - Dugan and Morita head to the last known HYDRA facility, Facility #4 bitches!, known simply as the Fortress, located some the fuck where in Austria, with Peggy Carter. They capture HYDRA General Werner Reinhardt and take possession of the first known classified 084, the Obelisk. We don't see the Obelisk again until Agents of SHIELD.

May 8th, 1945 - VE-Day. The remaining five members of the team gather in a pub to toast 'the Captain', suggesting that they did indeed just leave 'the Sergeant's' body rotting in the Alps somewhere, fuck that guy. (It is notable that one of the tie-in books for the movie states explicitly that they toast to both 'the Captain' and 'the Sergeant', so it's probable that they gave each man his own, individual farewell. We just didn't see it.)

(If you want more timeline! Trying to track the Winter Soldier through both canon and history.)

#steve rogers #bucky barnes #Howling Commandos #history nerd rants #research #fic reference #history sorta #timeline #meta maybe?#captain america #ca:tfa #MCU detail references

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ladystylestores · 4 years ago

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She’s on the frontline of a rape epidemic. The pandemic has made her work more dangerous

Lagos, Nigeria — At the start of each day, Dr. Anita Kemi DaSilva-Ibru and her team put on gloves, facemasks and other personal protective equipment to see their patients.

They’re not treating people for Covid-19, but they are on the frontline of the pandemic, working at the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), a rape crisis center in Lagos, Nigeria.

Wearing protective gear is the new reality for crisis center workers, like DaSilva-Ibru.

“We change these kits each time we see a survivor as we are mindful of the risk of transmission of the virus between the survivor and us and the cross-contamination between a survivor and the next,” she told CNN.

US-trained gynecologist DaSilva-Ibru has spent most of her career treating hundreds of sexual violence victims but it was the growing scale of the crisis in Nigeria that prompted her to set up WARIF in 2016.

The clinic in Yaba, a suburb of Lagos, provides medical treatment, legal assistance therapy and space for rape victims and survivors of sexual abuse to get back on their feet.

One in four Nigerian girls has been the victim of sexual violence, according to UN estimates but DaSilva-Ibru says the numbers are higher as many cases go unreported due to the stigma attached.

In recent weeks, two high profile cases of gender-based violence have brought Nigerian women out onto the streets demanding change.

Uwaila Vera Omozuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student, was found half-naked in a pool of blood in a local church where she had gone to study after the Covid-19 lockdown left universities across the country shut.

“Rape is an epidemic in this country.”

Dr. Anita Kemi DaSilva-Ibru, Women at Risk International Foundation

Her family said her attackers raped her and the student died while being treated at the hospital. A few days later, another student, Barakat Bello, was allegedly raped and killed during a robbery at her home, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

“Rape is an epidemic in this country,” DaSilva-Ibru told CNN.

She says her work with survivors of sexual violence has become more critical during the outbreak, with restrictions to curb the virus from spreading fueling a surge in calls.

It’s a story echoed in other parts of the region, as authorities grapple with a growing number of Covid-19 cases and the impact restrictions are having on women.

Related: A transport ban in Uganda means women are trapped at home with their abusers

DaSilva-Ibru said she initially closed the center after authorities locked down the city in March, she had to reconsider the decision as the organization became inundated with SOS messages from sexual violence victims and their guardians.

Staff operating the 24-hour helpline at the center also reported a 64% increase in calls during this period, according to DaSilva-Ibru.

“Our phones were ringing. Women were calling and desperately asking how we can help them, these were women in fear of their lives, as many have now been forced into quarantine with their abusers, in an already volatile environment,” DaSilva-Ibru told CNN.

For the center to re-open, DaSilva-Ibru said she had to source PPE, face masks and other protective gear personally and when that was not enough, the center launched an online appeal for funds from donors to buy the equipment at no cost to survivors, she said.

“We carry out forensic examinations on survivors and our frontline health workers who triage and examine patients are in close proximity to the survivors. As much as we need to carry out our duties, we also need to ensure our workers are adequately protected,” DaSilva-Ibru told CNN.

The challenges Ibru faces to keep the center open, doesn’t compare to what sexual violence victims have experienced as a result of this pandemic, she said.

DaSilva-Ibru recalls a woman who told staff at the center that her male friend had raped her in her home during the lockdown.

“The first day we re-opened, we attended to women who had walked many miles in spite of the mandatory lockdown to get to the center. These are women who had been terrorized in their homes,” she added.

“She (a survivor) had repeatedly been calling (the center) to find out how she could get help. She feared she might have contracted HIV and wanted to be tested,” Ibru said.

Speaking to CNN, the woman, who didn’t want to use her name to protect her identity, said a co-worker raped her after he came to her apartment unannounced in April.

The young banker said she had previously rebuffed his attempts to visit, but on that Sunday afternoon in April, he showed up at her doorstep.

“He’s a friend, not a stranger, so I opened the door for him. I was still asking him what was so urgent that made him leave his home. He said he wanted to check up on me and I told him he could have done that over the phone,” she told CNN.

But a few minutes into his visit, the conversation became uncomfortable between them.

“He kept coming towards me, and when I told him to stop, he put his hand over my mouth and pinned me on the floor,” she said.

She says he apologized after raping her and hurriedly left her house.

The survivor told CNN she did not make a police complaint because she was worried about the stigma and strain that the rape might have on her parents.

A friend she confided in told her to reach out to the Lagos Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team who put survivors in touch with treatment centers for help.

After several calls to the centers on their website, she was referred to WARIF.

When she went to the clinic, she says staff ran some tests and placed her on Post Exposure Prophylaxis, a HIV prevention treatment for possible exposure.

“Sometimes I get really angry, and sometimes I feel numb,” she said, reflecting on the assault.

She says she was sick every night for 28 days because of the drugs.

“…even though the doctor prepared me for the side effect, it has not been easy,” she told CNN.

Gender-based violence is a problem in many countries, but the coronavirus pandemic has worsened the situation.

The UN says the raft of measures deployed by governments to fight the pandemic have led to economic hardship, stress, and fear — conditions that lead to violence against women and girls.

Equality Now Regional Coordinator in Africa Judy Gitau told CNN that the wave of unemployment and school closures has put victims in a precarious situation.

She recalls a similar situation in Sierra Leone during the 2014 Ebola outbreak when teenage pregnancies spiked in the country

The government enforced strict stay-at-home orders that closed businesses and schools across the West African nation to curb the spread of the virus, she said.

The restrictions made schoolgirls vulnerable to abuse as some were assaulted in their homes by relatives, and at the same time, a majority of girls from low-income families were coerced to exchange sex for money for food, Gitau said.

“Many of them wound up pregnant but the evidence became available when people were plugging back to life as they knew it as a normal society,” she said.

Gitau says authorities must know that perpetrators often take advantage of the strict measures to abuse victims without arousing much suspicion.

As state resources are being re-focused to tackle the spread of coronavirus, law enforcement agencies should also respond quickly to reports of abuse and create shelters for victims in need of immediate rescue, she said.

But placing women in shelters, especially in countries battling an outbreak, comes with the additional burden of proof, according to DaSilva-Ibru who said shelters in Lagos city are asking survivors to take coronavirus tests before they can be admitted to prevent infection in their facilities.

“Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive forms of a human rights violation and should be recognized by all countries.”

Dr. Anita Kemi DaSilva-Ibru, Women at Risk International Foundation

Authorities in Lagos designated gender-based violence services essential in May as it eased lockdown into curfews to allow service providers to get to work more smoothly, DaSilva-Ibru said.

The police force says it has now deployed more officers to its stations across the country to respond to the “increasing challenges of sexual assaults and domestic/gender-based violence linked with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.” And last week, governors across the country resolved to declare a state of emergency on rape, according to the Nigerian Governor’s Forum (NGF).

Related: Nigerian women are taking to the streets in protests against rape and sexual violence

It’s the first time federal and state authorities are coming out with a united voice to condemn gender violence, DaSilva-Ibru said and it validates the outcry of women in the country and the scale of the problem in Nigeria, she added.

“Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive forms of a human rights violation and should be recognized by all countries,” DaSilva-Ibru said.

“In Nigeria, it has become a national crisis that needs urgent attention. I am pleased that this has been recognized.”

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faithfulnews · 5 years ago

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Faith in quarantine: Why are some people praying at home while others flock to pews?

To state the matter bluntly, the question of the day is: Who went to church-temple-mosque this past weekend and who did not?

The related question: “Why?” Why did believers make the decisions that they made?

This is one of those cases in which it is impossible to write a story that captures the whole picture, since we are talking about one of the ultimate local, regional, state, national and international stories of our news lifetimes.

Journalists can try to produce a news-you-can-use list that hints at the whole. Check out this Religion News Service feature: “Coronavirus shutdowns disrupt America’s soul, closing houses of worship.” That list of bullets is so limited, because producing a representative national list would be impossible.

Thus, others will focus on the larger story by looking at the symbolic details. With the resources of The New York Times, that looks like this: “A Sunday Without Church: In Crisis, a Nation Asks, ‘What is Community?’ “ This is a fine story, although, yes, its anecdotes and examples seem mainline and limited. But, again, the true picture is too big to capture.

Journalists do what they can do. Here is the thesis statement, in magisterial Times voice, free of attributions:

This week, as the coronavirus has spread, one American ritual after another has vanished. March Madness is gone. No more morning gym workouts or lunches with co-workers. No more visits to grandparents in nursing homes. The Boston Marathon, held through war and weather since 1897, was postponed.

And now it was a Sunday without church. Governors from Kentucky to Maryland to North Carolina moved to shut down services, hoping to slow the disease’s spread. Catholic dioceses stopped public Mass, and some parishes limited attendance at funerals and weddings to immediate family. On Sunday morning the Vatican closed the coming Holy Week services to the public.

The number of Americans who regularly attend a church service has been steadily declining in recent years. Many have left the traditions of their childhood, finding solace and identity in new ways. But for the one in three adults who attend religious services weekly, the cancellations have meant a life rhythm disrupted. And for the broader country, canceled services were another symbol of a lost chance to be still, to breathe and to gather together in one of the oldest ways humans know, just when such things were needed most.

For a similar take from a smaller newsroom, consult this multi-source National Catholic Reporter piece: “Worshippers go online, those at services keep a distance.”

My friend Rod “Benedict Option” Dreher stayed home (as I did) and watched a live stream of the Divine Liturgy from his Orthodox Church in America parish in urban Baton Rouge, La. In other words, one computer screen stands for legions of screens elsewhere. See: “View From Your Pandemic Online Church.”

But I was haunted by one passage in one story — another example of how The Age of Donald Trump has infected everything, when it comes to news. The fact that the story was valid only made it worse. I am talking about this story in this tweet.

So, when you see quotes like this from the @JulieZauzmer, the data backs it up. Being politically conservative, very religious and Protestant seems to create an environment of fearlessness. https://t.co/3gm4hslQmC

— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) March 16, 2020

Here is the killer passage from this Washington Post feature, in which religion-desk skill comes into play:

In Arkansas, the Rev. Josh King met with the pastors of five other churches on Thursday to decide whether to continue holding service. Their religious beliefs told them that meeting in person to worship each Sunday remained an essential part of their faith, and some of their members signed on to Trump’s claims that the media and Democrats were overblowing the danger posed by the virus.

“One pastor said half of his church is ready to lick the floor, to prove there’s no actual virus,” said King, lead pastor at Second Baptist church in Conway, Ark.

But King and his colleagues were concerned: They believed the virus was a serious threat, and mass gatherings such as church services could spread it. He and the other Arkansas pastors ultimately decided that they would hold services as usual this Sunday, with some extra precautions. …

“In your more politically conservative regions, closing is not interpreted as caring for you. It’s interpreted as liberalism, or buying into the hype,” said King, whose church draws about 1,100 worshipers on a typical Sunday.

Lord have mercy.

It is easy to read that passage and slide into the cursed politics/ideology equals religion/doctrine trap. However, it is clear that politics is playing a key role in this phenomenon.

But it’s crucial not to oversimplify the situation. “All” evangelicals — even white evangelicals, even white Trump-voting evangelicals — are not doing the same thing in this crisis. They are not responding the same way. The same is true of Catholics, Mainliners, the Orthodox, etc. This may be a case where politics is trumping doctrine, in many pews, in some pulpits and at some altars.

That tension is a key part of the larger story. There are mysteries here. Alas, who has the resources to chase that massive story?

Meanwhile, check out the thread with this tweet from Ryan Burge, a political science professor and mainline Baptist pastor:

Ideology Q: How would you describe yourself politically? Responses range from extremely conservative to extremely liberal with moderate in the middle.

— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) March 15, 2020

Writing for Christianity Today, Burge (a GetReligion contributor) dug into the politics of all of this — without oversimplifying the religion details. Get ready for crucial sentences containing words like “some” and “many.” The headline: “Faith Over Fear? No, It’s Political Ideology that Keeps People Unafraid of COVID-19.”

Backing up into some related pre-coronavirus data, he noted:

In recent years, Americans across religious traditions have become more worried about the potential for a major epidemic, the kind of hypothetical question that has become all too real in the past few weeks.

But the earlier data shows fears around the spread of disease tend to be lower among Protestant Christians who identify as politically conservative and attend church weekly. This may explain why some conservative leaders, including a couple of President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisers, hesitated to cancel in-person worship or on-campus classes amid the current coronavirus precautions.

There’s more:

… There doesn’t seem to be a significant difference between Protestants and Catholics, except that Protestants who go to church weekly have a much lower level of fear over epidemics (24.9%) than weekly Mass–attending Catholics (42.6%). Their level of fear also falls lower than fellow Protestants who attend more or less than they do.

The concern around the severity of COVID-19 can depend on political orientation. For instance, a recent Quinnipiac University poll, conducted the first week in March, found that 63 percent of Republicans were not especially concerned about the virus, compared to 31 percent of Democrats.

In the Chapman Survey, when looking just at regular churchgoers who described their political ideology as conservative, a clear outlier emerges. Politically conservative Protestants who attend church frequently are far less concerned with a major epidemic than conservative, devout Catholics.

So the problem here is Trump-supporting, conservative, church-going, white evangelicals in pews? The answer appears to be: Many times “yes” and sometimes “no.”

Let’s end here, as Burge notes that the crisis may be pushing some people out of a political response and into one that mixes faith and concern for their flocks and their neighbors.

In some evangelical Protestant traditions, fear can also be seen as a betrayal of faith. A group out of Bethel Church — including aspiring politician Sean Feucht, who led worship in the Trump White House last year — is releasing messages online in response to the spread of coronavirus, aiming to “silence voices of fear.” Bethel leader Bill Johnson told followers, “This whole maneuvering in fear is crazy. I've never seen the spirit of fear spread so quickly. Internationally, things were many, many, many, times worse.”

But while many politically conservative Protestants may have historically been less likely to worry about an epidemic, the daily updates in the US are rapidly changing their approach. More conservatives and evangelical leaders are taking a hardline stance on the coronavirus response, particularly as many rallied Sunday for the President’s National Day of Prayer.

Keep your eyes on denominational wire services and websites. At some point, many bishops and pastors are going to have to go on the record and make decisions about how to handle the big question — Easter.

