Police in India Threaten to Fine Christians Attacked by Hindu Extremists

                                 Introduction: All about the Zombie Apocalypse 

Two events helped trigger this blog.

First, I checked out "The Walking Dead" television show on one of their binge watch replays that seem to happen biannually now on that network.  It seems if they have a horse that can win the ratings race, they will then proceed to lash it with a replay whip until it's dead.  My interest peaked, I began studying what has become a modern cliche, "the zombie apocalypse."  Seems it began decades ago, thanks to the original  black-and-white badly acted zombie picture, "Night of the Living Dead", that whose first ten minutes I watched  during a date in the 1960's  at the drive-in (That is the drive-in theater, An open air arena with a large movie screen where we went to watch movies during our summer vacation. And, being young people, to indulge in impulsive behavior away from the family.  These theaters had metal speakers roughly the size of a ten inch iPad though 3 times wider and 10 times heavier  and much bulkier, that rested on the half-opened car window spewing really squeaky sound as we fought mosquitoes and used a paper straw  to slurp genuine soda fountain pop made with genuine sugar, a drink I see has now become a prized liquid, and eat genuine popcorn with genuine melted cholesterol-spiking, aorta-plugging butter.   By the way, the drive-in where I watched the movie still exists which tells you it is a very good drive in and a really small town where  adventure has a warped sense of humor.  It even got coverage in the  Detroit Free Press about a decade ago. )  The movie was so bad we left after that ten minutes of gore and zombie biting human horror, new to our minds in that era.  Last date with that young woman, ever.  It was the second movie on the bill and I had never heard of it.  Back then no internet or Google and the personal computer was just a dream in the mind of some crazy kids, scientists and sf writers. But the story elements were simple survivalist fare;

1. Initial contacts with zombies are extremely dangerous and traumatic, causing shock, panic, disbelief and possibly denial, hampering survivors' ability to deal with hostile encounters.
2. The response of authorities to the threat is slower than its rate of growth, giving the zombie plague time to expand beyond containment. This results in the collapse of the given society. Zombies take full control, while small groups of the living must fight for their survival.

(To be fair, in "The Night of the Living Dead".  the authorities are responding rapidly to the threat and killing everything zombie and NOT zombie that has been exposed. W.)

The stories usually follow a single group of survivors, caught up in the sudden rush of the crisis. The narrative generally progresses from the onset of the zombie plague, then initial attempts to seek the aid of authorities, the failure of those authorities, through to the sudden catastrophic collapse of all large-scale organization and the characters' subsequent attempts to survive on their own. Such stories are often squarely focused on the way their characters react to such an extreme catastrophe, and how their personalities are changed by the stress, often acting on more primal motivations (fear, self-preservation) than they would display in normal life.

The same wikipedia article explains the notion of the apocalypse:

Zombie apocalypse

Intimately tied to the concept of the modern zombie is the "zombie apocalypse"; the breakdown of society as a result of an initial zombie outbreak that spreads. This archetype has emerged as a prolific subgenre of apocalyptic fiction and has been portrayed in many zombie-related media after Night of the Living Dead.^[64] In a zombie apocalypse, a widespread (usually global) rise of zombies hostile to human life engages in a general assault on civilization. Victims of zombies may become zombies themselves. This causes the outbreak to become an exponentially growing crisis: the spreading phenomenon swamps normal military and law enforcement organizations, leading to the panicked collapse of civilized society until only isolated pockets of survivors remain, scavenging for food and supplies in a world reduced to a pre-industrial hostile wilderness.

 "Many also feel that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxieties about the end of the world. One scholar concluded that "more than any other monster, zombies are fully and literally apocalyptic ... they signal the end of the world as we have known it." While zombie apocalypse scenarios are secular, they follow a religious pattern based on Christian ideas of an end-times war and messiah.

"Due to a large number of thematic films and video games, the idea of a zombie apocalypse has entered the mainstream, and many fans have begun making efforts to prepare for the hypothetical future zombie apocalypse."

With all due respect, the idea that Christian end times have anything to do with it misses by a few miles but the idea they were scripted to lead people to think that way demonstrates  the second event that prompted me writing this.

I was explaining to a young person about the Resurrection, specifically about the Rapture.  I told her about how our bodies will be transformed.  And she said:  "You mean like in 'The Walking Dead'?" I then went on to explain our bodies will be changed into whole beings and not corrupted by death.  She began to understand, but not well and we left a further conversation for later.  My wife, who was with us at the table, looked at me afterward and said, "You were right."

