By 1828, the Plymouth Brethen was created and promoted Dispensationalism (or the view history is divided into many ages which God deals with believers and non-believers in different ways. Most followers of Dispensationalism follow a literal intepretation of the Bible, says that Christians aren't bound by Mosaic Law, and believe in the Tribulation plus the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). Dispensationalists revolutionize prophecy movements in Christianity with Pierre Poiret, John Nelson Darby, Dwight L. Moody, James INglis, James Hall Brookes, and the Niagra Bible Conference. Charles Finney promoted revivals in the Second Great Awakening in America by 1830. As time goes on, false prophets existes like many Millerites, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other people. The Southern Baptist Convention was created in Augusta, Georgia. By the 1800s, Roman Catholics claim Marian appariations all over Europe and the world. Like always, we praise Mary as heroic human being who sacrificed her life for the growth of the Gospel, but Mary should never be venerated or worshiped. Missionaries grew worldwide by the 1800s too. The heresy of Immaculate Conception was embraced by the Catholic Church in 1854. In 1859, Ashbel Green Simonton, missionary, arrived in Brazil and founds Igreja Presbiteriana do Brasil, the oldest Brazilian Protestant denomination. From 1869–1870, the Catholic First Vatican Council asserted the doctrine of Papal Infallibility which is blasphemy (that false doctrine was rejected by Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland). During the American Civil War, many Christians fought for the Union side to defeat he Confederate enmy, including black Christians. Later, we saw the rise of the Moody Bible Institute created in 1886, the Christian flag created in Brooklyn, New York City in 1897, and the Gideons International founded in 1899 to spread the Gospel via Bibles globally. I remembered in middle school when Gideons International members passed out Bibles (of the New Testament, Proverbs, and Pslams) to students after school.
After World War II, Christianity saw some of its most contoversial and exciting times in its history. We saw the discoveries of The Nag Hammadi library and the Dead Sea Scrolls being discovered. From 1945 to the present in 2026, Christians debated and talked about social issues, other political issues, and theological doctrines. International or global church movements increased in power during the modern age. Also, we have the growth of heresies from the Prosperity Gospel to the Ecumencial Movement that brainwashed many people into falsehoods. After Israel was a nation in 1948, Christians have been divided on what to make of this historic development. Some Christians support Israel unconditionally, some support Israel with criticisms of Israeli policies that are wrong, some opppose Israel's existence, and some desire Palestinian liberation. Billy Graham (with his strengths and faults) preached non stop globally for decades. We all know about Dr. Cathy Burns' book on Billy Graham and Fritz Springmeier's research on Billy Graham that showed his errors. Therefore, we have to be wise to eat the meat and throw away the bones. That means to accept what is good and reject what is false or evil. With the advent of television and international satellite television especially, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ spread globally more efficiently than previously generations. Many evangelists have large following, but some of the greatest believers in human history have been unsung human beings who seek no fanfare or unnecessary fame. They are just inspired by the Holy Spirit to save the souls of human beings from sin in order for them to lived a blessed life in the eyes of the Lord. Culture changed by the 1960s. The good things about the 1960s was that minority groups fought for human rights that should have been there by birthright from voting rights to fundamental human rights. The problem was that many people in the super wealthy exploited wealth to benefit them at the expense of the common people, many people promoted a nihilistic philosophy that harmed societies socially, and some used the lies of the New Age to manipulate people to show hatred of God and believers in God (beyond just dissent with religion). The 21st century sees Christianity in a crossroads in these end times. We don't know when the Second Coming will occur, but we are in the closing chapters of this era of time.
There are more geographic landforms too. A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and living conditions have unique biomes and ecosystems. They have a lack of vegetation. Glaciers are landforms made up of a body of natural ice, a form of rock. It moves over time and can be bigger or smaller. An aquifer is an underground layer of water bearing permeable rock, gravel, sand, or silt that stores and transmits ground water. It is the source for wells and springs. It can have vital freshwater reservoirs. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land masses, bordered by water on two sides. It is found in Panama, the Suez region, and other places.
