Painting of Frederick V, Elector Palatine (1596 – 1632) as King of Bohemia. He is shown wearing the rarely-seen Crown of St. Wenceslas. On the table is the Cap representing his separate office as Elector of the Palatinate.
In the early hours of Aug. 21, President Trump approvingly tweeted the words of Christian convert and radio host Wayne Allyn Root. The tweet compared Trump to “the King of Israel” and described him as being akin to “the second coming of God.” It went on to criticize “American Jews” who don’t like and support Trump.
I must go to the Czech-Republic – TONIGHT – and put on the Crown of King Wenceslaus! Then, I must go to Jerusalem – and walk across the Valley of Death!
We Americans fought a war against King George 111 who descends from the Winter King of Bohemia seen above. The birth of the Protectant Church is rooted in Bohemia. The Protestant hegemony comes to the colonies via Frederich. However, The Second Coming is rooted in the Catholic Church. Catholic Kings worshiped King Jesus – who was not God come to earth in order to be a mere king just so the Jews would reject Him? Huh?
This is all I will say – until tomorrow evening. Study this post so you can own the Key of Heaven – that can not be accessed through voting the Republican ticket. Trump is not King David – or King Jesus. If he was – he would be very happy about being taken off the ballot in Colorado. Pray the Supreme Court approves! You can not grasp two kingdoms and two crowns in your hand. You must let go of one!
Fredrick practiced Separation of Church and State.
“On the table is the Cap representing his separate office as Elector of the Palatinate.”
I command all ministers in the New New Spain – to stop lying to the people on this matter! The Founding Father’s presented George with 27 grievances, and not one was of a religious subject.
John ‘King of Bohemia’
“He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III
The colonies declared their independence in July 1776, listing twenty-seven grievances against the British king and legislature while asking the support of the populace. Among George’s other offenses, the declaration charged, “He has abdicated Government here … He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” The gilded equestrian statue of the King in New York was pulled down.[59] The British captured the city in 1776 but lost Boston, and the grand strategic
In Dochuk’s eyes, “Johnson is the product and culmination of a decades-long quest by rightwing religionists to assert themselves politically through backchannels not always visible to the uninitiated. Ronald Reagan’s evangelical allies could not have imagined such a swift, no-holds-barred rise to power.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Saint_Wenceslas
An old Czech legend says that any usurper who places the crown on his head is doomed to die a violent death within a year, as the Crown is the personal property of St. Wenceslas and may only be worn by a rightful Bohemian king during his coronation. During World War II, Reinhard Heydrich, the Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, is said to have secretly crowned himself while inspecting St. Vitus’ Cathedral, and was assassinated less than a year later by the Czech resistance. Although there is no evidence proving that Heydrich did so, the legend is widely believed.[3]
In November 1945, a rumor held that the crown had been stolen by Heydrich and sold in Germany, and that the version recovered in Prague after the end of World War II was in fact a forgery.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
On 11 July 1346, in consequence of an alliance between his father and Pope Clement VI, relentless enemy of the emperor Louis IV, Charles was elected as Roman king in opposition to Louis by some of the prince-electors at Rhens.
Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Charles IV. The name of the royal founder and patron remains on many monuments and institutions, for example Charles University, Charles Bridge, Charles Square. High Gothic Prague Castle and part of the cathedral of Saint Vitus by Peter Parler were also built under his patronage. Finally, the first flowering of manuscript painting in Prague dates from Charles’s reign. In the present Czech Republic, he is still regarded as Pater Patriae (father of the country or otec vlasti), a title first coined by Adalbertus Ranconis de Ericinio at his funeral.
allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty
- belief and trust in and loyalty to Godbelief in the traditional doctrines of a religion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 21
King James Version
21 And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.
4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/the-second-coming.html
Because Christ is the object of our faith and we offer worship in, through and with him to God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liturgical studies are closely tied to the study of Christology. Since Our Lord Jesus is the model and exemplar of our faith, it is natural enough that both moral theology and spiritual theology are essential for a proper study of Christology. And since the Lord Jesus is the paradigm of ministry and service, the specialization of pastoral theology is likewise fully involved in a proper study of Christology and soteriology.
The twelfth[2] child and fifth daughter of Frederick V of the Palatinate and Elizabeth Stuart, also known as the “Winter King and Queen of Bohemia” for their short rule in that country, Sophia was born in The Wassenaer Hof, The Hague, Dutch Republic, where her parents had fled into exile after the Battle of White Mountain. Through her mother, she was the granddaughter of James VI and I, king of Scotland and England in a personal union.[3] At birth, Sophia was granted an annuity of 40 thalers by the Estates of Friesland. Sophia was courted by her first cousin, Charles II of England, but she rebuffed his advances as she thought he was using her in order to get money from her mother’s supporter, Lord William Craven.[4]
The House of Hanover (German: Haus Hannover), whose members are known as Hanoverians, is a European royal house of German[1] origin that ruled Hanover, Great Britain, and Ireland at various times during the 17th to 20th centuries. The house originated in 1635 as a cadet branch of the House of Welf, at that time also called by House of Brunswick-Lüneburg, growing in prestige with Hanover becoming an Electorate in 1692. A great-grandson of King James VI and I, George I, who was prince-elector of Hanover, became the first Hanoverian monarch of Great Britain and Ireland in 1714. At the end of his line, Queen Victoria‘s death in 1901, the throne of the United Kingdom passed to her eldest son Edward VII, a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, through his father Albert, Prince Consort. The last reigning members of the House of Hanover lost the Duchy of Brunswick in 1918 when Germany became a republic.