Weeks before, I told my wife the purpose of the zombie films was because Satan wants the unsaved confused about the end times.  We know when Jesus brought the first fruits of the resurrection up with Him, some folks in Jerusalem came back, went into the city and talked to their relatives about Christ.  Only one reason Peter's Pentecost speech had so many listeners and so many convicted. 

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. {was...: Gr. voice was made confounded: or, troubled in mind}

 7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

 10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

 13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

 17 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:

 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
 25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

 29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. {let me: or, I may}

 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

 33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.

 34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,

 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool.

 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

 40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

 41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

 (KJV)

(Keep this in mind.  Dwell on the meaning of those yellow passages.  We'll get back to them a bit later and much later in the blog to thoroughly dissect implications not always discussed.)

The underpinning truth being:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QvX4CwSmwY  

 I thought perhaps Satan wanted the possibility of some of us risen returning to tell Aunt Selma she needs Christ undercut by making everyone want to kill their risen relatives because of fear of the walking dead. 

Now, I think I was right about that but I missed something.  I think Satan also wants to discredit the idea of the resurrection as the return of a whole person, with real life in them.  He wants anyone to hear a call to live again as a call to become not a living being but an animated corpse.   What can appeal about a Savior who has you return as a walking corpse or as a decaying flesh robot?

Because decay is our rule here on Earth since sin set in.  We marvel at  it in the seasons.  The old oak trees on my property from the burr oak to the more stately oak, bud and leaf in spring and summer, thrive for a time, then the leaves fall in autumn (I remain convinced we call it "fall" because of the leaves.) and they drop their acorns for the distress of my lawn mower blades and the joy of our crazed squirrel population.  Everything once living decays, the leafs  composted into fertilizer, the nuts raked and  discarded if the squirrels haven't buried them already in my flowerbeds, and the oaks stand mostly, but never completely defoliated,  barren, seemingly dead until the next cycle. The pagans saw this cycle of life as indication of reincarnation.  We may see it as a single cycle called resurrection.

The zombie means Christ can't stop the corruption of body and therefore the corruption of sin.  Because it is sin that caused all the corruption (Romans 1: 20-23)  and so we are in a state where  corruption became the "natural" thing.  The failure of our flesh as simply "the way things are."  And the fatalism, the nihilism of so many zombie entertainments indicates men trying to convince the world they are right, that corruption lasts forever, that dead is only dead, nothing more; that even coming back from the ultimate corruption of death will not mean a thing, will not save them from the corruption but only carry the corruption a bit longer.  Echoing the idea sin continues irredeemable.  The idea we can only accept we are all sinners and go about our business.  Some even preach a worse notion that sin does not exist despite the very corruption they depict proving the existence of sin.  

I want to change our view of our flesh, of who we are physically, of how we were created, were meant to be, to give an understanding of why we are now as we are and to demonstrate  our current dying state and our redemption from that state by Christ,  the truth Peter preached at Pentecost:

God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

This first, that corruption did not touch our Lord despite his humanity and death. His life as the solution to what we witness every day in the death around us.

Next, that sacrificial death was, is the cure for that corruption:

  1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I speak a mystery to you; we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed;
 52 in a moment, in a glance of an eye, at the last trumpet. For a trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.
 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
 54 But when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and when this mortal shall put on immortality, then will take place the word that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory.
 (MKJV)

We will not be the eternal rotting victims of our sin.  Yes, as "The Walking Dead" has made an ongoing theme, we are currently the walking dead,  Just like them.  Shuffling along, some of us acting mindlessly, going about our daily routines, driving without paying attention, so much so they now want to make our cars the drivers so we can play games and veg out even on our way to work.  So we can suspend our attention to the reality around us even as things crumble precisely because we weren't paying attention to begin with.   Authorities seemingly tired of telling us over and over that our lack of attention causes most of the accidents and car companies telling us their automatic braking will keep us from "sudden" accidents we can't avoid because the car's system will react faster than  we can.  Especially with our MP3 player on, our phone in our ear, our kids watching a DVD in back and our spouse also on their phone beside us. But  recent news merely points out that these automatic systems, being made by men, also fail.

Pastor Shayne Looper of Lockwood Church (where I've attended off and on, for various reasons such as not living in the area, due to school and jobs, teen age rebellion and ennui, since I was a child) just a few years ago suggested we do the opposite, shut off our radios, be quiet, let that relative peace of the car allow us to talk with God on our way to work, on our way home, let us ask how our children's lives are going.  