P.S. Right after I posted, Burge added:

I think this illustrates the point I've been trying to make. Being theologically conservative does not make anyone more or less afraid of a pandemic. The differences in views of the Bible are not statistically significant. It's a combination of theology + partisanship. pic.twitter.com/qa8gCcTqHv

— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) March 16, 2020

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attredd · 4 years ago

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The leader of Florida’s biggest sham “church” network peddling bleach as a miracle drug says he’s camped out in Colombia while his sons face arrest for allegedly selling a fake COVID-19 cure and threatening a judge with a “Waco”-style standoff.For years, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has been at the center of a lucrative, world-wide network that claims—falsely—that drinking glorified Clorox can cure you of virtually any illness. The “church” (which is not religious, by its own admission) has raked in the cash promoting “Miracle Mineral Solution,” a bleach solution first popularized in 2006 by an ex-Scientologist who claimed to be an alien god. Ludicrous as the scheme sounds, it’s seen a recent surge in visibility, gaining endorsements from conspiracy theorists and well-known conservatives. Now, four members of the family behind Genesis II are facing criminal charges for allegedly flouting an order to stop marketing MMS as a COVID-19 cure. Two have been arrested, while the family patriarch says he’s out of the country.Genesis II isn’t a real church. You can’t worship at a physical location, and its leader, “Archbishop” Mark Grenon, is not actually ordained. Instead, it’s a network of people peddling sodium chlorite, a bleach compound that the Food and Drug Administration warned in 2019 “can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.” Nevertheless, Genesis II has thrived in recent years. The church’s founder, Jim Humble, is a former Scientologist who claims to be a billion-year-old space god from another galaxy. Humble worked with Genesis II for years, before appearing to back away from the church after an ABC News investigation. QAnon-ers’ Magic Cure for Coronavirus: Just Drink Bleach!"There are certainly times I have said some things that I probably should have said differently,” he wrote in a 2016 blog post. “For lack of a better way to express things at the time— or because others put words in my mouth, in the past I have stated that MMS cures most of all diseases. Today, I say that MMS cures nothing!"The revelation didn’t stop Mark Grenon and his sons Joseph, Jordan, and Jonathan from peddling bleach. The family and their “church” raked it in for years, media investigations and criminal charges show. In one investigation, an undercover news crew attended one of Grenon’s $450 MMS seminars in a California hotel. There, Grenon hinted at the church’s lack of real religious convictions.“Everybody start a church and do it from there. You can sell them anything! Tell them Jesus heals you while you drink this,” Grenon said.Federal investigators apparently pursued those claims as the basis of a fraud charge. In a February 2020 interview, cited in the criminal complaint, Grenon told investigators he’d started a church in order to sell MMS.“Everything you do commercially is under the Universal Commercial code, okay?” Grenon said, according to the complaint. “A church is completely separate from that code, statutes, and laws. That’s why a priest can give a kid wine in church publicly and not get arrested. Because it’s a sacrament.[…] I knew this because . . . they tried to arrest us for proclaiming stuff on the street in Boston. They threw it out of court because we’re a church. You can’t arrest us from doing one of our sacraments, and I knew this. So that’s why . . . I said let’s do a church. We could have done temple. We could have done synagogue. We could have done mosque.” “So [the founding of Genesis] wasn’t really about religion?” the investigator asked. “It was in order to – to in a way, legalize the use of MMS?”“Right,” Grenon replied. “It wasn’t at all religious.” (On its website, Genesis II claims to be “non-religious but spiritual.”)Although the criminal complaint indicates Genesis II and the Grenons were under investigation by at least October 2019 (when they allegedly gave an undercover FDA investigator terrible cancer treatment advice), federal scrutiny on the church intensified when it started promoting MMS as a coronavirus cure. The FDA sent Genesis II an injunction, telling them to please stop doing that. But the church allegedly continued, advertising “testimonials” that promoted potentially virus-spreading activity. One reviewer, featured in a Genesis II newsletter, claimed to have “traveled to the Philippines and had to pass through Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan airports where just about everyone was wearing the masks for coronavirus. We had no fear (and no masks) because we had MMS protection. We are back home and everyone is still healthy.”The Grenons also allegedly made violent threats against the judge who signed the injunction. In an April podcast, Mark Grenon and his son Joseph stated that they would not obey the restraining order.“You’ve got the 2nd [Amendment]. Right? When Congress does immoral things, passes immoral laws, that’s when you pick up guns, right?,” one said. “You want a Waco? Do they want a Waco?” In a later podcast, Grenon accused the judge of “treason,” and in a third podcast warned that the judge “could be taken out.”Grenon and his three sons were charged with “conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and criminal contempt.” Their Bradenton, Florida headquarters were raided on Wednesday, and Jordan and Johnathan arrested. It was not immediately clear whether either had lawyers.Mark Grenon, meanwhile, was at large as of Thursday morning. Genesis II has associates worldwide, particularly in Africa and South America. (Genesis II and other bleach sellers have faced particular scrutiny for giving bleach to African children.) None of the seven Genesis II chapters in the U.S., Canada, or Colombia that listed their phone numbers online answered the phone or returned The Daily Beast’s calls.In an “emergency” interview with the founder of a conspiracy theory-laden “health news” site after the raid, Grenon revealed that he was in Colombia, where he expected to be arrested and extradited.Questioned by an interviewer who called the FDA a “terrorist organization,” Grenon stuck to his old argument that Genesis II was a legitimate religious organization.“The FDA says we should stop giving our sacraments to the world. We just basically said no, we have the First Amendment,” he said. “It says we have free exercise of our religious beliefs.”Asked about his bleach’s medical validity, Grenon described MMS as “so real. I had projectile vomiting from bad sushi. I took it and within a couple of minutes, gone.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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The Fall of Florida’s Biggest Sham ‘Church’ Peddling Bleach as a ‘Sacrament’