Monarchs of Great Britain, Ireland, and Hanover
George I (1714–1727)
George II (1727–1760)
George III (1760–1820)
George IV (1820–1830)
William IV (1830–1837)
House speaker’s Christian nationalist ties spark first amendment fears
Mike Johnson’s links to key leaders prompts alarm he might try to erode elements of constitution on separation of church and state
Peter Stonein WashingtonFri 22 Dec 2023 06.00 EST
Links between the new Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and key Christian nationalist leaders have sparked fears the devout Louisiana congressman might seek to erode elements of the first amendment, which protects key US civil liberties including freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
Long before th eevangelical conservative Johnson became speaker, he had forged close ties with Christian nationalists like David Barton, whose writings claiming the country’s founders intended to create a Christian nation have been widely debunked by religion scholars.
Although Barton, a self-styled historian, has been heavily criticized for distorting the first amendment by promoting the flawed idea there should be no separation between church and state, Johnson has hailed him as an important mentor and Barton has returned the praise.
Johnson lauded Barton effusively in 2021 at an event sponsored by the Texas-based Christian nationalist group WallBuilders which Barton founded 35 years ago to promote a conservative family values agenda, citing his “profound influence on me, and my work, and my life in everything I do”.
Little wonder that a day after Johnson became speaker in October Barton, who has worked closely with the rightwing GOP senator Ted Cruz and conservative legislators, boasted in a podcast that he had already talked with Johnson, about helping find staff for his office.
“We have some tools at our disposal now [that] we haven’t had in a long time,” allowed Barton who has dubbed Johnson a “God guy”.
A Johnson spokesman said neither “the speaker, nor his office, have had any subsequent conversations with Mr Barton about staff”.
Still, the ties and mutual admiration between Johnson and Barton suggest they are now poised to bolster one another politically and in Christian nationalist circles, spurring some scholars to stress they hold dangerous views about America’s founding principles and the first amendment.
“Johnson has bought into the malignant cancer about America being a Christian nation which Barton has propagated, ” said Randall Balmer, a Dartmouth historian of religion.
“For Barton and Johnson to subvert the first amendment is both dishonest and myopic. Dishonest because the founders were abundantly clear that they intended church and state to be separate entities. Myopic because the lack of a religious establishment – the separation of church and state – has been the best friend that religion ever had.”
Other scholars voice alarms at the deep ties between Johnson and Barton, one of whose books was withdrawn by its publisher due to errors.
“It is dangerous to the country that the speaker of the House is relying for his understanding of American history on a writer who has zero credibility in the history profession,” said David A Hollinger, an historian of religion at Berkeley and a former president of the Organization of American Historians.
Despite such stinging criticism, since Barton founded WallBuilders in 1988 he has helped build a strong Christian nationalist and political network with rightwing state legislators which seems poised to expand its influence with the rise of Johnson to speaker.
The wide-ranging missions of WallBuilders are palpable on its website.
“American liberty is being eroded, and our Biblical foundation is under attack. Here at WallBuilders, we provide education, training, and resources to equip people to know and defend the truth to protect our freedom.”
The group’s mission includes “providing information to federal, state, and local officials as they develop public policies which reflect Biblical values”.
WallBuilders expanded its ties with conservative state legislators by launching the “ProFamily Legislative Network” in 1998 to help push bills on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and other hot button issues for the religious right, and host a yearly conference with legislators.
When Cruz sought the GOP nomination for president in 2016, Barton did a stint leading a Cruz Super Pac. Barton has also served as vice-chairman of the Texas Republican party, and been a consultant to the Republican National Committee.
To spur its growth, WallBuilders has lured some big checks from mega-donors including $3.2m from the Thirteen Foundation helmed by fracking billionaire and pastor Farris Wilks who has railed against homosexuality and equated the climate crisis with God’s will. Wilks, his brother Dan and their wives also donated $15m to a Cruz Super Pac during his run for president.
WallBuilders, which now boasts Barton’s son Tim as president, has been on a fundraising roll with its annual revenues reaching $5.9m in 2021 versus $1.9m in 2017.
Despite his powerful rightwing network, Barton’s career has been dogged by big headaches due to multiple inaccuracies in his book The Jefferson Lies.
The nation’s largest religious book publisher, Thomas Nelson, in 2012 pulled back Barton’s book due to mounting criticism of its errors.
Nonetheless, WallBuilders sells sizable quantities of Barton’s books and writings espousing his views. Barton’s messages have also been boosted in recent years via the rightwing Patriot Academy led by the evangelist and ex-Texas legislator Rick Green.
