The Apostle Jude is a puzzling character: in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 he's called the "brother" of the Lord along with James, who later became the leader of the church in Jerusalem after the other James, the Apostle, was killed by Herod. But we find no more details about Jude other than the above verses in Matthew and Mark and in the lists of the twelve Apostles where sometimes he is called Thaddeus. In his epistle, he begins by saying he wanted to write encouraging words about the faith once for all transmitted to the saints. But then he changes course, deciding rather to write about those who were distorting our common faith:
"For there are certain people who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, perverting the grace of our God into unbridled lust, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe. Angels who didn't keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 1:3-7).
Jude is writing about ungodly people who've managed to sneak into the church, and begin distorting the liberty we have by the grace of God into perversion and unbridled lust. This isn't anything new: St. Paul also warned the leaders of the church in Ephesus – "I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20:29-30). This is precisely what's been sprouting up in various churches and denominations in the last few decades. Their leaders might have attended seminary and gotten ordained into the ministry, but they have never walked the narrow road of repentance and striving toward holiness. Instead, they dress up their perversion, lust, and unnatural desire with religious jargon and pious phrases such as "love is love," "choice," "freedom in Christ," "inclusion," and "non-discrimination." You have likely seen churches decorated with rainbow banners and ordained men and women wearing rainbow-colored sashes or robes.
Our freedom in Christ – "liberty" – can be distorted into libertinism and license to commit sexual immorality, homosexual acts, and abortion, justifying one's actions by citing new laws that permit such behavior. We need to keep in mind what the Apostle Paul wrote – "'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are profitable. 'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things build up" (1 Corinthians 10:23). Recent changes in the laws regarding sexual conduct, marriage and divorce have legalized behavior that was formerly illegal: now "all things are lawful" but they are not profitable or constructive; instead, they are unprofitable and destructive for both the individuals and for society. "Living together" outside of marriage (fornicating) often doesn't last, or leads to unfaithfulness if a couple eventually marries, and/or easy, no-fault divorce. The toll it takes on children is terrible: one only has to study the heartbreaking statistics.
What about Jezebel? We read in Revelation 2:20-23 – "But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works."
The author, the Apostle John, had first commended the church in Thyatira for its "love, faith, service, patient endurance, and good works" (v. 19), but all that does not excuse sexual immorality and adultery. In many liberal denominations, the pastors (often women) and people are engaged in social service and other good works, but also "tolerate Jezebel" – the notion that what really matters is the "social gospel" and one's private behavior is nobody else's business. "Social" morality cannot be separated from "personal" morality: it's not either-or, it's both-and.
Jeremiah 48:10 states – "Cursed be he who does the work of the Lord negligently; and cursed be he who keeps back his sword from blood." This verse is in the context of God's judgments on the pagan practices of the nations surrounding Israel, but also on Israel itself (v. 13). The kings and priests of Israel had let matters of morality slide, and so the people slid into the same sorts of pagan practices as the nearby nations: sexual immorality and child sacrifice (abortion: killing the unwanted products of immorality and incineratining the bodies of the babies) as an offering to Baal and Chemosh, the nearby pagan gods. And all the while, the religious leaders would negligently turn a blind eye. The same thing happens today when priests or pastors commit immoral acts: it's ignored or they're reassigned to another town, or they get just "a slap on the wrist" of two years' or just several months' leave of absence, then are moved in a different church where their behavior continues. No! They must be permanently removed from ministry!
"For what business is it of mine to judge people outside the church? Do you not judge those inside?" (2 Corinthians 5:12). "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who do not obey the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17). When interacting with those outside the church, we shouldn't harshly judge or condemn them: we can't expect pagans to act like Christians! Instead, we must gently speak the truth in the love of God to imperfect, hurting human beings – you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.
But we must be firm with those within the church, especially the ordained clergy, who continue to violate the historical standards of Christian morality: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them. For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. But all things, when they are exposed, are revealed by the light, for everything that is revealed is light" (Ephesians 5:11-13). And "For what if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, 'That you might be justified in your words, And might prevail when you come into judgment'" (Romans 3:3-4). Sweeping scandals under the rug causes offense to both Christians and non-Christians, but upholding the faithfulness of God builds up the Body of Christ, the Church!
"He gave some to be Apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers, to equip the saints to do the work of ministering to build up the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature, perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).
