Yes, Dear Readers, Yours Truly must opine on the political situation for the nonce. Fret not as there is an Orthodox angle to all of this which you will see shortly.
Let’s talk about the recent attempt at political suicide which is being perpetrated by that death cult formerly known as the Democrat Party.
Personally, I see the fingerprints of Madame Clinton all over this one. And from her standpoint, it’s not a bad idea, almost a twofer: try to wound the President but definitely take out Joe Biden, around whom this Ukrainian imbroglio swirls. Technically it’s his son Hunter but nobody would have given this drug addict who was dishonorably discharged from the Navy the time of day had his name been Hunter Jones.
You see, Mdme Clinton is on another “listening tour” and that can mean only one thing: that she is getting ready to throw her hat into the ring because none of the candidates which make up the Insane Clown Posse has any chance of beating The Golden Don. It doesn’t matter that Joe Biden is the frontrunner, he’s expendable. His obvious physiological and mental defects have the saner Democrats in the hierarchy sweating; better to get rid of him sooner rather than later.
That’s not the big problem, though. Nancy Pelosi’s stupid blunder of somewhat, quasi-opening up, something-or-other about impeachment is. On a scale of one to 10, with one being sane and 10 being a clown running down the street naked with his hair on fire screaming at the top of his lungs “I’m crazy!” this registers as an eleven. Going against her better political instincts, she threw in the towel and let the inmates in the asylum have their way. Look, she’s 75 years old and uses too much Botox and is known for liking her liquor. There’s only so much even a skilled political operator like her can take. Might as well let the children have their way. Then when they get their fingers burned, they’ll come back to her chastened.
Anyway, they’ve stepped from the fying pan into the fire. Let’s count a few of the ways:
First the transcript. Under Article II of the Constitution, the President is the only magistrate who has the right to conduct foreign policy. Such a thing cannot be done if he is either being sabotaged while doing so or if the minutiae of his conversations are subject to oversight by others. It’s not only in the plain text of the Constitution, it’s prudential. No future foreign leader will ever feel safe talking to the President of the United States if he feels that his conversations will be subjected to impoundment by any Tom, Dick or Harry who has a wild hair up his ass.
As such, Trump should not release the transcript or any audio recording of it. It’s a matter of principle. It’s also common sense. If he opens himself up to this, he will imperil all future Presidents (some of whom may be Democrats) from being able to exercise the prerogatives of their office. At any rate, he did it this morning. While this violates the principle, it is a brilliant political move as the Democrats have stupidly opened the barn door for impeachment. When it became obvious that the gist of the conversation was mere conversational pleasantries, then the drive for impeachment will collapse like a soufflé in due time –no matter how much caterwauling the Left engages in.
Look at it from Trump’s standpoint. Since the Democrat Party is in the process of destroying itself, then principles be damned. In the end, when the cooler heads on the Left prevail and the Jacobins have been slaughtered, then those who are sane will go back to honoring the customary prerogatives of the Presidency. There is much wisdom in clichés like “once burnt, twice shy”.
Second, it will complicate American-Ukrainian relations further. The $400 million that the Congress authorized to Ukraine is now on terminal hold. Fifty million of that money was for lethal aid to the Ukrainian army in their war against the Donbass separatists. (I imagine that Vladimir Putin is smiling like a Cheshire cat right about now. Hmmm, kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?) This not only infuriates the Establishment whose constant desire is to provoke the Russians but forces President Zelinsky of Ukraine to continue his tepid overtures to Russia itself. Simply put, the American cavalry is not coming over the hill anytime soon to rescue the noble Ukrainians from the evil Russians. It’s better to make a virtue out of necessity and anyway, the Russians have a lot to offer in the matter of transit fees for liquified natural gas which traverses the Ukrainian landscape.
Third, the intricacies of American dealings within Ukraine will now come spilling out. We are talking about Hunter Biden of course but he is simply the tip of the iceberg. As mentioned, his dad was always expendable. Once the Biden rock is overturned, you will see a lot of cockroaches scurry. We will hear more about corrupt Ukrainian oligarchs, their various holdings (like Burisma) and the American agents who made this all happen.