And just last week on his blog, Shayne posted an interesting article on distractions.  Just a quick clip and you can read it all on: https://shaynelooper.com/2016/07/02/why-is-it-so-hard-to-live-in-the-moment/

There has been a major campaign in recent years to raise awareness of the danger posed by distracted driving. I suspect that many of us who see the ads or listen to the presentations are too distracted to receive much benefit. And that brings us to the core problem: the distractions are not just “out there,” singing their siren call to us. They are “in here.” If there were no cell phones, no iPads, no tweets or Facebook’s posts, we would invent our own distractions.

Why is that? Why is it so hard to live in the moment? Why can’t we listen to the birds singing and watch the sun go down without checking our Facebook page? What is it about humans that always draws us in a different direction from the one we’re facing?

The answer is that we lack integration. Our hearts and minds are divided. We are what St. James once called “double-souled people, unstable in all they do.” Humans are Humpty Dumptys who need to be put together again. That was the prayer of the ancient songwriter: “Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.”

I completely agree with Shayne and, as usual, I have a point of disagreement (If he's reading this. he's smiling right now.) : All that smattering of information and blizzard of drivel is retained in our minds at an unconscious level.  Too many advertising shills have spent too much money and time studying the effects of subliminal planted items and shown their effectiveness for it not to be that way.  As someone who used to listen to pop songs on the radio and study, I can tell you I recall the most of the lyrics of the songs particularly the oft repeated choruses and I  barely  recall any of my algebra.
And all the subliminal information was found to be most effective when linked to death images.


A more detailed study:  http://www.classroomtools.com/sublimad.htm


"I've titled this section Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes because it is based in large part on my reading of the work of Wilson Bryan Key.  While I do not believe that attempts at subliminal manipulation are as common as Key asserts, I find the contents of a small number of ads impossible to explain reasonably in any other way.

"Key singles out ice cubes because, as something most of us rarely attend to consciously, they make perfect objects for subliminal tinkering.  As a psychologist, researcher and former advertiser, Key knew that photographers take large numbers of photos in order to give ad agencies and producers the selections they need to get just what they want in a particular ad.  Doing this takes time.  Since ice melts over time, especially under the heat generated by the lamps used to light photographers' sets, advertisers prefer to use substitutes of one sort or another.  Thus, what appears to be ice in an ad is either some sort of plastic prop, or is artistically added to the photograph (or enhanced in it) after the shutter snaps.

"Sex and Death are topics of universal human interest.  In western culture they are also taboo.  I'm certain that many of you will think about contemporary entertainment, then question my sanity for choosing to write the last sentence.  Nonetheless, I stand by it.  The gratuitous sex and violence on display in print, film and television correlates to human experience almost as much as the appearance of models in ads correlates to the appearance of the average man or woman on the street; which is to say close to zero.  We are usually encouraged to repress our questions and fears about both sex and death, often to the detriment of our mental health and personal relationships.  Key asserts that advertisers know this, and use it to manipulate us subconsciously.

"Here is how I summarize the argument Key makes in his books.  Please be aware that I do not have the educational or vocational background to either refute or support it.  I find it useful in understanding the ads linked below because I can explain what I see in them in no other way.

1. Human minds instantaneously perceive all information transmitted through our senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste).
2. The conscious mind filters out those things with which it is unable to deal (either psychologically or because of the sheer volume of sensory experience), and constructs an acceptable and meaningful mental image from those stimuli made conscious.
3. The remaining sensory inputs are stored (at least for a time) in the unconscious, where they can effect conscious behavior.
4. Advertisers have found that subliminal messages in advertising can motivate purchases.
5. Ads are designed to transmit their information in a fraction of a second (i.e. the time it takes to turn a page).  If an individual stops to read an ad, that is a plus.
6. Advertisers realize that any given ad will only motivate a small percentage of people exposed to it to make a purchase, so ads are targeted at audiences most likely to be receptive to their messages.  Thus we have a market research industry.  If an ad can bring in $20 in sales for each dollar it costs, it is considered to have broken even.
7. Beyond marketing effects, advertisers have not explored the effects of subliminal messages.  Furthermore, they do not know how or why they work.

