J. Grant Swank, Jr.


I laid off the news over Christmas. Local, national and international.


That meant that I came back to the old-fashioned American Christmas. And I didn’t have to make believe.


I met villagers who greeted me with “Merry Christmas.” It was actually “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays.”


Even in the stores, when I finished with my purchase, I noted clerks pausing. Were they told to say only “Happy Holidays” or could they venture “Merry Christmas”?


I beat them to the draw and cheerily gave forth with “Merry Christmas.” The clerks’ faces lit up and I got a “Merry Christmas” in return. With that, the matter was joyfully sealed with Christmas old-fashioned.


Even signs along our business route sported the words “Merry Christmas.” A couple were hold-outs for the nonsense politically correct “Happy Holidays” but the rest fell right in line with what we have known in America in December: “Merry Christmas.”


And when I turned on TV, talk shows didn’t hesitate to say “Merry Christmas.”


The seasonal movie channels had showing after showing of smiley-faced bottom line “Merry Christmas” this and that from every fun, loving angle possible.


On Christmas Eve, sanctuary-lighted churches throughout our area invited worshipers to services. Parking lots were full. If you couldn’t make it to the 6 PM time, 7PM or 11PM commuion would do. And so it went.


No daily news. No talk about DC. No political analyses. No Obamas.


Relatives gathered, gifts exchanged, carols sung, eggnog passed around the room and snow gracing the meadows.


Gift certificates topped the category pick for presents. Of course, there were still the silly items and stocking stuffers. But the next generation is teaching us how to hand over a favorite coffee stop card and so forth.


There were still enough wrappings to pick up under chairs and tables, toss into the trash and get on with pouring more water in the tree holder to keep greenery fresh.


Christmas cards were neatly stacked or taped to fridge fronts or more decoratively laced around the main room.


Phone calls to family members geographically tossed thither and yon carried voices loved dearly into our Christmas scenes.


In Maine, I concluded, are some of the most gorgeous winter scenes possible. God is so abundantly kind to us here in these northeast parts. And the plows cooperate! They are out promptly in this frosted state.


Driving up Douglas Mountain after a fresh snow is a delightful treat straight from heaven’s throne to our Lake Sebago clusters. No doubt about it. Pine tree limbs are laden with white puffs, the sky blue, then dark blue and then streaked evenings with the most orangish spread.


Last night I thought that round glowing moon was never going to go nighty-night. Our Christmastide moon kept watch to make nighttime like daytime white.


I scooped up some of my wife’s freshly baked cookies, especially the sugar cookies glowing with red and green luscious sequins. Then I slid a few other favorite types into one of those brightly decorated round cookie cans we store in the attic till December.


A greeting card and tiny pine branch topped the delicacies for our bachelor neighbor in the cottage down the road. When I knocked on his door, two huge dogs greeted me, of course. And next, Glenn. His broad smile said it all as he lifted the cookie can from my hand to his.


Then a rude thought entered into my festive head. It was intrusion rude. Nevertheless, after giving it room for a quick second, I dismissed it into the rubbish.


The thought was remembering Michelle Obama promising America that when she took over the White House—of course, Barack Hussein Obama by her side, America would transform.


Michelle said that when the two took chrage, America’s “conversations, traditions and history” would change.


Change? To what?


To Muslim, naturally. Without ruining this remembrance-thread with detail, suffice it to say that this couple determined—and still are on course with their plot—to remake America, particularly imploding its Christian heritage for Islam World Rule.


But this December, as I shut down the news flow for Christmas, I looked around me to realize that my neighbors, as far as I could fathom, were hankering for an old-fashioned American Christmas.


I concluded that Obamas just don’t fit in, no how. And they never will.


America will not be changed for the Koran’s Allah. America will return, God willing it, to what has made it the most fascinating place to live on Earth.


(Read MICHELLE: AMERICA CHANGES TRADITIONS, HISTORY? at http://www.michnews.com/J_Grant_Swank_Jr/gs121909.shtml )

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


NazNet Site Manager Scott Cundiff still chooses to question whether the Bible is totally reliable as the infallible Word of God.


Site founder and moderator Dave McClung must be confused as well for he has been appealed to to stand alongside the Bible as the Word of God that can be trusted from Genesis to Revelation.


However, McClung continues to foster questions and doubts about the Word of God.


Staff Hans Deventer joins in with the same stanza.


Yet NazNet states on its site that is the friend to the Church of the Nazarene. Not so.


The Protestant evangelical denomination stands with those who witness to the Word of God being absolutely reliable as divine revelation.


Once one thread is pulled from this stance, the whole Bible can be unwoven.


I know. I was a divinity student at Harvard Divinity School. I saw what theologians can do to pull all threads from the Word of God. The end result is Unitarianism, where I was seated as a young
ministerial student.


I know how dangerous that unbiblical journey can become.


Yet NazNet applauds it.


The Church of the Nazarene General Superintendents have been informed of this but seem not to be doing anything about it and its relationship to the site.


This is a travesty.