This will include the offices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. How did the Americans gain a foothold into Ukraine? The Maidan coup of 2014 was but the opening gambit to try and pry that country from Russia’s orbit. How to solidify Ukraine’s permanent cleavage from Russia? One way, of course, would be to cause a religious schism between the autonomous canonical Ukrainian Church and the Moscow Patriarchate. Enter Fr Alex Karloutsos, the Chaplain of the Deep State.
The State Department chose to believe the press-clippings of the Phanar. And so they encouraged the Ecumenical Patriarchate to rescind the 17th century Tomos of transfer to Moscow and authorize a new Tomos of Autocephaly. All of this was not only uncanonical and irregular but illegal. As such, this has blown up in State’s (and the Phanar’s faces) but they couldn’t foresee every possibility. Foolishly, somebody told them that the Ecumenical Patriarch was some kind of Eastern Pope and that he could make things happen lickety-split. Well, they were wrong.
Surely there are other aspects to this story that I’ve overlooked. The moral however is that the cat is completely out of the bag and that things are going to get really ugly, really fast. Not only is there the real possibility that more sordid details will come spilling out. And dots will be connected.
As for the Democrats, the damage to their party and their electoral prospects will be incalculable. Instead of waiting for the release of the transcript, they had already declared impeachment to be a done deal. Like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, it is “verdict first, trial later”. Not only do they not have the goods on President Trump, but they risk dividing this terribly divided nation even further. This will solidify the Republican base in Trump’s favor but will anger the Independents who want no part of impeachment.
Of course, it gets worse. Any chance of the House Democrats actually accomplishing anything of note has been obliterated. (Personally, that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.) What can the average House Democrat promise his constituents at this point? Gun control? Over. Fifteen dollar minimum wage? Kaput. Bridge to Nowhere in Madison, Wisconsin? Not gonna happen. In their blinding hatred for all things Trump, they forgot the first rule of electoral politics and that is, bring home the bacon. They’ve also forgotten the second rule of politics: to do this, you have to make deals and if the President is from the other party, you’ve got to suck it up and get whatever you can. Thanks to the 25th Amendment if you don’t like him, you don’t have to worry because he’ll be gone in due time.
Since the Democrats have hamstrung themselves from any chance at deal-making with the President, Trump can now govern by executive fiat. He can do things like allocate more money to his wall and whatever else his heart desires.
And the Republicans have his back. In fact, the Republicans up and down the board are enraged. The Democrats have finally ripped off the mask of Civics 101. What was once suspected has now been openly screamed from the rooftops. Bozo O’Rourke has even promised that they would come after everybody’s guns. You can’t get much more honest than that. We are getting ready to enter in prolonged period of political trench warfare. When the bullets run out then the rifles will be used as cudgels. And it will be brutal.
The great bulk of the Democrats in the House are now dead to him and the GOP. There is no negotiation; this is a fight to the political death. But this is where it gets really delicious: some thirty Democrats come from swing districts and as such are not on board with impeachment. As such, they are legislatively poachable. As long as twenty or so of them want no part of Pelosi’s blunder, they deprive the House as a whole the ability to impeach the President.
And this is the most important point of all: the Democrats only get one shot at this. If they can’t make it stick, then they lose not only the Presidency but their majority in the House itself come 2020. Worse, if they don’t deliver the goods then they will be punished electorally by their base which is even more insane than they are.
Soon, I’m going to offer my suspicions as to why Mdme Speaker decided to throw in her lot with the Insane Clown Posse. In the meantime, buckle up. It’s going to be a wild and woolly year.
Well, George, Hillary risks nothing. If this country should ever collapse, she has enough dough to settle anywhere. Even my leftist brother agrees with me on this.
For this simple layman, what are the implications for the Ecumenical Patriarchate and GOARCH?
Menas, it all depends on how deep the House impeachment hearings (if any), the FBI and the DOJ are willing to go. Basically, we’re talking about collateral damage.
I’m speaking generally here, not just about the GOA. Some people who are innocent bystanders will be taken out, others who are guilty as sin will skate, others will suffer the full consequences of their actions, yet others will seek immunity and sing.
As a rule, religious organizations are exempt from prosecution but that doesn’t mean that individual people within said religious organization won’t be outed as a conspirator in the whole Ukraine/Russian Collusion hoax.
Menas, here’s an example of collateral damage: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/mitt_romney_adviser-sits_on_burisma_board_of_directors.html
The title sez it all. Basically, one of Mitt Romney’s foreign policy advisors from his 2012 campaign is on the board of directors of Burisma, the company that Hunter Biden sat on.