HEY, BUDDY: CAN YOU SPARE A CUP OF COFFEE FOR OUR MINISTRY?
If just 5% of the people who see this would give $5 per month (just 17¢ per day!) – the average cost of a coffee at Starbucks – we could cover our operating expenses and do much more in spreading the word, supporting orphans and widows, and providing accessible housing for the disabled. So please DONATE...thanks!
You really must read the article by the title in my headline! The author asked ChatGPT: "If you were the devil, how would you destroy America’s youth?" Its answers were unsettling and too familiar.
The article consists of these subheadings:
1. Erode Attention and Presence,
2. Confuse Identity and Purpose,
3. Flood Them with Information, Starve Them of Wisdom,
4. Replace Real Relationships with Simulacra,
5. Normalize Hedonism, Pathologize Discipline,
6. Undermine Trust Across Generations,
7. Make Everything a Marketplace, and
Conclusion: Learning from the Red Team.
It details so vividly the way in which our consciousness has been manipulated and altered over the past 3.5 decades, first with the advent of the World-Wide Web, then the mass introduction of smartphones about 20 years ago. Most "Gen Z" young people (not quite as many older people) have succumbed to "brain rot" – they experience "difficulty thinking or concentrating," their attention span is reduced to hardly more than 30 seconds (the time required to watch a Facebook short reel), they continually seek "external approval (likes, followers)," they "feel life is meaningless," and they've grown up without a "binding moral matrix" due to the deliberate absence of positive moral values portrayed in social media posts and short video reels.
One of the most telling paragraphs is as follows – "A child who constructs an adult identity while drawing from a stable and time-tested set of values, beliefs, and stories, given to her by trusted adults within a religious or philosophical tradition, will fare far better than a child who attempts to construct an adult identity by herself while drawing from a billion pieces of short and ephemeral content, produced mostly by young people and bots, which cannot be assembled into a coherent worldview."
ChatGPT ended with this summary: "In short: if I were the devil, I'd destroy the next generation not by terror or violence, but by distraction, disconnection, and slow erosion of meaning. They wouldn't even notice, because it would feel like freedom and entertainment."
How many times every day to you see how people, when standing in a line, sitting in a waiting room, or standing at a bus stop, pull out their phones and stick their noses onto it, ignoring everyone around them? For many folks, the last thing they do before going to sleep at night and the first thing they do as they wake up in the morning is – "gotta check my phone"? Instead of our phone being a useful tool or a servant, we have become its slaves. We have become addicted to our phones for those tiny jolts of dopamine stimuli.
What must be done? Put that phone in your pocket or purse! Don't keep it in your hand or on your desk or counter. Don't glance at it every 5 or 10 minutes "so you won't miss anything" – by constantly checking it, you're missing the most important things of life: spending time with real people. Don't look at it just before bedtime or until at least 10 minutes after you get out of bed! Give your body time to go through the natural rhythm of winding down and starting up. And schedule time every day to read at least several pages from a real, tangible, printed book; not on an e-book reader on your phone or tablet. Most important, spend some time talking with God and interacting face-to-face with real, living human beings, not with ChatGPT.
As I was pondering how to write about the current lack of initiative among many in the West, I came across this headline's article. What does "Agency" really mean? Here are a few excerpts from the article: "Agency is the ability to look at a situation and believe there’s something you can do about it. One of the things I’ve noticed about people with high agency is that they don’t necessarily have better circumstances. They simply see more possibilities within the circumstances they have."
"They don’t necessarily have more resources. They’re often just better at figuring out what to do with the resources in front of them. It’s the way they seemed to view obstacles. The obstacle wasn’t a stop sign. It was a problem to solve. And sometimes solving it meant doing something that wasn’t in the conventional playbook. That’s agency. Agency means thinking for yourself. You can’t give someone agency. You can show them possibilities, challenge their assumptions, help them see another door. They have to decide to walk through it."
For several decades now, young people have been trained to depend on the government and government-funded hospitals, clinics, schools, colleges and universities for things previous generations had to provide for themselves. When I was growing up in the 1950s, we had a large garden that I had to dig up with a shovel to prepare for planting, then pull the weeds, water the garden, and pick the crops, and mow lawns to pay my clothes and school fees: I had my own lawn care business. My Mom canned or froze enormous quantities of food to provide for her six children. She sewed pajamas for us, skirts and dresses for the girls, and shirts for the boys. If we had to go to the doctor or the dentist, we paid cash for it on the spot. We walked to school and back, made and brought our lunches – a sandwich and an apple – to school in a brown paper bag. If we decided to go to college or university, we worked our way through. I started a tailor-made clothing business, got married in a custom-made silk suit, and borrowed only a bare minimum for college so I could pay off the loans in just a few years after graduation.