Read NAZNET STAFF HANS DEVENTER CONFUSED ABOUT ‘INTERMEDIATE STATE’? at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2009/12/naznet-staff-hans-deventer-confused.html


Read NAZNET CONTINUES TO ESPOUSE HELL AS ANNIHILATION at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2009/12/naznet-continues-to-espouse-hell-as.html

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“The Bible isn't clear about the intermediate state. . .”


That is Hans Deventer lamenting.


The Bible says nothing about an intermediate state.


Why does this Deventer persist that it does? Is this NazNet staffer a part of the Church of the Nazarene? NazNet says he is.


Yet that denomination no way states anything about such a state. It is bogus. Yet the staffer continues posting on the Dave McClung site that the latter states it is supportive of the Church of the Nazarene.


This is totally confusing and disturbing for it goes on and on and on.


When is this intrusion of non-biblical nonsense going to come to an end so that readers are not taken off the biblical course?


McClung has been appealed to about this matter. Nothing done.


Deventer has been appealed to about this matter. Nothing done.


There it is on the site for the world to read as if it is an issue crucial to the Church of the Nazarene.


The Bible speaks of heaven and hell, no intermediate state.


Roman Catholicism speaks of limbo for the unbaptized dead children and purgatory for those not accepted directly into heaven.


All this is heresy.


So where does NazNet staffer Deventer come up with his own concoction of the intermediate state?


Please, NazNet, clean up your site or apologize to readers and the Church of the Nazarene for being sloppy in maintaining your site or purposefully directing readers into heresy.


Read “Eternal torment?” at http://www.naznet.com/community/showthread.php?t=28935

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“I agree, no part of us is immortal. That is why I believe that hell is annihilation and immortality is conditional.”


That is what Hans Deventer, NazNet staffer, continues to state on this site that claims to be a friend of the Church of the Nazarene.


Site founder and moderator Dave McClung has been informed about this heresy and yet Deventer continues propagating it.


What is going on here regarding ethics?


What is going on here concerning biblical truth?


Deventer does not care about biblical data. He manufactures his own, McClung baptizing it as legitimate for his site.


The Church of the Nazarene General Superintendents have been informed of this but seemingly cannot do anything about McClung, his site’s claims to be friend of the Nazarenes, and Deventer stating that which is totally against the Bible.


Yet the reading world should know the truth, hence this post.


The Bible states nowhere that the damned go to annihilation. Christ Himself speaks repeatedly of eternal damnation. Those familiar with the Bible know these passages. Those in the Church of the Nazarene know these passages.


Please, someone do something to exorcise these untruths from NazNet or at least persuade the Church of the Nazarene officialdom to post a statement disagreeing with any tie with McClung and his site.


Read NAZNET STAFF HANS DEVENTER CONFUSED ABOUT ‘INTERMEDIATE STATE’? at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/2009/12/naznet-staff-hans-deventer-confused.html

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

"I see this is clearly something that I do not want to be part of," the business dealer said.

That is, the man stated that after it became known publicly what he had been doing. He was a part of selling human body parts to patients desperately in need of those parts.

The enterprise is known as "Transplants International."

There’s big money in this. A patient will die without the organ. TI promises the organ. There then are middlemen and doctors and hospitals and airflights and all that sort of network set up to see it through. Just be patient. That is, let the patient be patient. Before the patient dies, hopefully he will receive that organ from China.

Now it will probably come from an executed mortal. But in China that’s daily doings. It doesn’t raise an eyebrow in China. In other parts of the world, it has raised a few questions as well as eyebrows.

But the gist of the matter is simple: a sick person needs an organ from a well person. The well person was a prisoner in China. The prisoner was put to death but his organs are healthy. So cut out the organ, ship it abroad and make your money in the sale.

According to London Daily Telegraph’s Richard Spencer, this is quite the financial take for those who know how to do it. But there’s a lot of suspense involved, too.

That’s why the hospitals in China don’t partake. It’s the military hospitals in China that partake. That’s because the military hospitals don’t have to answer to certain laws like the non-military hospitals have to. Besides, the military hospitals have connections with the police. And the police are those in contact with the prisons. And it’s in the prisons where convicts are put to death with healthy organs inside them.

"A Chinese company has begun marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from executed prisoners to sick Britons in need of transplants. Hospital Doctor, a British magazine, earlier this month reported that a firm called Transplants International was trying to recruit British patients.

"Operations were to be carried out at Guangzhou Air Force Military Hospital by doctors from a hospital affiliated with the nearby Sun Yat-sen Southern University. The Telegraph confirmed the story in an interview with the hospital's Dr. Na Ning, in which a reporter posed as someone interested in getting involved as a business venture.

"’We can sign an agreement,’ Dr. Na said over a business lunch in a smart Western restaurant. ‘We should be cautious -- this is sensitive. 

There is no need to bring in lawyers or consultants. We should do the agreement on trust.’"

So it goes over a sandwich. So it goes behind closed doors. So it goes in whispers and raised eyebrows. So it goes when the wallet opens with the cash.

Bottom line: Do prisons execute certain convicts so that they can get their organs for sale? A foreigner can get that organ within two weeks if he has the money for it.