So here, all along I thought that Romney was just another cuckservative. Nosirree Bob! Forget all the principles he and other cucks espouse. They’re just another subspecies of Swamp Creatures, in it for the money.
Forgive me Mitt for thinking you were just another cuck. Shame on me.
A sad realty here in Utah, is the robotic voting, with the exception of some SLC districts. First, if the candidate is Mormon, and second a Republican, they don’t need to know anything else. I voted for the Democrat, running against Romney, without knowing much about Romney’s opponent, I don’t even remember his name. What I knew of Romney was enough to vote for a Democrat. Romney’s victory party was so lifeless, as the outcome was known much ahead of the election, given the demographics, and mentality of Utah.
Trump is fighting an up hill battle never before witnessed in history. I don’t know how he keeps his cool with 24/7 assaults on him and his family. He has against him not only Democrats, and the MSM, but also many phony Republicans who play along for the ride, The Deep State, and The Swamp, and all of the above who have their dirty fingers in the Military-Industrial Complex. Say what you want about Trump, but he does not want war, just for the sake of feeding the swamp.
Now George you know how much I hate Joseph Stalin, but as we witness leftist fascist, left/right corrupt swamp/deep state, etc. who are fed and feed the Military-Industrial complex try and destroy Trump, our vote, willing to weaken our nation to the highest bidder, and feed the war pigs. I get Stalin’s mind set.
Stalin was paranoid, and for good reason, he knew the dark heart of most power hungry and greedy government officials, because Stalin was the darkest of souls, so he trusted no one, not even family members. Look at the parallels between Stalin and Trump, while Trump cannot murder whom ever he wants, he can fire them, and fire them he does, and while he trusts his family, he would better off not trusting their judgment in political affairs.
It will take one full term for President Trump to fully navigate the storm he created entering the swamp, his second term will prove better than his first. He now fully understands the are very few he can trust, and must rely on his instincts. After all he does not have the evil luxuries that Stalin had. The 2020 election is now even more important than the 2016. Then again we may just delaying the inevitable coming Californification of the our nation.
I agree with you Dino. The analogy to Stalin (and I hate him as well) is interesting.
My take is not much different about the RINOs, cucks, Deep Staters and Democrat Party in general. They’re all part of the Swamp and as such, they’re lashing out like a wounded animal who is stuck in a corner and has nothing left to lose.
That explains their extreme paranoia and hatred. Worse, they are delusional if they think things will ever go back to the old days of GOP office-holders acting as country-clubbers. It’s not that they only hate Trump, they actually hate America, or that large slice of the American electorate that elected Trump. Us Deplorables and Irredeemables. If they have to, they’ll not only get rid of the Electoral College but secret balloting. They are that desperate to make sure that there never again will be another populist as president.
We are seeing the same thing by the way in the UK, where the oligarchy is doing whatever it can to keep that country in the EU. Even if it leads to civil war, it will be worth it to them.
In the Ancien Regimee of pre-Revolutionary France, only Louis XV recognized what lay ahead: “apres moi, le deluge“. The forces of the deluge were locked in place when the aristocracy could not reform itself. So Louis did what he did best, enjoy his mistresses because at least he might as well have a good time since nobody else gave a damn.
That’s why Trump is going to win a second term: because he’s the only thing standing in the way of the Deep State/oligarchy and the rest of us. Hell, that irredeemably stupid Beto O’Rourke screamed from the rooftops what their agenda is.
The mask, in other words, is off.
The paranoia Stalin created in The Soviet Union was born from his own, he knew he would literally be torn to shreds if he let his guard down. Trump has also created paranoia in our Capital, but unlike Stalin he is not paranoid at all, if fact the coolest cat I’ve ever seen, and that is his greatest strength. Stalin had literally everything to lose. No matter how Trump leaves office, he leaves better off, after all, he was already a billionaire and will go back to living like a king, and even safer than before, as now he will also have Secret Service protection for life, including his family.