(← click) In 1912, just before my parents were born, most local public school students were preparing to enter the work force – few continued through 12th grade and even fewer went on to higher education – so by age 13 or 14, they were well-educated to be responsible citizens fully capable of participating in society. I must confess that with my university degree in history, political science, world geography and foreign languages, even I can't answer many of the questions in this 8th grade exam.
But now, many children don't learn basic housekeeping, gardening or hands-on life skills. They can ride a bus for free to and from school, get free breakfasts and lunches in school, subsidized or free "healthcare" – contraceptives and abortions so they can freely "sleep around" with whomever they wish, go to higher education on loans of tens or even over a hundred thousand dollars, sliding through these institutions, many with only "fluff" degrees in subjects that won't provide a living wage. They're spoon-fed 20-second sound bites of pseudo-information on their smartphones to which they're addicted. If they're out of range of WiFi or a cell tower, they become entirely paralyzed, lost and helpless. In short, they haven't aquired agency to think and act on their own.
This dependency on the government was especially impressed on me during our 17 years of missionary service in Russia. People automatically expected some vague "they" to provide all sorts of things and services... for free. A curious feature of the Russian language is the unnamed "They" – one doesn't need to even use the word "They" to start a sentence, simply say: "Ought to give free medical care" or "Should care for the disabled" or "Must provide free education through college or university." The unnamed subject of these sentences was, of course, "The government." As missionaries, we as "rich Westerners" should give them free Bibles, theological training, and financial support for their pastors. So "The West" had replaced "The government" in their thinking. One Russian told me sadly, "We have unlearned how to work."
For several years after we returned from Russia, I volunteered as a job counsellor in low-income neighborhoods. This experience showed me how much unemployed people have "unlearned how to work." Several times, they told me: "All I need is to show the people at the unemployment office that I've applied for 3 jobs, so I can get my check." They have lost their "agency," their adult independence, and have become dependent on the government. That is the norm for many people today. How can this have happened in America?
For centuries after Christ was on earth, His followers practiced genuine Christian "charity" – agape-love. In the KJV version, 1 Cor. 13 uses the word "charity" for "agape" which means divine, selfless love for others. The Apostle Paul, on the way to Jerusalem to be arrested and sent prisoner to Rome, called the elders of the church at Ephesus together and told them – "I coveted no one's silver, or gold, or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Yesous, that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:33-35). Paul also wrote to the church in Thessalonica – "For even while we were with you, we gave you this command: If anyone is unwilling to work, he shall not eat" (2 Thess. 3:10).
In my article "SEEK THE WELFARE OF THE CITY" you can learn how the Early Church put these teachings into practice by building hospices for the poor and elderly, hospitals for the sick, and orphanages for the street kids. The Church, not the state, balanced Christians' personal charity with individual responsibility and "agency." But in the 7th and 8th centuries Constantinople and much of southern Europe that had been under Christian rule, with the Muslim conquest, Christians were under pressure to adopt Islam. There was a special tax on the "dhimmi," non-Muslims, to either convert or pay this tax. Also, Christians were not allowed to have any social outreach minitries, at best only worship within the four walls of the remaining churches, or at worst... death. And after WW1, with the end of the Ottoman (Muslim Turkish) Empire, communism rose up and began demanding the same sort of submission to the atheistic state.
Today we see that these two worldviews, Marxism and Islam, are becoming more openly allied. You might wonder how an atheistic ideology and a theistic religion could be allies: both share the same spiritual essence – they deny that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. we read in 1 John 4:2-3 – "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus is the Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who doesn't confess that Jesus is the Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already." That shared spirit between Marxism and Islam is the Antichrist.
In the middle of the 20th century, Western society also "flipped the script." In place of church-established schools, hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and orphanages, with the post-war "baby boom" we needed more schools right away and various denominations or local school boards didn't have the funds, so the U.S. government offerred to subsidize the new construction projects. And I distinctly remember in junior high school the government promising they wouldn't interfere with the curriculum of schools. But later they felt the "need" to set up the U.S. Department of Education... and as they say, "the rest is history" – federal "guidelines" were established that soon became rules in order to receive federal aid. In the 1970s, WW2 veterans were retiring, many had war injuries, needed hospitalization, and church-established hospitals couldn't handle the growing needs, so again the government stepped in. Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran and Baptist hospitals were bought out and became city- and state-owned hospitals. Christianity is being shoved to the sidelines.