Barton has also been a star attraction on the American Restoration tour, a far-right project that espouses the Christian nationalist view there should be no separation between church and state, according to a book on American evangelicals by the journalist Tim Alberta entitled The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.skip past newsletter promotion
However, Barton’s influence and brand of Christian nationalism has drawn fire from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has tracked his attacks on some minorities. The center has noted that “Barton has also demonized LGBTQ persons and communities, arguing that HIV and Aids are god-given consequences for living out one’s LGBTQ life”.
Balmer, an Episcopal priest, added: “Johnson’s and Barton’s brand of Christian nationalism tends to go hand in hand with calls for draconian Old Testament punishment for what he regards as deviant behavior.”
Barton did not respond to calls seeking an interview.
Barton is hardly alone among Christian nationalist leaders in banking on Johnson’s new clout in Washington and the ties he forged with the religious right before he was elected to Congress in 2016 and since then.
Before Congress, Johnson worked for about two decades as a lawyer for the Christian-right Alliance Defending Freedom, and Johnson also built close ties to the far-right Family Research Council and its leader, Tony Perkins.
Johnson has developed good ties too with other influential Christian bigshots including the Christian-right Pastor Jim Garlow, who hosts regular World Prayer Network live streams where Johnson has been a guest.
On an 9 August broadcast, Garlow said Johnson has “worked with us very closely”.
Johnson, in turn, praised Garlow. “I’m so grateful for the ministry and your faithfulness. It’s a great encouragement to me and others who are serving in these sometimes rocky corners of the Lord’s vineyard.”
Significantly, Johnson’s far-right Christian credentials are also proving helpful to Donald Trump. Soon after becoming speaker, Johnson endorsed Trump’s bid to be the Republican nominee for the presidency.
Johnson’s fast Trump endorsement fits with his role in 2020 when he helped enable Trump’s false claims that fraud cost him the election. Johnson took the lead in writing a brief for a lawsuit that sought to overturn Joe Biden’s win, and he rounded up fellow members to sign it too.
“I see Speaker Johnson and many others in the vanguard of the GOP aiding and abetting Trump, including his more increasingly authoritarian rhetoric and plans,” said Adam Russell Taylor, president of the Christian social justice group Sojourners.
Taylor stressed: “Many white Christian nationalists see the need to elect someone like Trump as president because he is willing to bend the rules or even break the rules in order to keep themselves in power and further their ideologies.”
Scholars say Johnson’s rise to House speaker is result of a decades-long drive for political clout by the religious right in which WallBuilders and other key Christian nationalist groups played important parts.
“Johnson’s ascent is a capstone victory for a culture-warring religious conservatism that has leveraged legal strategies meant to bolster white Christian hegemony,” said the Notre Dame university historian Darren Dochuk.
“With monies generated by Christian allies, fiercely ‘libertarian’ ones in business sectors ranging from oil and gas to the service industry, and an increasingly theocratic ambition to take over the Capitol for God, they built their alternative infrastructure.”
In Dochuk’s eyes, “Johnson is the product and culmination of a decades-long quest by rightwing religionists to assert themselves politically through backchannels not always visible to the uninitiated. Ronald Reagan’s evangelical allies could not have imagined such a swift, no-holds-barred rise to power.”
Since there is much material here for fruitful reflective thought, we will take one truth at a time, beginning with the Christian belief that Jesus will come again.
Though not stressed much today, the idea of the Second Coming of Jesus occurs frequently in the New Testament. It is also called the “Day of the Lord” and the “Parousia”, which means the “presence” or “arrival” of someone.
By the expression “the Second Coming”, we are referring to the Christian belief in the words of Jesus that he will come again in glory to judge all men. The Parousia will signal the end of human history as we know it. When this will take place no one knows but the Father (Acts 1:11), nor is there any clear indication in Scripture of just how it will be accomplished.
In popular language we usually refer to these events as “the end of the world”, which itself is not completely accurate, since the Day of the Lord does not mean that the universe as we know it will be annihilated, but only that it will be changed into something new and wonderful something that surpasses the imagination of man.
The New Testament gives some intimations of the signs that the Lord is about to come and judge the world. There is mention of wars, famines, earthquakes, upheavals in the planets and the stars. These “signs” are borrowed from the apocalyptic language of the Old Testament, especially as it is found in Daniel 7 and in the prophet Joel.
The Second or final Coming of Jesus in glory is contrasted with his first coming in humility as the Son of Mary and Joseph. So the Incarnation is spoken of his first appearance to mankind. Through his death-Resurrection-Ascension, Jesus passed from this life to a new and glorious life in heaven. From there he sends out the Holy Spirit on his Church. Now he is present in our midst through faith, through the preaching of the Gospel and in the sacraments.
In many places, the New Testament mentions the Parousia of the Lord. “They will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mt 24:30); “If it is my will that he (John) remain until I come, what is that to you?” (Jn 21:23); “This Jesus will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).
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