The same cannot be said of the swamp creatures holding office. The power they hold means everything to them and they will destroy anyone/anything that threatens the only power they have. The likes of Pelosi, Schiff, Nadler, and Feinstein would make great cabinet members for Stalin, except they are not loyal nationalist, but globalist. With them number one, always comes first. These Democrats have not only shown their true colors in word, but also in deed with kangaroo hearings, false accusations, doxing, and even hidden accusers with second and third hand information/gossip. The PC police public social media court marshals that only seems to apply to the right, and the left ignored. All this would make Stalin proud, hell Stalin would not even have to threaten or pay the media. The MSM is more than willing to oblige the fascists.
Again we are only a generation, for sure two when all this will be the way it is, with hardly any blowback. Memories of how things used to be, will be transformed, and forgotten to serve the oligarchy, the Constitution declared evil, written by racist white men. Our schools have already brainwashed our youth, and wide open borders will dilute our votes towards socialism, tyranny, and fascism. Then again our Lord, in His Mercy, and/or Second Coming may spare our children from all that.
Need some dark comic relief, and a look into the minds of pressure cooker Communist paranoia. Watch the movie, The Death of Stalin. Very crude humor and language, but worth a look.(Coen brothers type of humor/movie) My 19 year old son recommended we watch it. It turned into a great history lesson, and later a great discussion in the current political state we find ourselves in, and direction we are heading. I loved the portrayal of General Zhukov in the movie. that dude was so bad ass, Stalin respected him so much, that he never killed him.
Dino, very much agreed with your historical assessment. My only hope is that as Hannah Arendt said about the Third Reich, there was a “banality [in its] evil”. We’re already starting to see the left eat its own, almost on a daily basis. So, I’m not quite ready to take the Black Pill yet but it’s in my medicine cabinet just in case.
I’ll check out the movie recommendation.
Did…..did you write this yesterday and set it to publish today, because this post came pre aged like potato salad in the sun just from the events of the past several hours.
Your persistent endearingly stupid conviction that Hilary is going to run in 2020 remains a living monument to why nobody should take your ramblings about politics seriously. Doubly so on Democratic Party internals.
Also, there is no question this scandal will complicate US/Ukrainian relations, but the aid was released. If the admin had tried to hold it past the end of the fiscal year next week, there would have been hell to pay.
Your article is spot on. If anyone is watching the regular news coverage of this or reading the NYCrimes or one the many other liberal newspapers, you will notice that none of these esteemed journalists are probing too deeply into how a man with absolutely no oil and gas experience was getting paid $50k per month to sit on the board of a Ukrainian company. Wow, not only did the guy go to law school but he learned Ukrainian too? Who knew? When was the last time any one of us were offered such a position? The whole think stinks. Yes, Trump’s rhetoric wasn’t the best on the call but he made his points. this whole deal with Biden’s son was a sham.
Thanks George for the commentary. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Thank you, Nick. I for one would absolutely LOVE for some Ukrainian oligarch to offer me just $10,000 a month for doing nothing. You know, I despise Michael Moore more than words can say but he came up with a quip several years ago. Allow me to paraphrase: “Hunter Biden is a member of the Lucky Sperm Club”.
I thought the whole reason of not having a hereditary monarchy and aristocracy was to go to a pure meritocracy. I guess the jokes on us.
George,
I had a Polish American doctor who used to comment on Hollywood people being experts on politics. ” Just because they won the talent and good looks sweepstakes doesn’t automatically make them experts on everything,” he would say.
BTW, did you notice President Trump wince when President Zelensky suggested that we help Ukraine get Crimea back? Didn’t Eisenhower warn us about the Industrial Military complex back in ’61?
Yes he did. What we are witnessing is nothing less than the MIC lashing out in its death-throes.
Not likely. I work in the MIC and you criticize what you do not know.
dan, all I know is what I read in the papers (as another Sooner, Will Rogers said).
What I do see is an insane attempt by our Establishment to always poke the Russian bear because of “muh democracy”. Someone seriously needs to get the word out to them that we won the Cold War and that Russia is a mixed market economy, like us.
Someone also needs to tell the MIC that Russia has 1/2 the population of the US. How they are going to conquer us (and for what reason, to make us become Orthodox?) is beyond me.
Even neocons like Pompeo and the new NSA know that our biggest threat is China; that’s why even commielibs like Schumer are backing POTUS regarding his trade war with China. (Thinking aloud here: I wouldn’t mind if we sold California to the Chinese for a cool $50 billion while we purchase Greenland. Let them deal with the feces and needles on the streets.)