"’There are spies,’ Dr. Na said. We have to be very careful.’"

A kidney could go for $40,000 to $60,000. The middleman picks up his $12,000. The rest goes to the hospital.

"Dr. Na, who spoke excellent English, showed a typical contract between the hospital and a middleman, an Indonesian, to provide patients from Vietnam. Asians pay half the Western price, but Dr. Na said Western patients get VIP treatment and are sure to get the ‘best quality’ organs."

If the middleman can come up with 10 patients each month, he gets more money.

The Daily Telegraph went to the Transplants International personnel. Quickly the TI web site shut down. It had been put in place by Jonathan Hakim, Beijing businessman from the US. He went under the name of "John Harris."

"Mr. Hakim denied having supplied patients to Dr. Na in the past and added that he had decided no longer to be involved with the project. ’I see this is clearly something that I do not want to be part of,’ he said."

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Reading through my diary this Christmas, I came across this detail below. I reflected on that pain. Today, the pain is gone due to my son living for the Christ Child, evangelizing in His holy name, and overseeing his Christian home under God.


It is amazing how such suffering can continue for years; but then free will explodes in heaven’s favor so as to filter out the anguish.


This Christmas I just visited my son and grandchildren. In the midst of the celebration, we paused to read the Christmas account from the Gospel of Luke. As I read down through the verses, I could hardly believe that the diary’s bloody pages were now replaced with “Glory be to God for His saving grace.”


Here is the diary detail of years past:


I guess it is a father-son thing. At least that is what the two of us used to call it.


I’d take Jay out for pizza—just the two of us—and we would call it a Father and Son Evening. It was really quite exciting and fulfilling, too.


I can recall when he was just a baby, curling his tiny fingers around my one finger. I would lay him on my chest and then he would fall asleep. He was just a bit bigger than what I could hold in my two hands—tiny tiny tiny.


And all brown. A perfect brown. His skin was exceptionally smooth. What an awesome color.


His mother was white. His father was black. We don’t know any more about him than that.


He was born in July. We adopted him in September. That was over 25 years ago. He has known no other home but ours, no other family but ours.


So it was that as he grew older, we two had more and more Father and Son Evenings. Sometimes they were as simple as going for ice cream. Sometimes they involved traveling or exploring a new venture.


But when he talked to me the other day on the phone—Father and Son Afternoon? I guess you could call it that. But there was no excitement or fulfillment in it. It was a call that ached.


When I heard the phone ring, I lifted the receiver to get a recording. It was from a federal prison. The voice was masculine and it informed me that the first minute’s talk would cost me over four dollars. The next minute would cost me 70-some cents. Further, there would be 70% interest charge to top it off.


If I wanted to accept the call, I pushed a button on my phone front. If not, I could hang up.


I pushed the button.


Jay said, “Merry Christmas.” I answered with same—at least from my tongue; but it all got lost somewhere in my chest as far as my heart was concerned. I wonder sometimes where my heart is in all this stuff that’s been going on in Jay’s life in the last whatever years. I quit counting the years; but they add up to be too many, that’s for certain.


In his mid-teens, Jay traded in our family for that of the low-life sub-culture. He went for that surrogate dark-sided clan big time—in far more intense, hurtful and complicated terms that I would ever want to know.


It cost him five years in federal facilities—in New York, then Ohio, and finally Michigan. My wife and I drove over five years to those three locations to see our son for two-day visits. Lots of miles. Lots of heart.


And for what?


I wonder. Of course, life is not over. So there is much tallying yet to do—maybe; however, I surely do pray and hope that sometime it will take a turn for the light side.


While on probation, details unbeknownst to me by my choice, Jay broke the rules. So back to fed housing, hence the phone call and “Merry Christmas” from behind bars. Father and Son Afternoon. Right? Right not.


I wish I had a son.


I have two lovely daughters—biologically ours. But I had always dreamed of having a multi-racial boy—mine. And I at one time I had got him. But somewhere along the travels, he left me. I don’t know exactly when it was that I lost my son, but I lost him.


Oh, we would meet from time to time, but I had not counted on our Father and Son fests being in a lawyer’s office or court room with Jay’s ankles in leg chains or a fed visiting room with guards seated on raised platforms watching our every move.


Where was the camaraderie a father and son were to enjoy when the boy reached teens and young adulthood? I will never know. I have no other son to discover that with.


And how many years does my own adopted son think his adoptive father has on this earth for that boy to turn around to locate his dad? When? How? And finally, why?


“Merry Christmas” through bars is no fun.


All the while we were talking over the phone, I kept wondering where my voice box had gone. It was giving forth sounds, but to this day, I don’t know what I said. In other words, how many worn, pre-programmed cliches can a dad come up with when he’s lost for words, especially when writing is his vocation and words trip off his tongue or fingers while in his sleep?


“Merry Christmas” through bars.


I thank God that in time I did come upon two grand sons-in-law. They are such terrific fellows to be with. They treat me with courtesy and honor, something I had not discovered in Jay, that is, until after his mid-teens.