To truly know about geography is more than comprehending facts about longitude, latitude, and basic concepts of topography. It is a culture that focuses on the cultures of the human race as it relates to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Planet Earth. Social sciences and natural sciences combine encompass geography in fundamental terms. Long ago, many people falsely believed that the world was flat. Now, we know that the Earth is a spheroid being round. Mathematics has advanced in many ways to develop geographic sciences that focus on space, time, and scale to understand our natural environment. Researchers involved in geography deal with cartography, remote sensing, interviews, and surveying. In other words, how people build houses, how people protect animal species, how people measure chemicals in the water supply, and how human beings develop ways to monitor the weather all involve the subject matter of geography. From the three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system to show space to deal with absolute space, we understand how people move around the globe. The Earth has a lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere with these entities being interrelated to each other. The Tobler's first law of geography is that everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant. Its 2nd law is that the phenomenon external to a geographic area of interest affects what goes on inside. Many scholars love human geography, physical geography, technical geography, and integrated geography. Therefore, geography is always a beautiful subject of human discovery.
The United States has a very diverse fauna from Virginia to Hawaii. There are many animal species in America that are found nowhere else on Earth, except in America. Most of the North American continent is found in the Neartic, Neotropic, and Oceanic faunistic realms. Probably the most famous fauna in America is the national bird of the bald eagle. I remember seeing a rare bald eagle in a parking lot last year. The bald eagle is a legally protected species and is found all over America, even in Alaska. An estimated 432 mammal species comprise the fauna of the continental U.S. There are more than 800 species of bird and more than 100,000 known species of insect. There are 311 known reptiles, 295 amphibians and 1154 known fish species in the U.S. Known animals that exist in all of the lower 48 states include white-tailed deer, bobcat, raccoon, muskrat, striped skunk, barn owl, American mink, American beaver, North American river otter and red fox. The red-tailed hawk is one of the most widely distributed hawks not only in the U.S., but in the Americas. Huge parts of the country with the most distinctive indigenous wildlife are protected as national parks. In 2013, the U.S. had more than 6770 national parks or protected areas, all together more than 1,006,619 sq. miles (2,607,131 km2). The first national park was Yellowstone National Park in the state of Wyoming, established in 1872. Yellowstone National Park is widely considered to be the finest megafauna wildlife habitat in the U.S. There are 67 species of mammals in the park, including the gray wolf, the threatened lynx, and the grizzly bear. Western parts of America have mountain lions, raccoons, white tailed antelope squirrels, badgers, coyotes, hawks, and other species of lizards. There are the black and brown bears plus grizzly bears in the northwest and Alaksa. In the Southern part of America we have crocidiles, alligators, turtles, snakes, bullfrogs, and the American black bear. In Central America, we have coyostes, muskrats, American bison, snaks, lizards, and salamanders. The pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere that can run up to 55 mph. The groundhog is widespread throughout Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota. Virginia opossum is found in states such as Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas. In the Eastern United States, we have animals like deer, rabbits, rodents, squirrels, hares, woodpeckers, owls, foxes and bears. The New England region is particularly famous for its crab and the American lobster living along most of the Atlantic Coast. The bobcat, raccoon and striped skunk live in every eastern state, while the American alligator lives in every coastal state between North Carolina and Texas. Some species of mammals found throughout the Eastern U.S. includes the red fox and gray fox, the North American beaver, North American porcupine, Virginia opossum, eastern mole, coyote, white-tailed deer, American mink, North American river otter, and long-tailed weasel. The American black bear lives throughout most of New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the Virginias, and parts of the Carolinas and Florida. Whales and sharks were in the waters of America too. Famous birds in Hawaii are ʻiʻiwi, nukupuʻu, Kauaʻi ʻamakihi and ʻōʻū. Most of these birds are extinct. The hoary bat is found in the Kōkeʻe State Park on Kauaʻi, feral horses live in the Waipio Valley, feral cattle by the Mauna Kea, and the Australian brush-tailed rock-wallaby live by the Kalihi Valley on Oʻahu. The Hawaiian monk seal, feral goats, feral sheep, and feral pigs live throughout most of the archipelago. In Hawaii, three species of sea turtles are considered native: honu, honu'ea and the leatherback sea turtle. Two other species, the loggerhead sea turtle and the olive ridley sea turtle, are sometimes observed in Hawaiian waters. Fauna lives in all American territories too.