“all I know is what I read in the papers ”
so you know nothing
Mr Perkins, I set myself up for that one. When good ole Will said that some 90 years ago, the newspapers back then had some credibility. That of course has gone flying out the window faster than Superman.
In other words, it was a rhetorical device.
For the record, I don’t believe anything printed in the newspapers or broadcast in the media. Did you see how fast the Corporate Media had to walk back that story about the acting DNI threatening to quit if he wasn’t allowed to speak before the Congress yesterday? Yeah, wasn’t true. Basically we’re dealing with disinformation campaigns.
If Shemp smith on FOX or The New York Times says that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, I’d bet the farm that it’ll rise in the west –if at all.
George, if China purchased California I am sure that the visible homeless problem would be solved rather quickly, they would just deport them to the surrounding states by dumping them across either the Arizona or Nevada border. Probably not you best idea. The Chinese are probably smarter than to take over California unless we pay them a very large annual fee to do so.
I forgot to mention that we should build a large wall around the once glorious Golden State. It could be like America’s Gaza Strip.
And here is another interesting article from 2016.
https://katehon.com/article/who-are-you-fr-alex
the partial transcript visualized
https://twitter.com/LarryNoble_DC/status/1176980507667652608
According to the constitution, the President is, unto himself, the Executive Branch.
“The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
No mention of alphabet soup agencies here.
As the chief of all law enforcement activities, he can ask anyone anything regarding crimes. There is no way talking to the Ukrainian president about the illegal activities of Biden’s son can be construed as itself a crime.
This, of course, is completely wrong. The President is not above the law, and abusing his office for personal gain, is, indeed against the law. Which is what has happened. Whether Biden’s son committed any crimes is irrelevant.
Nobody said that POTUS was “above the law”. I for one never said any such thing anytime. The fact that you assert this means that you’re either delusional or off your meds.
But, I’ll go ahead and bite: what law exactly did President Trump violate? I’ll make it easy for you: did you know that the US and Ukraine have a legally-binding treaty to assist each other in criminal matters?
It’s called “The Treaty with Ukraine on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters”. It became law on Sept 30, 1999, when Bill Clinton was President and Joe Biden was in the Senate.
Try a little bit harder.
Two key areas:
Abuse of office for personal gain. Asking a foreign government to investigate the child of a political rival/and or that rival. This is not something that can be defended as ‘but there is a treaty’, because it is a narrow ask that is devoted to his interests, not that of the country.
Inviting foreign interference in a US election
There is really a 3, which is in the process of 1 and 2, by doing things like withholding aid, and forcing preconditions on interactions based on his desired personal ‘favors’, he directly damaged the foreign relationships of the United States out of his own personal corrupt actions.
If you don’t think POTUS is not subject to the laws his violated in 1 or 2, then you in effect believe he is ‘above the law’.
No personal gain. Did you not read the transcript or are you merely daft? As POTUS, he has the right to find criminals in other countries. Anything less would be a dereliction of duty.
Indeed, he could ask for way more and still not be breaking any laws.
But, since we’re on this tangent: what do you think should be done to Obama about the Steele Dossier? Wasn’t that interfering in the presidential election of 2016? Why, yes, yes it was!
George, the GCU poster is an obvious troll. Nobody could be as stupid as he portrays himself in his ignorant posts; but they may not be ignorant, he may be just trying to inject problems in the series of posts from thinking people on your site. Keep up the good work.
Jacksson, don’t be so sure. Yesterday I saw Adam Schitt preside over his Intel Comm. He made a complete fool of himself.
Here’s where you’re wrong: people can be that stupid. That’s what happens to delusional people who don’t know how to think.
I heard a great quip yesterday: do you know what President Trump’s super-power is? To make his enemies into blithering idiots who constantly make fools of themselves.
First of all, this is a canard because Zelensky brought up Biden, not Trump.
Has this country become so lawless that the president has to prove that enforcing the law does not benefit him before doing so?
And how does it benefit him anyway? Biden isn’t going to be the nominee; he is obviously demented and everyone knows it.
Let’s have a lesson here. Technically the President is above the law. The US presidency is modeled heavily on the British Monarchy and Common Law. As all executive (law enforcement) authority flows from the presidential office, it is impossible for its occupant to charge himself with a crime.