Now that I look back on his pre-mid-teen years, Jay would treat me with such respect. In fact, six footer that he ended up to be, while maturing, he would walk into a room filled with others to go straight for me. Then he would give me a bear hug and smack a manly kiss on my forehead. But. . .those days disappeared once he bonded with the underground family.


Nevertheless, God’s gift of two sons-in-law has filled the void to a significant degree. I look forward to their visits and conversation and laughter and nonsense. They have surely been worth the wait.


But with all that said, there is still an empty place way down deep inside. I try to ignore it. I try to put it aside. I try not to think about it. But the empty place won’t go away.


In other words, it was meant to be filled and moving and happy and gracious and embracing. It’s where my adopted son should be.


Jay, why do you do these awful things to yourself and to your family? Why are your choices so selfish and destructive? Why do you wake up in the morning to ruin the day for those who gave themselves to you since you were reclining there on my chest, since you curled your tiny fingers around
my finger?


Why?


I looked into your face as you stood there in your tuxedo as one of the groomsmen at Heidi’s wedding. You were handsome, for sure. There was not a flaw in your face. Your build is striking and strong. You walk into any room and take it over without saying a word.


What happened to you along the way, Jay? Where did you go? Why did you leave us? Surely five years in a federal prison cell got through your thick selfish head some basics for survival and kindness to those who poured out their love for you.


Yet seemingly not. You landed right back where you had languished for five
years.


But I’m going on too long. This is stretched out much too much. For my own Christmas this Christmas I must get on with it, tending to matters that are close at hand.


There are carols to sing and presents to wrap. There are guests coming for dinner in a few minutes. There is a wife who needs help setting the table. And my daughters and their husbands will be here before I turn around.


Jay, I wish you could be with us. How I wish it. And pray for it. But you are seated somewhere out of state in a cold, lifeless prison.


So with that, I send out to your heart from mine—“Merry Christmas”.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

                 
As I sat in that courtroom--cold, impersonal, austere space--I looked straight ahead at my adopted teen son with his feet in chains.  He was dressed in that dreaded orange outfit.  His otherwise handsome face was grimaced, especially as he shot shamed glances at his mother and me when entering through the side door.  Guards were on either side of him.


He would end up in a federal prison for several years.


However, his mother and I both knew that Jay was on a course of self-destruction.  He had run away from home several times, was unruly when he was in that surly mood, and regarded no other final authority than his own.  Not good for making it through this life.


Nevertheless, as my striking multi-racial boy stood straight before the judge, I could not help but see--not that grown teen--but a little baby only two and a half months old. That was his age when we adopted him, gave him my name and hugged him to our hearts.


I saw in front of me, not a man before the law, but a little babe, a tiny tot, cuddly and warm, smelling of fresh powder and looking endearingly into my face.  He was wrapped in that first blue blanket we bought him.  He was smiling, cooing.  How we delighted in showing him off to everyone we met!


Then I recalled visiting him in the state youth center after one of his earlier escapades. My wife and I dreaded that crudely put-together waiting room.  We had to sign in, behave ourselves as if we were under some sort of investigation, treated somewhat humanly. If this was the "cordiality" we were accorded, what was it that the youth were enduring?


As Jay would come into the room to visit with us each Sunday afternoon, I saw there, not so much my misbehaving son, but a squirming baby boy in my arms, held tightly to my heart.  Then I saw him as a toddler, then off to the waiting bus on his first day at school, then a pre-teen all dressed up for some event.


During one visit, a mother from the northern part of our state introduced herself to us. I could tell that she was distraught.  She too was waiting to see her troubled teen son. Then it was that her boy came through the door, dragging his chained feet behind him.


In an instant that anguished mother jumped to her feet to embrace her own.  Many tears flowed from the two of them.  Not much in the way of words; but much in the language of the soul.


It was then that I could feel in her the wretched piercing of that sword, just as it had pierced my heart on too many occasions.  There was a mother seeing, not so much her sixteen-year-old son, but her six-day-old newborn, her six week old baby, her six month old growing child.


It was when my son was in prison that I wrote him a letter in which I related to him that when a child goes wayward, the parents are cut through and through with the memories of childhood.


I then attempted to get him to understand the slippery, twisting sword that cuts right through every one of life's muscles.


So it was that once again this Christmas I thought of still another parent. Her name was Mary. She had in her womb the Son of all sons--Jesus.  In the jubilation of that pregnancy, however, there was a sword promised her.  Luke tells of it in his account.  It was a dagger that would cut close to her very
nerve.


Mary.  Mary!  How you ever lived through all of that utter brokenness I will never fathom. It simply is beyond my imagination. When I compare the pain that my wife and I have endured, how then did you ever stand up beneath all that needless anguish inflicted upon your holy Offspring, Jesus?


He too wore the chains.  He too was scoffed and derided, led before authorities for harsh scowls and snickers.  He then was laced between heaven and earth for a crime that He never committed--but for crimes that WE have done.  Yet through it all, you stayed there beneath His bleeding frame--patiently praying, wrestling with the shame.