The leader of Florida’s biggest sham “church” network peddling bleach as a miracle drug says he’s camped out in Colombia while his sons face arrest for allegedly selling a fake COVID-19 cure and threatening a judge with a “Waco”-style standoff.For years, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing has been at the center of a lucrative, world-wide network that claims—falsely—that drinking glorified Clorox can cure you of virtually any illness. The “church” (which is not religious, by its own admission) has raked in the cash promoting “Miracle Mineral Solution,” a bleach solution first popularized in 2006 by an ex-Scientologist who claimed to be an alien god. Ludicrous as the scheme sounds, it’s seen a recent surge in visibility, gaining endorsements from conspiracy theorists and well-known conservatives. Now, four members of the family behind Genesis II are facing criminal charges for allegedly flouting an order to stop marketing MMS as a COVID-19 cure. Two have been arrested, while the family patriarch says he’s out of the country.Genesis II isn’t a real church. You can’t worship at a physical location, and its leader, “Archbishop” Mark Grenon, is not actually ordained. Instead, it’s a network of people peddling sodium chlorite, a bleach compound that the Food and Drug Administration warned in 2019 “can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.” Nevertheless, Genesis II has thrived in recent years. The church’s founder, Jim Humble, is a former Scientologist who claims to be a billion-year-old space god from another galaxy. Humble worked with Genesis II for years, before appearing to back away from the church after an ABC News investigation. QAnon-ers’ Magic Cure for Coronavirus: Just Drink Bleach!“There are certainly times I have said some things that I probably should have said differently,” he wrote in a 2016 blog post. “For lack of a better way to express things at the time— or because others put words in my mouth, in the past I have stated that MMS cures most of all diseases. Today, I say that MMS cures nothing!"The revelation didn’t stop Mark Grenon and his sons Joseph, Jordan, and Jonathan from peddling bleach. The family and their “church” raked it in for years, media investigations and criminal charges show. In one investigation, an undercover news crew attended one of Grenon’s $450 MMS seminars in a California hotel. There, Grenon hinted at the church’s lack of real religious convictions.“Everybody start a church and do it from there. You can sell them anything! Tell them Jesus heals you while you drink this,” Grenon said.Federal investigators apparently pursued those claims as the basis of a fraud charge. In a February 2020 interview, cited in the criminal complaint, Grenon told investigators he’d started a church in order to sell MMS.“Everything you do commercially is under the Universal Commercial code, okay?” Grenon said, according to the complaint. “A church is completely separate from that code, statutes, and laws. That’s why a priest can give a kid wine in church publicly and not get arrested. Because it’s a sacrament.[…] I knew this because … they tried to arrest us for proclaiming stuff on the street in Boston. They threw it out of court because we’re a church. You can’t arrest us from doing one of our sacraments, and I knew this. So that’s why … I said let’s do a church. We could have done temple. We could have done synagogue. We could have done mosque.” “So [the founding of Genesis] wasn’t really about religion?” the investigator asked. “It was in order to – to in a way, legalize the use of MMS?”“Right,” Grenon replied. “It wasn’t at all religious.” (On its website, Genesis II claims to be “non-religious but spiritual.”)Although the criminal complaint indicates Genesis II and the Grenons were under investigation by at least October 2019 (when they allegedly gave an undercover FDA investigator terrible cancer treatment advice), federal scrutiny on the church intensified when it started promoting MMS as a coronavirus cure. The FDA sent Genesis II an injunction, telling them to please stop doing that. But the church allegedly continued, advertising “testimonials” that promoted potentially virus-spreading activity. One reviewer, featured in a Genesis II newsletter, claimed to have “traveled to the Philippines and had to pass through Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan airports where just about everyone was wearing the masks for coronavirus. We had no fear (and no masks) because we had MMS protection. We are back home and everyone is still healthy.”The Grenons also allegedly made violent threats against the judge who signed the injunction. In an April podcast, Mark Grenon and his son Joseph stated that they would not obey the restraining order.“You’ve got the 2nd [Amendment]. Right? When Congress does immoral things, passes immoral laws, that’s when you pick up guns, right?,” one said. “You want a Waco? Do they want a Waco?” In a later podcast, Grenon accused the judge of “treason,” and in a third podcast warned that the judge “could be taken out.”Grenon and his three sons were charged with “conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, and criminal contempt.” Their Bradenton, Florida headquarters were raided on Wednesday, and Jordan and Johnathan arrested. It was not immediately clear whether either had lawyers.Mark Grenon, meanwhile, was at large as of Thursday morning. Genesis II has associates worldwide, particularly in Africa and South America. (Genesis II and other bleach sellers have faced particular scrutiny for giving bleach to African children.) None of the seven Genesis II chapters in the U.S., Canada, or Colombia that listed their phone numbers online answered the phone or returned The Daily Beast’s calls.In an “emergency” interview with the founder of a conspiracy theory-laden “health news” site after the raid, Grenon revealed that he was in Colombia, where he expected to be arrested and extradited.Questioned by an interviewer who called the FDA a “terrorist organization,” Grenon stuck to his old argument that Genesis II was a legitimate religious organization.“The FDA says we should stop giving our sacraments to the world. We just basically said no, we have the First Amendment,” he said. “It says we have free exercise of our religious beliefs.”Asked about his bleach’s medical validity, Grenon described MMS as “so real. I had projectile vomiting from bad sushi. I took it and within a couple of minutes, gone.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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We're Eloping Darn It... The Private Diary Of Jillian Cartwright!

It was the last Diary entry of a young, bright eyed Jillian Cartwright as she and her Fiancee drove off in the wee, early hours of the morning to the local Airport and the bright, shiny Terminal lights that would validate her intentions to elope.

Bags packed ready to go. She cautiously she made her way down the driveway of her Parent’s house, as her Mother and Father, slept blissfully unaware of their Daughter’s covert departure and secretive intentions. But the decision had been made. They were eloping!

Traditionally the term ‘Elope’ was considered as the act of a young couple who “Run away secretly in order to get married, especially without parental consent.” Today the term Elope or Elopement has evolved into a much less sinister act. And less of a desperate means to an end. But those days have passed. Shall we now redefine, this age old terminology?

Lets now call it The Intimate Wedding. Just Two people who throw caution to the wind and did their own thing!

Jillian Cartwright will be our Diarist and Guild today. And her faithful and worn, tear stained Diary will bring to light the overwhelming evidence that brought her and her Fiancee to come to their finale determination to elope. Let’s read on and perhaps, just perhaps we will understand this young couples finale intentions that led them to their decision to throw caution to the wind and elope.

March 17, 2019. Dear Diary... “Why does it cost so much to get married in Toronto today?”

According to The Ontario Better Business Bureau, the average cost of a Wedding is now close to $30,000.00 dollars. A daunting dollar figure to say the least. Couple that with the average age of a young wedding couple being in their mid twenties to early thirties; young people these days just don’t have that type of money to lay out for just one day. If they have even finished their post secondary education, the majority of them might just be in the midst of their first career jobs. Trying to save for their own house one day and attempting to justify such an outrageous expenditure that will last just one day.

April 12, 2019. Dear Diary… “I’m not sure I’m ready to plan such an overwhelming, orchestrated Event.”

Anxiety is perhaps one of the greatest modern ailments plaguing our over worked, under paid and glass ceiling thumping, career motivated young people these days. What if we don’t plan it right? What if the napkin colors are wrong? What is the Food Service is poor? Do we fork out for an Open Bar or just put a couple of bottles on each table? And all the sudden we’re back to our first concern… How much will all this cost?

May 31, 2019. Dear Diary… “We don’t want to have to deal with crotchety old Aunt Mary’s opinion on everything!

Peer pressure is not just something that we suffer in our Teenage years. Many carry that same sense of having to be better then anyone else well into our later years. For most people, that same dreadful sense of having to better then anyone else tends to level off after we’ve become comfortable in our own lives. Yet for other’s, it will follow them to them to the end of their days. Oh, the wine has to better. The music has to be louder. The fancy limo ride to the Church has to be flashier. And then the cost. How much will this Wedding Demon on their already financially over burdened and slumped shoulders cost them?

June 2, 2019. Dear Diary… “What if we just went on an adventure?”

As a Professional in the Toronto Wedding Industry, I’ve heard this utterance more then once when sitting and interviewing my soon to be married Customers.

Rome, Spain or Italy? If we eloped we could spend a month in virtual paradise traveling and getting to know the World. Get married abroad they secretly contemplate. Soak up the sun and enjoy the service of a Five Star hotel just the two of us. Or just backpack across Europe. An adventure of a lifetime? It’s gotta be cheaper!

June 19, 2019. Dear Diary… Mom said Aunt Linda won’t come if her Cousin isn’t invited!

This is a big one… Family expectations! “We’ll you attended Aunti Elda’s wedding with you Cousin Jerome and his half Sister Wanita. Now, you’ve got to invite Mary, Henry, Bob and his half Brother Michael.” And with the average dinner plate now costing well into a hundred plus dollars per plate, you just discovered how unprepared you really are for those ‘Wedding Crashers.” And what if Mary, Henry, Bob and Michael don’t even show up. A ‘No Show’ won’t make your finale bill any cheaper. There are no refund checks at Toronto’s Reception Halls these day’s.

Suddenly, that uncomfortable, snake pit in the bottom of your purse or wallet just got a whole lot wider. Again…. can we afford this?

July 30, 2019. Dear Diary… You know my Mother never really like you! The Family Approval Rating!

If life was a round of the popular Television Game Show Jeopardy where you were awarded points for answering the Daily Double correctly; your pending Nuptials might have gone off easier with certain members of the family. If you always said the right thing. You remembered flowers for that one cantankerous Aunt on her birthday or you just helped dig out that tree stump for you Uncle Henry when he asked you last year. It might have helped with your Day of days. But unfortunately, our lives don’t stop on a dime when Alex Trebek asks you who is Aunt Mary and why didn’t you go to her Thanksgiving dinner last year when you had to work overtime that Weekend to make that extra money for car repairs over an overdue Mastercard payment.

In reality my Dear Readers, there can and will any number of great reasons to elope and put all of this baggage behind you. Follow your dreams. Do what is right for you and if the Jimmy and the Johns or the Mary’s and the Marrisa’s of your family don’t agree with your plans… so be it! Life is too short to live with regrets. Don’t compromise your own best intentions to satisfy the overwhelming never ending greed and hunger of the Toronto Wedding Industry.