Literally the only difference between the US Presidency and the British Monarchy is that the authority flows from the office of the president, rather than the person of the monarch.
That is why the president must cease to hold his office (be impeached or leave office) in order to be prosecuted for a crime—in that case, by the presidency of his successor. The sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, because he cannot charge himself.
AS, thanks for this succinct excursus. It makes absolute sense.
Indeed.
To your point: it’s little remembered that during the impeachment trial of Vice President Aaron Burr, President Jefferson pretty much directed told the Chief Justice (who was his cousin), essentially directing the trial.
He could do that because under Article II, the POTUS is the Executive Branch as you say. In this scenario, Jefferson was acting as his own Attorney General and Solicitor General, doing everything within prosecutorial reason to get the desired outcome.
Little remembered because there was no such thing as an impeachment trial of Burr.
You are referring to the 1807 trial in which Burr, who was ex-Vice President at the time, was acquitted of treason charges.
Jefferson drove the trial, but he did not direct Marshall, who was a political foe of Jefferson despite being his distant cousin.
Marshall more or less told Jefferson to pound sand.
Your factual errors aside, it’s rather extraordinary that you are touting the abuses of Jefferson, which helped define what was considered inappropriate for the President to do, as defense of Trump’s abuse of power and violation of the law.
OK, I’ll give you that one about Burr. Whether Marshall told Jefferson to “pound sand” is immaterial to the point. Jefferson did act as his own prosecutor in the trial of Burr. That much is factual. And it proves the point.
GCU needs to pound sand.
Indeed.
Nate, why don’t you take some time off? Go to the beach or the golf course, play with your kiddies, kiss your wife, have a good time.
Ciao!
The whole Presidency gives a new meaning to the phase: Trumped up charges. Here is hoping that he Trump’s their play.
My prediction why there won’t be an impeachment: because the last thing the Democrats and the Deep State want is for it to go to trial in the Senate. There the defendant (the President) can summon all manner of witnesses, up to and including the former President and his minions. Trump and the people behind him have already gamed this thing out to the nth iteration.
A trial would be most cathartic to the body politic.
“: because the last thing the Democrats and the Deep State want is for it to go to trial in the Senate.”
George, how do you know what the Deep State wants?
Easy. It’s clear that they’ve done everything within their power to foil President Trump in almost everything he’s accomplished. The drive for impeachment is already blowing up in their faces. So far, the GOP has raised $25,000,000 in less than 3 days, ever since Pelosi’s speech in which she didn’t open the floor for impeachment.
Joe Biden is already collateral damage and Pocahontas said she wouldn’t mind if her VP’s son is on the board of directors of some foreign corporation. On tape. If I am right and this is partially an effort to take out Biden, then the race is Warren’s to lose and Trump will play Warren’s own words in a continuous loop from now till Election Day.
It’s already obvious that this is not playing to the Dems’ expectations. So I’m going to go out on a limb and state right out that Trump has set up an A-Team to fight to the death against impeachment and –should it go to trial in the Senate–you will see closet doors opening that you’ve never dreamed of and skeletons rolling out like there was no tomorrow.
As that great political scientist Al Jolson said: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
Trump came in as a disrupting agent he will leave as a transformative agent. Nothing will remain the same.
(Thanks for the softball).
A kingdom divided against itself are the Words of the Christ describing Satan’s kingdom. How then shall it stand? the Christ pointed out to the hapless fall angel. 10 kings he has, the 5 fallen before the Birth of thathe Messiah. Taoism, Buddhism,Confucianism,Lao Tse, Judaism. Each was given aspects of TRUTH, but not the fullness.The king that is, is authente One United Christian Church, all professing Christians. It never falls totally because where 3 or more are gathered together in MY Name so shall Jesus Christ be also. The great horn is brocken into 4 parts, Orthodoxy, Cathosim, Protestism, and the New age movement. the 10 king is demonicly inspired Islam. Christianity’s greatest scandal is it’s denominational divisions.
We now are in dire straits with no remedey. The powerful governments are all engaded intensely in weather control. They are like Micky Mouse in the Disney Cartoon movie Fantasia. They have grabed the wizard’s broom. The brooms ran amuck out of control, beyond Micky Mouse’s ability to fix what the brooms were doing. The wizard finally regains control as the Holy City Jerusalem decends from Heaven.We have little time left before the grear suffering the Messiah described arrives. He who endurs to the end, will be saved. Save what you can of Orthodoxy, it is still most in accord with authentic Apostolic teachings.