Surely, as you looked from Calvary into the face of your grown Son, you too held in your arms the precious Bethlehem Baby.  Cuddling Him.  Kissing His cheeks.  Spreading your kind fingers across His brow. Wanting to rub out those fears and injustices.


Yet when He was but a tiny One, as you held Him in your arms beneath night's Star, you knew in your heart of hearts that someday you would hold Him in your arms when He lay limp from the cross.  Pieta.  How could it be?


At this Christmas, I give praise to God for Mary, a parent who endured the sword, who stayed true to Her Son because of that sword and now receives the just honor given her.


May every parent who likewise endures the sword find such courage as came from Mary.  Thank you God for providing the strength to endure to the very end, for her and for us.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Senator Ben Nelson gave conservatives and moralists a Christmas gift early.


He became the 60th traitor to the Republic.


In that, he blew Nebraska away from east to west. They’re mad mad mad.


That is Nelson’s evil gift to his state. That is Nelson’s wicked gift to America.


I have been wondering a long, long time when it will come to madness. When will grassroots holler till the moon wiggles through night skies?


Nelson’s constituency is dwindling, as it should. May this happen to every other Congressperson who voted for a paper stack none of them have read, few understand.


This is like passing out empty sheets of paper to a first grade class and then asking them what is on it. The first one who says something about the drawing that is not there gets an A. The next one who describes what color the nothing is gets an A.


And so on.


These Congresspersons are not only insulting to the intelligent mind. They represent clinically concluded deranged individuals in need of extensive mental and emotional therapy, not to mention spiritual counseling.


Instead, these morally bankrupt Congresspersons walked off with gift stockings overflowing. May they roast in hell. And may their stocking stink to high heaven.


Talk about greed on Wall Street.


These are the examples of the maximum unethical. They are cheap. They are tawdry. They are the scum bottom.


When I read what they have done to this Republic, I think I have slipped inadvertently into some Banana Republic overseen by the Castros of history.


Nelson, you are at the top of the heap for you, in your suave demeanor and appearing compassionate voice, roasted those of us who breathe to be free.


In what you did, you gave more power to the Marxist Muslim already gloating in the Oval Office. He is surrounded by Muslims. They have set up their own Islamic power clutch. Only God knows what is the future of America with these Koran-loving power deceivers seated in DC.


Nelson, you are publicly shamed. Your wrists and ankles should be locked in chains in the village square.


May be you be dumped, and that quite early. Not soon enough. Not at all.


Read “Neb.'s Nelson sees backlash on health reform plan” at http://apnews.myway.com/article/20091220/D9CN9TL80.html

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Christmas is heaven's marvel. It is beyond us and yet with us.


The birth of God! It took place in Bethlehem. The theologians refer to this marvel as the "incarnation."


This is truly the marvelous paradox in our midst: God had no beginning, yet Bethlehem is his start. God is the author of life, yet he comes to life in a castoff barn. God, the creator of all, is created in Mary's womb. The Eternal One becomes earth-bound. The Invisible becomes visible.


The Immortal becomes mortal. The Immeasurable becomes measurable. The Timeless and Spatially Limitless One becomes logged into this globe's time and space.


Why, it is the marvel of all history and eternity! It is the miraculous intersecting of history and eternity in the revelation of the Person.


What this birth does not signify is that the incarnate One is sinful. He is not sinner, but holy One born of a virgin. However, continuing the complexity of the simple, he does come to earth to become sin for us. The Lamb of God is destined to become scapegoat for humanity!


His name? Jesus Christ. The "Jesus" is his human name and nature--Jehovah--redeemer, deliverer. The "Christ" is the same as "Messiah", referring to his divine name and nature--anointed one, king. So it is, the marvel, Jesus Christ is both human and divine—the Godman—"Emmanuel" or "God with us."


Mother Mary was a teen Jewess who lived in Nazareth. She became a part of the marvel in her own simplicity. We know not her mother's name nor her father's name. We know not whether she had brothers and sisters. But we do know that Mary was spiritually excellent, even as a youth before God. She was holy, strong, wise and loyal to her faith.


Joseph was a teen fellow who resided as a carpenter in Nazareth. We know his father's name was Jacob. Joseph too was spiritually keen, sanctified before God, caring and kind. However, after Jesus' twelfth birthday, we read nothing more about Joseph.


Jesus was born of a virgin conception. We often hear of his coming into this world by way of a "virgin birth." But it was actually more precisely a virgin conception which led to a virgin birth. In other words, the father of Jesus was none other than the Holy Spirit. That accounts for


Jesus' divinity, his holiness from conception.


Joseph then was Jesus' foster father.


Mary provided Jesus with his humanity. Through her womb the divine came into the human race. There has been no other conception like this conception. It is the crux of the marvel. So it is that the Christian accepts this by faith. If this cannot be "faithed," then nothing can.


For instance, to accept the resurrection of Jesus Christ but discount His virgin conception is nonsense. Indeed to accept the resurrection account but put aside the virgin truth is selfishness at its most insulting obvious.


You see, there are those who want to believe in the risen Christ because that gives them hope that there is a heaven beyond death. They bask in this assurance. Easter is the highlight for their faith, their preaching and teaching. However, some of these same persons look askance at the virgin conception as simply unbelievable, a fable, myth, a legend manufactured by some gospel writers who were a bit crazed.