For this Toronto Wedding Photographer, I’m packing my Sandals and my Canon Wide Angle lens. Was it Rome, Spain and Italy? Or Italy, Rome and Spain? Jillian and her Fiancee have saved me a seat on that Airplane and I can’t be late. :)

(Writer’s Disclaimer: Please note that this is a factious Article/Blog. That Jillian Cartwright and her Fiancee and any person’s named within do not exist. But the Article, it’s contents and intention is presented to educate and/or amuse and is presented solely for the Reader’s entertainment.)

Regards,

Blair Atkins | Blair Atkins Photography | Toronto

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conferencenotes-blog1 · 5 years ago

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Follow the Visions

Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: Acts 26:19

Follow the visions that God gives you and you will make full proof of your ministry! Following your visions is to walk in the supernatural path to the fulfilment of your ministry. Have a proper respect for visions. Have a proper respect for the visions God has mercifully granted you. As you flow with visions and dreams, you will make full proof of your ministry!

It is not possible to make full proof of your ministry without visions and dreams. Living in blindness and darkness will not help you in the ministry. Your eyes need to be opened to see visions that will guide you into the detailed steps of your ministry. An immediate effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is to see visions and have dreams.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. Acts 2:17-18

A great rebuke fell on the Laodicean church because it was blind. “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, AND BLIND, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and ANOINT THINE EYES WITH EYESALVE, THAT THOU MAYEST SEE.” (Revelation 3:17-18)

Obviously, God was not rebuking them for physical blindness. God is expecting you to deal with the blindness of your life and ministry by anointing your eyes so that you can see. Your eyes must be affected by the Holy Spirit! You must be influenced by the visions and dreams God gives you.

The Holy Spirit’s effect on your life is to make you prophecy and to make you see visions. As you serve the Lord, your eyes will be opened. May the Lord anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you may see! Your eyes must open up and begin to see what the Lord sees. Without serious visions, you cannot fulfil your ministry. Visions come along the way to make things clear.

1. Visions are God’s way of speaking to His anointed. Then THOU SPAKEST IN VISION TO THY HOLY ONE, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. Psalm 89:19

Anointed and holy people are spoken to through visions and dreams. “Thou spakest in a vision to Thy holy one”! These are the words of David! These are words he spoke describing a vision he had received from God. He declared that God had spoken to him through visions and dreams. I remember an encounter I had with a little known man of God. I did not know much about him or his ministry. He was invited to speak at a dinner I was attending. When he spoke, I noticed something. He spoke of a vision he had had, in which God told him to leave his country and go to another country to establish a church. As he described the vision, I realised that he was a very anointed man of God. I did not know much about him, but I took note of him. A couple of years later, I saw him on television speaking to a massive church. Then I remembered that this was the man I had taken note of because of his visions. The visions a person may have will mark him out for the ministry.

2. Visions are God’s way of speaking to His anointed men of understanding.

And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had UNDERSTANDING IN THE VISIONS OF GOD: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. 2 Chronicles 26:5

Zechariah was well known for his understanding of the visions of God. A person can have many dreams and visions and not understand anything he sees. It is important to see and understand the visions that God shows you. I remember a young man who called me and told me a vision that he had. In the vision, he saw himself caught up in a tree by his hair. As he narrated this vision to me, I wondered to myself, “What a vision, this is Absalom!” Then I asked him, “What do you think this vision means?” He said, “I think it means that a lot of people are jealous me and are trying to pull me back. When I am moving forward, they are grabbing me and preventing me from going ahead.”

I was amazed that the pastor was giving this interpretation to his dream. The only thing that came to my mind was Absalom. It is only Absalom whose hair was caught in the branches of a tree. This young man was, however, convinced that the vision was a revelation of the jealous people in his life. A few weeks later, a spirit of rebellion overtook this brother and he behaved exactly like Absalom. He broke away from his spiritual father’s house and attacked his own spiritual home. It is only an Absalom who attacks his own father. He manifested exactly what his dream was warning him about, but he had no understanding of his visions.

3. Visions are God’s way of speaking to His anointed in their sleep.

In thoughts from the VISIONS OF THE NIGHT, when deep sleep falleth on men, Job 4:13

Every night, an anointed person has an opportunity to hear from God. Through the visions of the night, God can and does speak to His servants. Indeed, if you are sensitive enough, you will even hear the Spirit ask you to go to bed so He can speak to you. One man of God heard the Holy Spirit telling him, “Go to bed. I need to speak to you.” It seems that God can speak to us more easily when we are asleep.

Perhaps, the mind is quieter when we are asleep and He can introduce His thoughts into our heads. There are many guidelines to seeing visions. The Bible is quite clear that when you are experiencing something in your life you also dream about it. This makes it easy for you to discard many of the dreams that come to you through the multitude of business. Hungry people dream about food and thirsty people dream about drink. That is a simple formula to guide you in the ministry of dreams. Do not be moved by the visions and dreams you generate out of your needs and desires. Wait on the Lord and He will speak to you through genuine dreams and visions.

It shall even be as when AN HUNGRY MAN DREAMETH, AND, BEHOLD, HE EATETH; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when A THIRSTY MAN DREAMETH, AND, BEHOLD, HE DRINKETH; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. Isaiah 29:8

4. Visions are God’s way of speaking to His anointed whilst they are awake.

He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, FALLING INTO A TRANCE, BUT HAVING HIS EYES OPEN: … He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, which saw the vision of the Almighty, FALLING INTO A TRANCE, BUT HAVING HIS EYES OPEN: Numbers 24:4, 16

A trance is an experience you can have whilst you are awake. Your eyes are open but you have an experience that is so spiritual and so real. God speaks to His anointed through trances. Pray that you may fall into a trance. Do not be spooky about trances. When people speak of trances you immediately think of fortune-tellers, palm readers and witch doctors. However, trances are valid spiritual experiences from God. Apostle Peter fell into a trance when he was waiting for his dinner. He saw something unusual and this trance became the guiding post for the gospel to go to the Gentile world.

On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, HE FELL INTO A TRANCE, And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: Acts 10:9-11

5. Visions are God’s way of assuring His anointed of His presence.

And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; THERE WAS NO OPEN VISION. 1 Samuel 3:1

The absence of visions and dreams is almost always linked to the absence of God’s presence. In the days when Samuel was a child, there were no visions in Israel. Eli was the prophet of the day and he had fallen out of favour with God. Actually, God was getting ready to pour His judgment onto Eli. The absence of visions was the big sign that God’s presence had departed from Israel. This is one of the main reasons why you must desire to have visions and dreams. The more dreams and visions you have, the more revelation you have. The more dreams and visions you have, the more of God’s presence you have. The more dreams and visions you have, the closer you are to God. The more dreams and visions you have, the more the Holy Spirit is with you.

6. Visions are God’s way of preventing destruction.

WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no vision, there is destruction. People perish because of the lack of vision and direction. God wants you to have visions so that you have direction for your life and ministry. Visions are very important for your life and ministry. When I asked the Lord what would make me more fruitful, He showed me a vision of a hand holding a book. The vision of a book served to guide me in ministry. At a point you have many options and many different things you can do. Which one should you do? What is right for you to do? Visions and dreams are what you need to guide you into the next phase of ministry.

7. Visions are God’s way of blessing your ministry with supernatural achievements.

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Ezekiel 37:1-4

Ezekiel had a vision from God. In this vision, he saw a valley of dry bones. In the vision, God asked him if the dry bones could possibly live again. He was asked to prophesy to the dry bones and to his amazement the valley of dry bones became a valley of living human beings. This impossible feat happened in Ezekiel’s visions. God was showing him how He was going to use him to do supernatural, impossible, fantastic, amazing and wonderful things. Pray for God to show you the supernatural future of your ministry.