So by now, people in the West automatically think that's the way things ought to be: "what is" has morphed to "what ought to be." (Unspoken subject) Ought to give free medical care" or "_______ should provide free education," etc. The default way of thinking now is "let the government do it." And the First Amendment's guarantee of "freedom of religious expression" has morphed into "freedom of religion as long as you keep it to yourself or inside your church building" – just like it was in the Ottoman Empire, the USSR and still is in Russia today. What is the answer? We must be unafraid to boldly confess our faith. We must insist on our God-given right to publicly express in word and action our Christian beliefs and morals! We cannot shrink back! This is why we've developed "The ARC" concept, the Agape Restoration Community.
What is the driving principle of the Church... and your church? Is it just getting people saved, out of hell and into heaven when they die? Is it some kind of “eternal fire insurance?” As you read in our article "HOW MANY DISABLED PEOPLE ATTEND YOUR CHURCH?," the purpose of the Church is to grow up in the faith, to become holy, mature Christians. How? – by ministering to build up the Body of Christ. The word "minister" in Greek also means "serve" – to be a "bondservant" which is someone who willingly binds himself to serve his master. And our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, taught His disciples how to serve / minister to "the poor, maimed, blind, and lame." This was His main target audience, as should be ours too!
In the article “HOW MANY DISABLED PEOPLE ATTEND YOUR CHURCH?” you can see several links to Scripture passages that clearly explain how this is supposed to work. St. Paul uses the word “edify,” a metaphor of construction, building an edifice, to tell us that the Church is like the Old Testament Temple building: we are supposed to be building something for those who are Christ’s target audience, "the poor, maimed, blind, and lame," to enable and empower them so they too can be restored to fullness of life – maturity in Christ.
BUILDING THE ARC: Personal empowerment via accountability and work
(Click Here to see our 5 sketches in full-screen mode.)
From the outset it is important to stress the need for local self-sufficiency in our Agape Restoration Communities. Although it is not necessarily harmful to help support poor and disabled people (2 Cor. 8:13-15), it must be done in a way that does not create dependency. Therefore we emphasize that local churches should be primarily responsible for their local branch of Agape Restoration Society. One of ARS's goals is to help local churches find a way to have their own meeting place, in a co-operative living center. In each Agape Restoration Community the church will own shares for the community room/chapel and restrooms, and the residents will own shares for their living unit. In our simplified plans we show up to 12 wheelchair-accessible living units or classrooms.
Each center will be organized as an autonomous branch of the ARS, associated with a local church, and will be responsible for its own local fund-raising and repaying loans from various sources. Local funds will be kept in local bank accounts until expended. Close supervision of and accounting for disbursing funds will insure that they are used strictly as designated and disbursed only when services have been performed. Each local branch of the ARS will be encouraged to train and send workers to help start new branches, and as its loans are paid off, to loan money interest-free to these new branches. Here's how you can donate for this project and/or join our mail list. Thanks!
Secularism has led to the de-Christianizing of the world. Former church buildings in the U.S. have been turned into taverns or private residences. In its extreme form of communism, about 250,000 church buildings in Russia were destroyed or confiscated and turned into breweries, warehouses, or "Lenin Houses of Culture." Secularization world-wide has diminished the role of the church in society and has led most people to lean on the state for answers to all their problems, leaving many churches shrinking or abandoned. Poor and disabled Christians must free themselves from the idea that "they" – meaning someone else: the state or other Christians – ought to pay to restore or build new churches. Secular governments have neither the wealth nor the will to pay for this, and there is not enough money in all the churches and other Christian organizations in the whole world to build the needed number of ordinary church buildings so that our countries can again be called "Christian nations."
But almost all Christians, including poor and disabled people, have a place to live. By exchanging their current home for a living unit in an ARC, they are providing a building where a church can gather to worship and fulfill its God-ordained ministry to "the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind." Christians already have the wealth needed to carry out the task of re-Christianizing their countries, in the form of their current homes. We need to restore the spirit of agape-love and mutual self-help community, then simply train and organize ourselves to do it.