The native flora of the United States includes about 17,000 species of vascular plants, plus tens of thousands of additional species of other plants and plant-like organisms such as algae, lichens and other fungi, and mosses. About 3,800 additional non-native species of vascular plants are recorded as established outside of cultivation in the U.S., as well as a much smaller number of non-native non-vascular plants and plant relatives. The United States possesses one of the most diverse temperate floras in the world, comparable only to that of China. Several biogeographic factors contribute to the richness and diversity of the U.S. flora. While most of the United States has a temperate climate, Alaska has vast arctic areas, the southern part of Florida is tropical, as well as Hawaii (including high mountains), and the U.S. territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and alpine summits are present on many western mountains, as well as a few in the Northeast. The U.S. coastline borders three oceans: The Atlantic (and Gulf of Mexico), the Arctic, and the Pacific. Finally, the U.S. shares long borders with Canada and Mexico, and is relatively close to the Bahamas, Cuba and other Caribbean islands, and easternmost Asia. There are also rainforests as well as some of the driest deserts in the world. The native flora of the United States has provided the world with a large number of horticultural and agricultural plants, mostly ornamentals, such as flowering dogwood, redbud, mountain laurel, bald cypress, southern magnolia, and black locust, all now cultivated in temperate regions worldwide, but also various food plants such as blueberries, black raspberries, cranberries, maple syrup and sugar, and pecans, and Monterey pine and other timber trees. Some of the native U.S. plants, such as Franklinia alatamaha, have demonstrably become extinct or extinct in the wild; others, such as Micranthemum micranthemoides, have not been seen in decades, but may still be extant. Thousands of other native U.S. vascular plants are considered rare, threatened, or endangered, either globally (rangewide) or within particular states.
Since 2025, the Trump administration has increased its backlash against progressive progress in American society. As early as January 2025, Trump issued executive orders to override the asylum laws, lay the groundwork for mass deportations, and challenge birthright citizenship. By June 2025, the Trump administration announced the restoration of Confederate names to all nine U.S. military bases. This is bizarre and racist as the Confederacy was acting in rebellion against America in order to maintain slavery permanently in America. Naming military bases after Confederate traitors is just plain wrong. By February 2026, there was a rule that reclassified thousands of civil servants to at will employment, which purged large portions of the federal workforce. By Spring of 2026, there has been aggressive rollbacks with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) forcing deep cuts across the National Park Service and public lands agencies. The Trump administration has systematically rescinded federal guidance regarding race and disability based discrimination. Executive orders have been executed by Trump to eradicate DEI programs across federal agencies and government contractors, including limiting diversity initiatives in universities and workplaces. The Trump administration is the most anti-environmental administration in American history by ending legitimate environmental regulations, roll back EPA or Environmental Protection Agency pollution standards, and withdrawing from international climate pacts. MAGA members heavily embrace the sexist manosphere movement (it is a type of movement that promotes the lie that women and/or feminism is to be blamed for all of the problems that men go through), promote the racist "black fatigue" concept (in denying white racism), and some accept xenophobia too. These bigots show hatred of minorities by bashing DEI and bashing woke when the Golden Rule teaches all of us to treat each human being with dignity and respect irrespective of one's background or identity.
Trump has a retribution agenda that has tried to ruin the lives of many of his public critics. Trump has pledged to seek revenge against people who disagree with him. For example, he failed to allow the DOJ to convict Letitia James. Now, the DOJ has indicted James Comey over the allegation that he threatened the life of Trump. Comey has explicitly denied this allegation. Trump wanted Jimmy Kimmel fired, but Jimmy Kimmel is still on the air as he has First Amendment rights. Trump wants prosecutors, federal agenda, and civil servants fired, suspended, or investigated for being perceived as disloyal or opposing his policies. This is fascism as people have the right to their own independent thinking plus dissent, regardless of who is in office. This retribution agenda has expanded since 2025 to extend to the government indicting the Southern Poverty Law Center (over the allegation of wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering), the Minnesota Church protest, the investigation of Minnesota Democrats, the investigation of Jerome Powell of the FED until it was dropped by Jeanine Pirro, the harassment of Mark Kelly, Ras Baraka being arrested plus the charges being dropped, and Trump harassing Adam Schiff.