One day, early in my evangelistic ministry, I had a vision of myself climbing onto a stage for a crusade. Unfortunately, I met a mad man on the stairs who simply would not let me climb up the stairs. He fought with me to prevent me from going on the stage. At a point in the fight, I pushed him to the side and took a peep at the crowd. I was amazed at the fantastic sea of people that were waiting to hear me preach. The Holy Spirit whispered to me, “I have large crowds waiting to hear you preach.” You must overcome the hindrances, obstacles and wicked demons that are fighting to keep you from seeing the glorious crowds of souls.

Through the visions of God, I was able to see the future and the kind of evangelistic ministry God had planned for me.

by Dag Heward-Mills

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readingbank-blog · 5 years ago

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How To Diagnose “Proud Speaking”

The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and THE TONGUE THAT SPEAKETH PROUD THINGS:

Psalms 12:3

What does it mean to have a tongue that speaks proud things? It means you have a mouth that is rude, arrogant and full of pride. There are remarks that are made by proud people which every leader must notice. Pride is revealed when people speak! When you hear certain comments you must ask yourself what have I just heard? Where does this fit in? What kind of statement have I just heard? What is this man saying? Does this statement fit into any of the fifteen categories of proud speaking?

Is what I just heard an over-confident declaration? Is it a comment that has not taken into account the grace of God? Is it a high sounding statement? Is it a rejection of instructions? Is it the illegitimate rebuking of an authority? Is it correction upwards? Is it a proud person abruptly ending a conversation? Is it a proud declaration of self-sufficiency? Is it a statement that trivialises an important issue? Is it a statement that belittles others? Is this mockery and despising laughter? Is it a statement of inflexibility and rigidity? Is it a declaration of personal greatness? Is it unwillingness to apologise? Is it a threat?

In this section, we are going to study the different types of “proud speaking” so you can identify them for yourself. Your antennae must go up when you notice certain comments.

Fifteen Types of “Proud Speaking”

1. OVERCONFIDENT DECLARATIONS:

And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? KNOWEST THOU NOT THAT I HAVE POWER TO CRUCIFY THEE, and have power to release thee?

Jesus answered, THOU COULDEST HAVE NO POWER AT ALL AGAINST ME, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

John 19:9-1144

Watch out for people who make these over confident declarations about who they are and what they can do. Pontius Pilate mistakenly told Jesus that he had power to arrest him and power to release him. But Jesus rightly pointed out to him that he would have no power unless God had given it to him. In other words he actually had no power!

All the abilities that you have are actually God-given talents and abilities. You must be careful to acknowledge this reality. Any declaration that leaves out or forgets the divine factor is an over confident declaration of pride.

Some years ago, I had a pastor leaving the pastoral staff. Among the many things he said was one outstanding statement. He said, “I will show you church growth in six months.” In other words, “I will show you how I can make a church grow very quickly, in six months.” Indeed, it has been many years since that statement was made. That was indeed an over confident declaration. But dear friend, remember the scripture where Paul said, “I planted, Apollos watered but God gave the increase.” God is the only one who can show us church growth in six months!

2. COMMENTS THAT FORGET THE GRACE OF GOD

Watch out for people who speak as though they accomplish all that they do without God’s grace. Do not describe God’s gifts to you as though they were your own achievements.

One day at a meeting, pastors were being urged to go out on visitation. A lady stood up and encouraged everyone to fulfil the great commission. Suddenly, a brother blurted out from the back, “You don’t have a husband or a child that is why you are urging us to go out on evangelism.”

That was an unfortunate comment by someone who had a spouse and a child. “For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7) Do not forget that it takes the grace of God to get married. It also takes the grace of God to have a child. 45

3. HIGH-SOUNDING STATEMENTS

And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;

But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and THOU HAST PRAISED THE GODS OF SILVER, AND GOLD, OF BRASS, IRON, WOOD, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:

Daniel 5:22-23

There are people who make high-sounding statements. These high-sounding statements reveal a well of pride. When Belshazzar praised the gods of gold and silver, he revealed an arrogance that deserved the coming punishment. He declared that his sustenance came from the gold and the silver and the wood and the stone. He did not want or need the living God!

A young man said to me once, “Do you know how much I earn? I can never pay tithes.” He was so full of his achievements and his successes that he boasted that he would never pay tithes. He found out later, though, that it was God who had given him the strength to earn so much money. When he became terminally ill, he came to my office and declared his readiness to pay tithes. His earlier high-sounding statement about tithes was no longer valid.

One day, we approached a newly appointed government official. I needed to see him about something important. When he got the message that we needed to see him, he blurted out, “My O my! This post that I have been given! These pastors are worrying me everyday because I have been given this position.”

Instead of feeling honoured that pastors wanted to see him, he was rather exasperated at the thought of having to entertain us. We quickly aborted our visit and he missed the blessing that he would have had from the servants of the Lord.

4. STATEMENTS THAT REJECT AND REFUSE INSTRUCTIONS

And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, WE WILL NOT COME UP

Numbers 16:12

Watch out for people who abruptly reject and refuse instructions. Moses encountered proud people who told him flatly, “We will not come.” These people did not end up well because pride comes before a fall. They were soon swallowed up by the ground. Such is the fate of those who lift themselves up haughtily.

I once sent a pastor out as a missionary. When he came back from his mission, I called for an extraordinary meeting and asked him to come to the office. This pastor was so irritated by my request that he sent me a message through the person I had sent to call him. His message was simple, “I will not come for your meeting. You can do what you want. I will not come.”

Does that sound familiar? Indeed, it sounds just like Korah and his friends in the book of Numbers.

As our church developed, we organised special assessment and accountability conferences for all pastors and leaders in sections of the church. The meetings were characterized by healthy debates, questioning and probing of the different pastors as to whether they were doing their work well or not.

However, it did not go down well with everyone. One pastor said, “I will not attend the assessment and accountability conference. I am not a small boy! Why should I go to such a meeting for small boys to ask me questions!”

As pastors become proud, they become more independent. I remember one pastor who said, “We now have our own diocese, we will not go to the headquarters for meetings.”

Does that sound familiar? Again it does! It sounds just like Korah who said he would not go up for the meeting. Watch out, your end will be like Korah!

5. ILLEGITIMATE REBUKES OF AUTHORITIES

And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: WHEREFORE THEN LIFT YE UP YOURSELVES ABOVE THE CONGREGATION OF THE LORD?

And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face:

Numbers 16:3-4

Watch out for people who rebuke spiritual authorities. It is a dangerous practice and a sign of loftiness, haughtiness, arrogance and pride. The sons of Korah rose up and rebuked Moses. They accused him of being puffed up. Imagine that! Imagine telling Moses that he feels too big! Then they rebuked him for having too much power in the camp of Israel. They also pointed out to him that he was not the only holy or special person in Israel. In their presentation, they made it clear that other people in the congregation were holy. To be holy means to be special. Imagine that!

There are always people who are ready and willing to rebuke spiritual authorities. There are politicians who lift up themselves and speak disparagingly about God’s servants. There are pastors who rise up and point out faults of the experienced spiritual fathers of the day. Watch out for people who can fearlessly rebuke those who have laid the foundations of the church.

On one occasion, I visited a friend who was a minister of the gospel. I went along with a spiritual father who was also a father to the minister I was visiting. This minister of the gospel was living in error and was struggling under the weight of many wrong decisions he had taken. It was only because the Lord had directed me that I had decided to offer my help.

The spiritual father I had gone along with also began to counsel this brother who was steeped in error. I thought that the presence of this spiritual father would make all the difference to this meeting, but I was wrong. To my utter amazement, the gentleman began to shout, “Who do you think you are? What do you mean by coming to my house to talk to me like this? What do you mean by coming to my house without prior notice? Why didn’t you give me notice that you were coming here?”

We sat in utter amazement as he spilled out his vituperations. The final shock came when he stood up and walked out the spiritual father and myself. “Go out of my house”, he exclaimed. He rebuked us as we walked through the door and said, “Next time you are coming to my house, come with more sense”.

I felt so embarrassed that I had subjected this spiritual father to such humiliation. I do not think it is a spirit of humility that tells a spiritual father “to speak with more sense.”