In other words, it is fashionable in some theological quarters to leap by faith into the empty tomb but it is likewise fashionable to downplay Mary impregnated by the third person of the holy trinity. It would be more believable simply to conclude that Joseph is the logical father of Jesus, they say. After all, why not?


Consequently, there is at times by some the explaining away of the virgin conception through their demythologizing, that is, their scissoring out the first chapters of the Gospel of Matthew and Luke in order to make the record more scientifically palatable.


No. Speaking of logic, to see through the above is unreasonable at its most evident brash selfish thrust. Why should one accept the miracle of a dead man coming back alive when one cannot accept a marvelous, miraculous start to such a Creature's existence? If he can defy death and the grave, he can entrance this human existence
in a miraculous turn of nature and law.


The New Testament record itself knows nothing of separating the virgin conception from the resurrection possibilities. Both are presented as sheer fact.


They are offered as that which occurred—no debate, no argument, no quibbling. Then to be consistent with the scriptural writings, one should at least remain in line with the scriptural modus operandi, that is, its own approach to history and faith.


The New Testament maintains a consistent logic of human-divine presence from start to finish—miracle at the beginning and miracle at the closing. In other words, the incarnation is the source of that which is beyond human calculations, such being the only reasonable means by which to accept the intrusion of the miracle working God into the affairs of humankind.


There is therefore no break, no contest, no competition between the start and conclusion of Jesus Christ's biography as presented in the four Gospels. What is given is a given. It is considered historical empirical evidence accepted by faith.


How marvelous! The God of life (Easter) then can spark His own life (Christmas) as he wills, even by coming into the human family by way of the Holy Spirit's moving upon the womb of a teen Jewess.


Mary's womb, miracle presence birthing the Son of God and the Son of Man. The womb is filled with the presence God!


Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, miracle presence emptying the grave of the resurrected body of the Son of God and the Son of Man. The tomb is filled with the absence of God! He is in the Garden, just where Jesus was always to be found—with His own—caring, uplifting, enlightening, revealing.


It is, in short, marvel--from start to finish! Praise be to the Father. And to the Son. And to the Holy Ghost. Amen.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Scotland Yard lives under a dark cloud of sleeper cell explosions that will kill and maim.


Authorities believe that the threat is definitely real. It’s simply a matter of time.


Terrorist communications to one another have been read by authorities. These Muslim slayers are specifying where to strike and who to level.


Interestingly enough, in the media dispatch the word “Muslim” is not used once. How blind is the politically correct media. Does this not communicate their own fear of the foe? Surely. And it says the authorities feel weak in light of Islamic plots.


Will America escape such an onslaught? Hardly.


There are sleeper cells throughout the nation as well as Muslim killer camps training Islamic devotees how to slit the throats of infidels. Homeland Security knows this in detail. Yet when Homeland Security is contacted by grassroots, no replies. Could Homeland Security side up to terrorist sleeper cells?


Add to this the Marxist Muslim and wife seated in the White House. They were brainwashed against “white values” and Jews (“monkeys” and “pigs” labeled them by Jeremiah Wright, cultic leader of Trinity United Church of Christ) over twenty years.


Michelle promises that the United States will change its “conversation, history and traditions.” To what? To Islamic World Rule, of course.


Read MICHELLE: AMERICA CHANGES TRADITIONS, HISTORY? at http://www.michnews.com/J_Grant_Swank_Jr/gs121909.shtml


Why has the Fort Hood massacre been gagged?


Why are 9 / 11 murderers’ trial staged in Manhattan?


Why is Muslim Obama late in supporting US troops in Afghanistan?


Why does Muslim Obama not produce his birth certificate?


Why is Ramadan celebrated in the White House but Christmas practically blanked out?


Why is “health care” rivaling the Empire State Building in stack size, confusing the public, sneaking in sabotage? What’s going on with Medicare, doctor-patient relations, and so forth?


Once terrorists set loose in the United States, genuine patriots will shoot off their revolution to oust the White House liars and the Congresspersons stroking Oval Office deceitful schemers.


“Scotland Yard has warned businesses in London to expect a Mumbai-style attack on the capital.


“In a briefing in the City of London 12 days ago, a senior detective from SO15, the Metropolitan police counter-terrorism command, said: ‘Mumbai is coming to London.’


“The detective said companies should anticipate a shooting and hostage-taking raid ‘involving a small number of gunmen with handguns and improvised explosive devices’.


“The warning — the bluntest issued by police — has underlined an assessment that a terrorist cell may be preparing an attack on London early next year. It was issued by the Met through its network of ‘security forums”’ which provide business leaders, local government and the emergency services with counter-terrorism advice” per The London Times.


Read “Police expect Mumbai-style terror attack on City of London” at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6962867.ece


Read the KORAN


http://jgrantswankjr.blogspot.com/2009/12/koran.html


Read TRUTH RE MOHAMMED: RAPE, MURDER, MOLESTATION, BEHEADING


http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4733940-truth-re-mohammed-rape-murder-molestation-beheading

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Wait till Marxist Muslim Barack Hussein Obama’s henchmen step in between your doctor and you.