Hi, Michael! That’s what we are doing: Trying to preserve Orthodoxy.
Michael K. The Kingdom of God is not divided. He is with us even unto the end of the (world, age, time) Mt 28:20 Monk James translation help please
There is a reason why every angelic appearance recorded in the New Testament begins with the words: “Fear not”.
“Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 and many such references throughout the Old Testament.
He is with us always, more apparently so if we guard our heart and practice the discipline of thanksgiving and stillness. His joy is like an artesian well, gushing forth from within.
“Repent, for the Kingdom Heaven is at hand.” Mt 4:17
Hear the gospel and be at peace.
I’m grateful to Michael Bauman for asking my linguistic help.
The word we find here in the gospels is aiOn, literally ‘age’ in the sense of a very long period of time.
In Hebrew, both in the scriptures and in the prayer books, we find the expression le ‘olam ve ‘olam, literally saying ‘unto ages and ages’, but meaning ‘forever and ever’. It would impoverish our use of English to translate it just so.
At the same time, Jewish prayers almost always begin with a benediction: barukh atah adonay elohenu melek ha ‘olam (‘blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe’.
It’s clear, then, that beginning in Hebrew, the notion of ‘age’ and ‘universe, world’ are expressed by the same word.
When we conclude our prayers in Greek, we say kai eis tous aiOnas tOn aiOnOn (‘and unto ages of ages’). This is accurately reflected by the Church Slavonic i vo v&ki v&kov” and by English ‘and unto ages of ages’. This is appropriately retained in English as a nod in the direction of biblical diction.
Latin, on the other had expresses this as per omnia saecula saeculorum (through all the ages of ages) in a pretty close imitation of the Greek.
This is an interesting juncture, since so many of our words in English are derived from Latin. Consider the word ‘secular’, meaning ‘worldly
This Latin word well exemplifies the dual meaning of the earlier Hebrew and Greek words, showing us that what is of this age is worldly and temporary, not eternal, at the same time as we pray that eternal things transcend our limitations in time.
Altogether, ‘world, age, physical existence/creation’ are all workable translations
I hope that these few words of mine are of some little help.
Many
Monk James, I ask because to me there is some difference in the meaning of those words particularly world and the other two. It may not, in fact, make a material difference. What I take from the verse and always have is that He will be with us forever even beyond the existential world. I have know some however to not interpret it that way.
I take it from what you say that I am essentially correct?
Michael,
“What I take from the verse and always have is that He will be with us forever even beyond the existential world”
The interpretation be the renowned theologian Prof.P.Trempelas is something like:
” And lo, I, having received every authority, will be with you as your helper and supporter all the days, until this aeon is completely and finished.”
If it is terribly important to you, I may be able to look it up in St.Chrysostomos’ homilies.
Michael,corrections:
by the renowned theologian
.
until this aeon is completed
Ioannis, thank you. The interpretation of the verse is not a struggle for me, but I have known folks who interpret it strangely. They give meanings to the final word that none of the translations or the English words themselves actually support–especially those caught in the heresies of the New Age. Fundamentally those interpretations suggest that Jesus Christ is not eternal.
Michael Bauman (October 7, 2019 at 4:12 pm) says:
Monk James, I ask because to me there is some difference in the meaning of those words particularly world and the other two. It may not, in fact, make a material difference. What I take from the verse and always have is that He will be with us forever even beyond the existential world. I have know some however to not interpret it that way.
I take it from what you say that I am essentially correct?
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In my opinion, yes, you are essentially correct.
For this reason, ‘unto ages of ages’ cannot accurately be considered a synonym for ‘until the end of time’, because time will indeed end, while Christ will grant immortality to those He saves, and He will remain with us even then and forever.
And this is why English-language renderings occasionally encountered in Roman Catholic books do not so much translate _kai eis tous aiOnas tOn aiOnOn_ as paraphrase it with the words ‘world without end’.
The Christ named the Holy Spirit or described this divine member of the Holy Trinity the Comforter. I KNOW His Comfort. The Holy Spirit comes when the Trinity feels it is needed.
Michael K. Glory be to God for his grace, joy and comfort.