6. CORRECTION UPWARDS: POINTING OUT THE ERRORS OF ELDERS

From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

THEN PETER TOOK HIM, AND BEGAN TO REBUKE HIM, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Matthew 16:21-23

Peter tried to correct Jesus Christ. Peter tried to guide Jesus Christ in His ministry. Watch out for people who correct pastors and tell them what to do. This is what Peter tried to do when he told Jesus not to die on the cross. 49

Can you imagine what would have happened to us if Jesus had listened to Peter’s uninformed counsel? We would all have been sitting in darkness waiting to go to hell. A sheep is not supposed to direct the shepherd. It is the shepherd who directs the sheep. Peter became over confident because of his appointment as the head of the church. He began to rebuke the king of kings and the Lord of Lords and to tell Him what to do.

Watch out for people who are so big that they know what the pastor must teach and how he must teach it. I have had church members who have corrected my preaching after I delivered the sermon.

Someone once told me to hurry up with my message. “You repeat yourself too much” she said to me. Another person also said my sermons were too long. Others said they were too short. Some of my congregants said there were too many stories. I once had some medical students who rebuked me for teaching too long on the subject of tithing. I became so discouraged by their rebukes that it took a vision from God to make me write on the subject of tithing.

On another occasion I had a powerful lady church member rebuking me for the way I was running the worldwide church. “That’s not the way to run the church! That’s not the way to do it.” I had to point out to her that I was running the church on a full time basis whilst she was only coming to church twice a week. Surely, I would know a little more about running the church than she did? Delusions and deceptions are the foundations of all forms of arrogance and haughtiness.

Some newly born again Christians had a meeting to question my calling. They were not sure whether God had really called me to preach or not. I marvelled, because, a few days earlier I had led some of them to Christ and laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. Why on earth were they questioning my calling when God had used me to help them to receive the Holy Spirit? Sometimes, the emptiest barrels make the most noise.

On another occasion, a pastor told me over the phone, “Why don’t you make up your mind on what you want us to do? When you tell us to do one thing and we start doing it, then you come up with something else”. He rebuked me for giving new instructions all the time. “Make up your mind!” he shouted over the phone.

Watch out for people who are behaving just like Peter did. Because of their recent appointments and minimal spiritual gains, they think they are something that they are not. What happened to Peter when he rebuked his master? He fell so low! God revealed to him that he was actually nothing!

7. ABRUPTLY ENDING CONVERSATIONS

We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride…

Isaiah 16:6

Abruptly ending phone conversations and cutting the phone are indications of haughtiness and pride. Slamming a phone on someone is even worse. To be haughty means to show arrogant superiority to someone. It also means to disdain someone you see as unworthy. It is only when you view someone as unworthy of your time that you would end the conversation abruptly and slam the phone.

I once made a call to a pastor who was being tempted by the enemy to fall into error. When I asked a couple of questions and pointed out to the pastor that he was in error, he refused to continue speaking. Any questions I asked him from that point onwards were not answered. There was silence at the other end of the phone as this pastor, whom I had ordained into the ministry, brought the conversation to an abrupt end. I could not believe my ears when the conversation ended. Indeed, I sensed the haughtiness and the disdain for my opinion.

I once spoke to someone who claimed to be my daughter. I pointed out to her that if she were really my daughter she would obey what I was saying. It is easy to say you are a son or a daughter. Saying you are a son or a daughter is not the same as being humble.

When you actually obey someone you claim is your father, you prove that you are occupying the seat of a son or a daughter. Indeed, this lady was not acting like a daughter but like a “big Madam” who knew everything. She had her own opinions about everything. She had answers and rebuttals to all my requests. Was that a daughter? That was a woman, my equal! She stood up to me eyeball-to-eyeball, point-to-point and challenged me all the way! She gave me a good run for my money and she never obeyed me. Does your child behave like that? Certainly not! A child will say, “Yes Mummy” and “Yes Daddy” and do what you say!

8. DECLARATIONS OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY

How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: FOR SHE SAITH IN HER HEART, I SIT A QUEEN, AND AM NO WIDOW, AND SHALL SEE NO SORROW.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Revelation 18:7-8

Watch out for great and swelling words of self-sufficiency. The queen of Revelation 18 was full of herself. She thought her situation would never change. You must notice when people speak great swelling words of self-sufficiency.

I once visited a pastor who had offended me and whom I had offended. I spoke to him with kind words and suggested that we forget our differences and become friends again. I was taken aback by his response. In the heat of his anger he said many things. But one thing he said stood out:

“I don’t need you for anything. I don’t need you and you do not need me.”

But that was not true. I did need him and he did need me. By declaring that he did not need me, he was speaking great swelling words of self-sufficiency and independence. The bible teaches us that we need one another. Be careful of speaking prideful words!

9. STATEMENTS THAT TRIVIALISE ISSUES

And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? And WITH WHOM HAST THOU LEFT THOSE FEW SHEEP in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.

1 Samuel 17:28

The brothers of king David mocked at David’s job of feeding the sheep. They also mocked at the number of sheep that David had. It was insignificant as far as they were concerned. David was not an important person because he was looking after a few sheep. These are dangerous attitudes and they are dangerous because they are the attitudes of pride.

Often, the things you trivialise or marginalise can turn out to be very important. Years ago, when we began our church, I had people mocking me for having little churches. They made fun of our branches and said, “There is nothing to them. It is just two or three people.” Just as David was mocked for having a few sheep, I was also mocked for having a few sheep. It is amazing that these few sheep have grown into thousands. Watch out for the things that you trivialise, minimise and marginalise.

Watch out for pastors who are too big to talk to young people! Watch out for pastors who are too big to find out why the church toilet does not work! Watch out for pastors who are too big to find out why their church’s website is not functioning! Watch out for pastors who are too big to go to their church’s building site. Watch out for pastors who are only interested in how much money came in but not how it is counted! Watch out for people who do not know how or who cleans the church! There are often pastors who belittle important jobs and important people. You must be careful because what you minimise, trivialise and marginalise may be the most important thing in your ministry. 53

Trivialising Hurts

Don’t trivialise someone’s hurts and offences. I once visited a man of God I respected. I visited him because I wanted to develop a relationship with him. When I sat in this man of God’s office, I told him why I had come. First of all, I wanted to clear up an issue in which this pastor had said negative things about us. It had been a very painful experience to hear him denigrate us and despise us because of the good relationship we had had with him for years.

On bringing up the issue, he reacted with extreme exasperation, “What are you talking about? “He asked. “I don’t remember what you are saying. I don’t even remember such an event. How do you expect me to remember something that happened so long ago.”

We felt so stupid for even bringing up the issue. We also felt silly for even trying to relate to someone so great! My associate and I left that office with our tails between our legs, never to return.

We were the most insignificant and unimportant visitors to that man of God’s office. We grinned like embarrassed sheep as we left the company of that great man of God. Indeed, our relationship was broken forever. We felt obtuse and brainless for having even tried to relate with these powerful men.

Perhaps, an important spiritual relationship and link was broken. Who knows what good would have come out of our relationship if only we had not been made to feel so dim-witted by this exasperated man of God. Many years later, this pastor fell into great difficulty and lost his church and position. I was surprised to see him standing in the congregation and looking at me in awe as I laid the foundation for one of our cathedrals.

How To Diagnose “Proud Speaking” 54

10. STATEMENTS THAT BELITTLE OTHERS

And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?

Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.

Isaiah 36:4-6

Watch out for people who feel so big and arrogant that they belittle everyone around them. Rabshekah came up to the Israelites and threatened them with war. He despised and belittled the Israelites. He mocked at the help they were going to receive from Egypt. He told them that they were leaning on a staff that was a broken reed. Watch out for people who consider things to be below them.

I remember a pastor who was above the many little jobs that were done in the church. If you wanted to contact him you would have to speak with his wife. He just could not find the time to speak to you. Perhaps you may think this pastor had four thousand members and therefore was too busy to make certain appointments himself. He actually had only about forty members. Here again, you wonder where the pomposity and arrogance came from. He would say, “If you want to tell me anything, speak to my wife or my secretary.”