Wait till they tell your doctor how to doctor.


Wait till you have to bow down to DC crook
liars headed by Chief Liar in order to learn what med tests you can have.


Wait till you wait to learn from Allah devotee what prescriptions you can get and how much they will overcost.


Wait till you have to wait for three or four years for a pacemaker as my friend in Canada had to wait—put on the notorious “wait list.”


Wait till your Medicare is cut in to so that you no longer get the proper oversight as an elder citizen.


Wait till your Medicare is doled out across the nation to whomever so that you learn how to “sacrifice for the whole.”


Wait till your social security check is sliced into for the same macabre doctrine from Koran reading Obama and czar shadow government.


Wait till you’re put in jail because you can’t count out the bucks to pay up on health insurance.


Wait till your taxes go up because of Obama’s “health care” come to America.


Wait till your premiums shoot through the black of night.


Wait till you discover that communism has come to the United States, defining your every breath, dictating your every move.


Wait till Obama and Muslim cohorts give the signal for Allah’s sleeper cells to break out to engulf your neighborhoods. And you thought they were genuinely friendly. Did you not
know that Allah teaches to appear friendly, then kill?


Read SHEIKH TO US MUSLIMS: ACT FRIENDLY, THEN KILL at http://www.michnews.com/J_Grant_Swank_Jr/jgs121709.shtml


Wait till Obama proceeds to behead the Republic with puppet Congressmen playing traitor.


Wait till apostate clergy pronounce Islam America’s new religion in the name of diversity, “In God We Trust” wiped off everything it now graces.


Wait till “health care” becomes The Boy’s rationale for moving out further and further, close to the bone of your very existence, lynching your every freedom.


Wait till abortion creeps right back into “health care” to satisfy those bloodthirsty for unborn children’s bodies flipped into dumpsters and more dumpsters.


This will occur quite quickly for Obama the evil one does not wait. If he wants something for Islam World Rule, he threatens.


Remember how he threatened those balking on “health care”? Remember how he dictated and they wilted?


Then flipping the coin, he put down the threats to promise the vault, and they got it.


With all that from hell’s canyons, grassroots will be singing “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men” this Christmas—in their hearts.


But in their leg muscles, they’ll feel the revolution start. And it will start over there. And then over here. And then in the middle. And then from coast to coast.


Those who have tasted democracy, breathing it in their lungs every day of their lives, delighting in its blessings, will never succumb to the Islamic tyrant and wife.


They will revolt.


They will slap around the henchman at their doctor’s door.


They will trip the henchman standing at their prescription counter.


They will threaten—rightfully so—the tax man, the IRS, the White House front doors, the Congressional offices.


And it will never stop until the Muslim is thrown out—and his disciples with him.


Read the KORAN


http://jgrantswankjr.blogspot.com/2009/12/koran.html


Read TRUTH RE MOHAMMED: RAPE, MURDER, MOLESTATION, BEHEADING


http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4733940-truth-re-mohammed-rape-murder-molestation-beheading

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Pro-life Senator Ben Nelson left a slip-up in his bow to Dems on the “health care” flop.


“Conservative Republicans and the National Right to Life Committee criticized.


“Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who pushed through the restrictions in the House-passed bill, rejected Nelson's deal.


“He called it ‘not acceptable’ because it ‘would allow the federal government to subsidize insurance policies with abortion coverage.’


“He said he intends to keep working to find a solution that would allow him to ultimately vote for the health care bill” per the AP.


“’. . .subsidize insurance policies with abortion coverage.’”


There you have it—the devil’s intrusion. And it will grow from a slither to a gaping Grand Canyon mouth-to-hell killing womb babies.


If Dems want to benefit the country, do what Dr. Howard Dean says. Start all over with all persons having input on health care, not shutting out Republicans, but opening it to all.


Liar Marxist Muslim Barack Hussein Obama professed transparency when running with Allah to the Oval Office.


His regime is lie-based. This is virtuous for an Islamic per the Koran.


No transparency. All a dictatorship. Bury the Republicans. Enthrone the White House and wife messianic duo while playing tyrant over kiss-up Dems in Congress.


There you define true democracy. Not.


And now Nelson gets a barrel full of Christmas goodies while appearing totally pro-life. But there is that horrific slip-through that will be taken advantage of to the nth degree.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091219/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul


FOOTNOTE: THE BIBLE AND ABORTION


It is alarming to realize the nonchalance on the part of many concerning abortion. But it is not new. A popular newsmagazine quoted one medical opinion: "Abortion is finding its place as a perfectly acceptable and valid health measure. We no longer think of it as a crime."


There are those who say that every woman has a right to control her own body. That is true. Then, having control over her own body, she should not become pregnant if she does not want children. That is control! When she becomes pregnant, then she has lost her control over that situation.


But more importantly, only God has final rights to any person's body. He brought that body into life and someday will take that body out of life. In the meantime He provides the very sustaining power for the body's life to continue.