Today, thousands of people went to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for a America- theme prayer rally on May 17, 2026. This rally wants a rededication of America as One Nation Under God. The channel of TBN has hosted the rally too as part of the Rededicate 250 movement. We live in the 250th anniversary of the start of the United States of America. The rally celebrated Christianity's ties to American history. It was filled with a mixture of prayer and rhetoric endorsing the old heresy of Christian nationalism (or the belief that a far right Christian theocratic system must overtake American society in order for it to be blessed by God). Now, there is nothing wrong with prayer, there is absolutely nothing wrong with worshiping God in public and in private, there is nothing wrong with anyone believing that that Lord Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior who came into the flesh, and there is nothing wrong with religious freedom in American society. Yet, there are issues with this rally. One issue is that they distort American history. Many Framers were hostile to religion like Thomas Paine, and historians document how the separation of church and state is a paramount part of our culture. Separation of church and state means that the matters of the state is separate from the matters of the church. This doesn't mean that the church is banned or the church can't be involved in public rallies. It does means that the government shouldn't be ruled by one specific church (or any religion) or force people against their will to be follow the dictates of one specific church (or any religion). The government can't dictate to the church on religious affairs, and the church can't dictate to the government on political affairs. We have the freedom of conscience to believe in religion or not. I believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but I won't use my religious beliefs as an excuse to oppress other human beings who don't share my religious or political views.
Another issue with the rally is that it is a pro-Trump rally under the guise of "spirituality." We know full well that Trump is the opposite of morality by mocking disabled people, mocking soldiers, saying racist comments about Somalis, he has been accused by at least one woman of sexual assault, he said perverted comments about his own daughter, he is a habitual liar, and admitting that he doesn't ask God for forgiveness for anything whatsoever. The rally omits the massive attacks on fair black political representation in states like Alabama, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, etc. Many MAGA supporters promoted a statue of him in an idolatrous way. The rally refuses to expose the unjust Iranian war and other corrupt policies from the Trump administration as that rally is all about political expediency not true repentance. Recently, MAGA cult follower and Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said that he wants the Supreme Court to ban all of the 14th Amendment which is wicked plus evil. The Trump movement is rolling back the gains of Reconstruction, gutting voting rights, erasing black history (even in museums), ending civil rights protections, purging black people from positions of power unjustly, and harming our economic rights. Trump has cut legitimate environmental regulations, cut the USAID (when the group has saved lives overseas), and constantly uses ad hominem attacks agianst those who disagree with him. Such actions are the opposite of what Jesus Christ taught and did. This is in 2026, and that rally in Washington, D.C. ignores that reality, because these facts go against the false narrative that you can't dissent with Trump on any issue. So, we should pray and worship God in public and in private. We should believe in religious freedom, and we should stand up for righteousness and justice. Likewise, we can't make Trump into an infallible person who must be followed unconditionally. Only God is infallible.
The decade of the 2020s has been an explosive decade filled with progressive progress and a reactionary backlash even more potent than the Reaganism movement. It has been a decade of massive social change and pandemics. During the early part of the decade, COVID-19 was a dangerous pandemic that caused over 1 million Americans to die and more millions to die worldwide. It caused businesses to close, millions of people to take vaccines, and debates over personal distancing and individual rights. It was the worst health emergency in over a century. It was an international public health emergency until 2023. We know about the January 6 United States Capitol attack that caused damage to the United States Capitol and the near destruction of our democracy when MAGA terrorists assaulted police officers, destroyed property, and waved Confederate plus Neo-Nazi flags. We saw the rise of the AI boom into the next level with ChatGPT, Grok, and other inventions. We saw Russia illegally invade Ukaine in 2022. We witness the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas that resulted in Israel invading the Gaza Strip. War spread all over the Middle East. The destruction of Gaza against Palestinian people and the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians both were evil and overt war crimes. We saw the fall of the regime of Assad by December 2024. Trump being in office for a 2nd time, and the July Revolution of Banglasdesh existed. In the 2020s, there was the historic Artemis II flyby of the Moon. That was the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since 1972. It was launched in 2026 with the crew breaking the record for the furthest humans have been from Earth. In 2026, there have been far right governments stripping black political representation via gerrymandering schemes (which has been protested in Selma and Birmingham, Alabama). Culturally, the 2020s saw cryptocurrency, the growth of GLP-1 drugs, electric implants to cause people to walk, the increase of the sales of electric vehicles, and the rights of populist, anti-establishment movements (in the left and the right). Teleconferencing, online learning, e-commerce, and food delivery services are widespread now, especially after the pandemic. The 2020s saw new video games, the rise of Generation Z in pop culture, and the further usage of streaming services to promote television shows, sporting events, and films. Music has been promoted by Tik Tok and other streaming platforms from Amazon Music to Apple Music. Many artists like Beyonce, Billie Ellish, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Sabrina Carpenter, H.E.R, Coco Jones, and other people have presented their music to the globe. By the 2020s, country music has increased popularity among younger people. So, the 2020s have been at the center of the crossroads of world history, and we shall see what the 2030s will entail soon.
By Timothy
No comments:
Post a Comment