He would turn away and walk off, unable to speak to the little ones. Perhaps you may think the little ones I am referring to were the congregants of his church. No, they were not. They were other pastors who belonged to the same ministry. Watch out for pastors who consider everyone else too little, too small or too insignificant to be spoken to. 55

11. STATEMENTS THAT MOCK AND LAUGH AT OTHER PEOPLE

Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

2 Samuel 1:20

The scripture teaches us not to spread the stories of bad news of our brothers. Tell it not in Gath and publish it not in the streets of Askelon! Why must we not publish it? Because God does not want the Philistines to rejoice against the people of the Lord! God does not want the daughters of the uncircumcised to triumph over us. It is wrong to laugh at fallen brothers. It is wrong to continually expose them and to ridicule them.

I once had a vision in which the Lord showed me the pride of pastors. This was a vision of something that had happened in front of me. The Lord said to me, “Watch this. This is pride and it has devastating effects.”

There was a pastor who fell into sin. He had many spiritual problems and also had numerous affairs with women in the church. Because of the scandal, several members of his church migrated and joined other churches. This broken pastor was left with very few members.

Many churches benefitted from the influx of this pastor’s members. However, there was a church that was pastored by a group of confident and anointed ministers. One day, the confident pastors asked their congregation, “How many of you came from that broken pastor’s church?” Several people lifted up their hands.

One of the senior pastors made these migrant members stand up. He then recounted the problems in the church of the broken pastor and told the members publicly that they needed to be cleansed from the sins and evils of the church they were coming from. He pointed out that they had been polluted and affected because of the sins of that broken pastor. He promised to organise cleansing and sanctification for them.

In a flash, the Lord showed me the church of this righteous pastor divided and scattered. He said to me, “That is pride; to stand up, to rebuke and to ridicule a broken pastor and his church members publicly is to forget that you are just a man. Indeed, I stood amazed as the vision played out over the years. The people who mocked at the broken pastor fell into the same sins and difficulties themselves.

Watch out for people who mock and laugh at others when they are down and in difficulty. It is arrogance and over confidence to make fun of people who have fallen into difficulty!

Some years ago, I visited a wonderful ministry in a far away land. This was a wonderful church with a large and growing congregation. The pastors of this church were young, successful, dynamic men. I visited the bookshop of this church and was impressed by the books. I think I actually bought a book from that bookshop. By God’s grace I was able to meet the senior pastor of the church.

I interacted with him and we exchanged some niceties in the corridor of the church. As we were about to depart we prayed and everyone asked that I say a prayer. I prayed powerfully from the depths of my heart. When I said “Amen”, I was immediately confronted by the pastors of that church. They asked me what I meant by praying for humility.

Honestly, I had not been conscious of the fact that I was praying for humility. Actually I had been studying about the virtues of humility and it was just bubbling in my heart.

I actually did not think these pastors were proud. It did not even occur to me that they needed humility. I thought they were great pastors and I prayed for what I thought was the best and highest extra quality that a pastor could ever have – humility.

“What do you mean?” they asked. “Who told you that we are proud? Do you think we need humility? Are you trying to tell 57

us something? What do you mean by that? You just walk into a church and start praying that people should be humble! He thinks he is spiritual. Very funny! Praying for us to be humble!”

I was shocked and amazed as they rebuked and ridiculed me for praying for them to have humility. I was virtually walked out of that church and I knew that my friendship with those wonderful pastors would not develop. But perhaps they should have received my prayers better than they did. There were storms on the way, and the next time I heard of them they were in prison for various crimes.

Watch out for people who mock and laugh. Mocking and laughing at people is not a good sign. It speaks of arrogance and haughtiness.

12. DECLARATIONS OF PERSONAL GREATNESS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.

At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.

The king spake, and said, IS NOT THIS GREAT BABYLON, THAT I HAVE BUILT for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?

While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.

Daniel 4:28-31

Watch out for people who speak about their achievements as though their own hand and power has accomplished them.

Nebuchadnezzar made the mistake of speaking of his achievements in the wrong way. He was full of himself and his achievements.

I once asked a woman if she believed in God. She said, “I believe in myself. I work hard and I do not harm anyone. I believe in myself.” I believe I was actually hearing the voice of the devil who has possessed millions of Europeans and caused them to cast out the memory and the knowledge of God. Watch out for the pride of the western world that has forsaken the reality of God. You will soon see the effect of this pride.

“I” and “We”

Once I was buying some equipment for our church. As I negotiated with the Jewish owner of the business, he rebuked me and said I was speaking in the wrong way.

“Why do you rebuke me?” I asked.

He said, “You keep on saying ‘I am going to do this. I am going to use this equipment for that. I will come here tomorrow. I will do this and that’ ”.

He said to me, “Don’t say ‘I’ say ‘we’!”

He explained, “‘I’ is for God and ‘we’ is for human beings.”

He continued, “I am that I am is Jehovah. It is only God who can say, ‘I will do this’, ‘I will go here and there’.” I took note of that rebuke and I realised how true it was.

Indeed, it was Lucifer who said, “I will arise, I will ascend the throne, I will replace God, I will fight God.” You will notice how Lucifer used the word “I” on five different occasions. Lucifer, full of himself and full of pride, was deluded into thinking that he could fight God who had created him.

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

Isaiah 14:13-14

I have met lay pastors who have said in their hearts, “What is the use of full time ministry?” After all, I have a bigger church than the full time pastor. Again these are all thoughts of arrogance. People, who do not understand what they are doing and why they achieve what they achieve, speak with great swelling words of pride. Watch out for people who do not understand that it is God’s grace that makes the difference.

13. DECLARATIONS SHOWING UNWILLINGNESS TO APOLOGISE

Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

Matthew 27:4-5

One of the greatest manifestations of pride is the unwillingness to say “sorry�� or to apologise. Judas Iscariot was unwilling to say sorry. He never apologised to Jesus for what he did. He also never apologised to the other disciples. In fact he did not even want to see them again.

Watch out for people who cannot say sorry! Watch out for people who cannot turn around! Watch out for people who cannot do a one hundred and eighty degrees turn when they are going in the wrong direction.

I once encountered a pastor who said, “I will not apologise to my overseer.” Even though he was wrong, he would not say sorry. Pride would not allow him to lower himself and acknowledge that he was wrong.

Over the years, I have realised that the inability to say sorry or to apologise is one of the cardinal signs of pride. My experience shows me that the hardest and most rebellious people never say sorry!

14. DECLARATIONS OF RIGIDITY AND UNMOVEABILITY

And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD. And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained notone. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, NEITHER WOULD HE LET THE PEOPLE GO.

Exodus 8:30-32

Pharaoh was hard and unyielding. His pride led to his downfall. When people declare, “I will never change. I will never agree!” They are making declarations of rigidity and immovability. These are dangerous words and filled with pride. They are the biggest symptoms and signs of pride you can have in a person.

I once met a lady who told me that she was unwilling to follow her husband. She said to me, “I am fiercely independent!” Wow, what a statement! It was no wonder that she was soon divorced. To be fiercely independent is to declare yourself incompatible with marriage. It is also the same as declaring yourself ready to fall into divorce.

I once met a man who escaped from hell by the skin of his teeth. On my first encounter with him he said to me, “I will never be born again and I will never change.” He rebuked me for my sermon on being born again and made it clear that he would never respond to such a message.

However, ten years later I encountered this same gentleman at a programme. I preached on the same subject, You Must Be Born Again. However this time, he raised his hand and gave his life to Christ. I could not believe that the same gentleman who had displayed such rigidity was now yielding to the spirit of God.

Be careful of rigidity! Be careful of the unmoveable posture. Be careful of the posture of hardness. It is the posture of pride!

15. THREATENING STATEMENTS

And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

1 Kings 12:14

by Dag Heward-Mills

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