The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person.


“In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then 'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself'” (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).


"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job 10:8-12 NIV).


"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name...and now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant..." (Isaiah 49:1, 5).


"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’" (Jeremiah 1:4-5).


In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.


"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16).


"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him" (Psalm 127:3).


Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn:


"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."


All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth:


"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (1:41, 44).


Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother's womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent):


"But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles..." (Gal. 1: 15-16).


Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.


Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Also, read Exodus 23:7: "Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." Note I Peter 4:15: "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer..."


If the Republic returned to the biblical definition of personhood, we would defend every womb child.


John Adams said the following:


"Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."


Andrew Jackson said the following:


"The BIBLE is the rock on which our Republic rests."


Daniel Webster:


"If we abide by the principles taught in the BIBLE, our country will go on prospering."


"For all the talk of freedom and self-determination, the abortion movement is at its heart a movement denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its own cause" (Donald P. Shoemaker, ABORTION, THE BIBLE AND THE CHRISTIAN, Hayes Publishing Co., 1976, p. iv).




___________________________________________________________

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Mortals are playing God when they move into changing climate and moving continents and sludging taxpayers and kissing up to unbelieving loudmouths and passing legislation that will gouge Americans and so forth.


God is God.


This particular planet, along with the entire universe, is God’s. He is Maker and Owner. He is the one in charge of sun, moon, stars, seasonal changes and everything else related to creation. God has His hand upon it all. His claim is tagged to every part of it.


Mortals are so intent on playing deity that they play right into the hands of God’s enemy, Satan. Satan always wanted to be God. He sought to take over the eternal throne. That cost him his place in hell. Now he is known in the Bible as the “King of the Pit.”


If these mortals keep playing God, they will end up with the King of the Pit.


Genesis 8:22 is holy writ. This is revealed information from the God of creation. In that verse alone God states that “as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”


“. . .will never cease.”


All detail related to that overview is under God’s surveillance, not mortals’. Tell that to Al Gore. Inform Bill Clinton of that basic reality.


It was a delight to see God’s sense of humor sprayed out over the Copenhagen cop-out when snow blanketed empty-headed conferees. It was particularly encouraging to read that snow gusts stalled Nancy Pelosi’s jaunt to the climate flop.


If mortals continue to play deity, they will answer with severe divine wrath. They will be blanketed with that which they never dreamt of. Horrific it will be.


Al Gore, once a born again believer, reared in such a biblically moored home, has gone the way of the transgressor. For years he and his wife have given up on the Bible as the Word of God.


Similarly with Bill Clinton, reared in the same biblical milieu. He too has put aside the divine revelation for his own egocentricity, writing his own religion.


These are representative of the climate-geared God-mockers who seek to manipulate creation to their own ends. Their own ends will be what is described repeatedly in Scripture as damnation.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


For those who concluded that Marxist Muslim Barack Hussein Obama would become the global messiah, take a breather.


At least thus far the Anointed One at the Copenhagen flop were not mesmerized by the charismatic one. No mob hysteria. No tears streaming down adoring faces. No Oprah Winfreys fawning his every move.


Instead, Obama was a major undo. He did not corral world leaders beneath his magic. He did not gather ‘round his feet raptured poor nations.


During Obama’s presidential election spree, it frightened those in the know that he would become the global christ. Oprah was cheering for it. Hollywood likewise. Liberals were so blinded by his charm they granted him his every wish.


Would this Islamic scam become the world’s next best hope?


Today in America he slides from his throne onto an extremely unsure floor. Down, down, down go the stats on his altogether.


He promised “change” and “hope.” Change for the worse has surely come to pass. But the hope is splintered throughout the country.


In one of his debates with Hillary Clinton during the campaign, she kept underlining her experience with issues over a commendable time frame.


He kept stating simply that “words count.”


In other words, he really had no actual experience for the job as Chief Executive. Instead, he banked on the masses being inspired by his very magic of verbiage.


“Hope.” “Change.” Sure enough, the brain dead sucked it in.


Certainly words can inspire. But if those words come from a politician who promises the world, he had better produce the world. Obama has not done that. Therefore, those who banked on his messianic split-the-skies are left bankrupt in their personal lives. Ouch maximum.


Prophecies surrounding The Boy circled and circled upward with adulation shining brightly from eternity’s throne. However, now that the time has come for him to remake America for the ultimate nirvana, he has sludged us into the Pit.


With his smack-down here at home, abroad he smears tarnish across his mugshot.


“US president offers no further commitment on reducing emissions or on finance to poor countries” guardian.co.uk states.


“Barack Obama stepped into the chaotic final hours of the Copenhagen summit today saying he was convinced the world could act ‘boldly and decisively’ on climate change.


“But his speech offered no indication America was ready to embrace bold measures, after world leaders had been working desperately against the clock to try to paper over an agreement to prevent two years of wasted effort — and a 10-day meeting — from ending in total collapse.


“Obama, who had been skittish about coming to Copenhagen at all unless it could be cast as a foreign policy success, looked visibly frustrated as he appeared before world leaders.”


So be it. The messiah he ain’t.