1. Research along these lines may have been done in the private sector; but, if so, it is considered proprietary and has been kept secret or destroyed.  Indeed, the federal government may also have commissioned such research in connection with the use of subliminal embeds on currency.  If so, that has also been suppressed.
2. Public (i.e. university) research in these areas is almost non-existent as funding has been nearly impossible to secure.
3. Key posits that subliminal ads work by connecting repressed needs and fears with a product.  When the unconscious feels the need or fear, the conscious perceives the need for the product, or becomes aware of the product.  Since Americans (indeed most of those from western culture) are taught from infancy to repress questions and thoughts about sex and death, they make the best subjects for subliminal ad messages.  While invisible to the vast majority of Americans (and others from western cultures), people from cultures that deal openly with sex and death have no trouble seeing such messages.
4. By playing on people's repressed fears and needs, subliminal advertising may be a contributing factor to many personal and social problems - drug abuse, suicide, insanity, unmarried pregnancy, VD, the breakup of the family, violent crime, etc.
5. Key reports showing an ad containing subliminal castration imagery to a group of college students.  He claims that a high percentage of the men reported feeling fear after viewing it, without knowing why.  Women had no such reaction.

8. Subliminal techniques are used in all media.
9. Print ads are the easiest to study.
10. Broadcast subliminals are impossible to locate without sophisticated equipment (remember that Key wrote in the 1970s, the necessary equipment may now be cheaper and more common).  Indeed, since the techniques are constantly changing, it is often difficult to know what to look for even if one has the proper equipment.

"If they are present, subliminal messages in ads are either symbolic (plainly visible, but with a meaning that producers believe from testing and research will be psychologically repressed by the target audience) or embedded (hidden from conscious perception artistically).  Embeds are the most controversial, the most expensive to create (requiring expensive talent and technology), and (from my observation) the least common."

But embedded subliminals are the most effective and much easier to do in a digital system of communication which, oh, yes, the government mandated we adopt.

So if we are seeing increasingly divisive behavior and the sides of the argument seem to be listening to essentially two sources of information which offer information from only those extremely divergent points of view, administered in subliminal manner because of the distractions swhirling around the population, one begins to wonder about the vehemence of the reactions of each side to the other, especially among the young voters so opposed to the system thinking either a real estate mogul or a socialist senator offer exclusive solutions to the problems the nation faces. And Satan lives for division, the division of heaven, the division of man from paradise, now the division of men from men, women from women, men from women, on and on, Age as division.  Gender as division.  Race as division.

Some of those hidden messages likely use that image of the rotting corpse of death pursuing us, ready to take us into its grasp in a painful way, the fear of  being eaten alive, ripped apart for our soft inner organs.  The blatant image long impressed by subliminal information in the sale of liquor, Coca Cola, anywhere they could use it to effect, because modern morality suggests that the making of the buck supersedes the preservation of integrity or the redemption of the soul.

That zombie apocalypse, the one where we as the walking dead pull the trigger, approaches as we forget we have a savior who redeemed us, who delivered us from our sin and our bad decisions.  One who called for unity behind Him opposed to Satan and his forces.  A Savior who died to defeat death.

And Satan waits, chomping at the bit God  placed in his serpentine mouth.  Wanting to run wild with the slaughter of humanity even as Assyria and Babylon ran over Israel in their time of idol worshiping distraction. Doing his best to keep our eyes off our prize, to distract the flesh from the knowledge it need not fear.

We are here to remind, over the next post, that our race was born vastly different from what it is  now (First Flesh) , that what we were before Christ (Fallen Flesh) longed for Him and didn't know it as we pursued one human king and false god after another,  that some of us now are with Him and awaiting the completion of His mission, of the resurrection (Freshened Flesh),  and what we await, the completion of our purpose, the remaking of our bodies to match the reconstruction of our spirits, into perfect service tools for God, into Final Resurrection Flesh.

So try not to be distracted.


(It is my intent to include portions of a fellow bloggers work on persecution in India with my post as well.  I urge you to follow him.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2016

Police in India Threaten to Fine Christians Attacked by Hindu Extremists

A month after a crowd of village Hindus in Jharkhand state, India summoned 25 Christians, tied up six of them and beat them with sticks, some of the assailants ran into one of the Christians and asked if he was still worshipping Christ.

The Hindu extremists in Hunter village, Palamu District came across Gunni Bhuiya on June 14 on an area road. Bhuiya told them he still believed in and worshipped Christ, and the Hindu extremists manhandled him and threatened to kill him, Christian leaders said.

“They told Bhuiya that as the Christians are still worshipping Christ even after they had received severe beatings, they were now going to kill them,” area pastor Sanjay Kumar Ravi told Morning Star News.

Area Christians are living in fear as the Hindu extremist forbid them to worship, boycott them economically and threaten to kill them, while police threatened to fine them if they continued worshipping publicly, the leaders said.

http://christianpersecutionindia.blogspot.com/