A pastor or deacon of the associated church will serve as director of the local ARC branch. The director of ARS or director of a local branch (or a relative) must not control the finances: a completely separate person must manage the finances of each local ARC, separate from the church's finances. When a sufficient number of people have subscribed for shares, the local branch can take out a construction loan to build a new Agape Restoration Community. When a family sells its old house or apartment, the money from the sale of the old residence will be used to pay for its shares in the new ARC. Thus it is self-financing.
The ARC and its associated church will be two separate legal entities. Other people can be members of this church and not of the ARC "housing cooperative." The church associated with each ARC, represented by its clergy, is also a member of the ARC. Residents will be members of this cooperative that requires all adult residents of sound mind to be members of the church and affirm its doctrines and practices. This guarantees the building's perpetual Christian character by avoiding the problem of unbelievers in the second generation inheriting the units. A company that has built over 25 housing cooperatives in the Midwest U.S. for disabled persons and seniors, Realife, Inc., takes a similar approach. Here is what their old website stated –
What is a Housing Cooperative?
* Housing cooperatives are a form of multifamily homeownership. Shareholders or tenants join together to form a not-for-profit cooperative corporation which owns the building in which they live.
* Residents buy a share (membership) in the co-op, but the cooperative owns the building, land, and any common areas. Residents are entitled to live in a housing unit as part of their membership benefits.
* Members pay a fixed amount each month that covers basic expenses, including mortgage, property taxes, and maintenance. As share owners, members exercise control over their housing situation by electing a board of directors made up of other residents.
* This varies from a condominium or town home, where residents each own their individual housing units and are responsible for their own mortgage.
What are the Advantages? Ownership: Members actually own the cooperative through their share ownership of the not-for-profit cooperative corporation; there is no equity investor or landlord. Control: Residents govern the cooperative with assistance from the managing agent. Cost of Operation: Occupancy charges are equal to only the actual cost of owning and operating the property. In a rental, rent generally goes up faster than actual costs because most landlords are in business to make a profit. Individuality: Initial members are able to customize their dwelling units, including a choice of floor coverings, cabinet colors, and various structural changes. Homeowner Tax Advantages: Mortgage interest and real estate taxes are tax deductible in a housing cooperative. Equity Growth Potential: In a Realife Cooperative, members earn limited equity on their unit based on the amount of time they live in their home. The earning of limited equity keeps it affordable for the first members and future members. Overall Value: Expenses in a cooperative are spread across the entire membership proportionately, making the cost of living generally lower than a comparable single-family home.
Three Steps to Your Cooperative Home 1. Reservation: By making a $500 refundable deposit, you are assigned a reservation number. This determines the order we follow with home selection. 2. Subscription: This is the home selection process. It involves unit selection (including type and location in the building) as well as a review of the costs associated with membership in the cooperative (share price and monthly fee). There is a $4500 down payment required to select the size of your living unit. 3. Share Collection: We collect the shares prior to construction. This is similar to a down payment on a single family home. We are required to collect the shares before we begin construction in return for the FHA insurance on the mortgage. There is only one mortgage on the property and it is held by the cooperative.
(The above dollar amounts are adjusted from the Realife website in the early 2000s to reflect that the dollar is worth less than half as much as then.) Thus we have the four stages needed to start such a housing cooperative: First, train a diakonia-ministry team to visit and care for local disabled people in their homes. Second, invite their relatives and friends to come to the home of these disabled people to listen to what the Bible says about caring for the poor, lame, maimed and blind: they already know what you're doing, you just need to identify why you're doing it and many will believe! Third, when you have three or four of these home groups going (it may take several months to get to know and trust each other, so be patient!), only then introduce to them the idea of a housing cooperative. If you dump this idea on them before you've won their trust you could alienate them, and you need to be able to trust their sincerity as well. Fourth, when enough people are interested you will incorporate a non-profit housing cooperative, locate a piece of land and follow the three steps above: reservation, subscription and share collection. As you can see, this differs little from conventional church-planting, but it has the added plus of real, hands-on ministry integrated into it right from the start.
The cooperative will consist of about 1/3 of living units for physically healthy families with an adopted or foster child to live in the center, along with about 1/3 of living units for elderly and disabled people and about 1/3 of living units for missionaries and trained volunteer workers, including college students. The larger church body should include mainly people who are capable of ministering, not just those who need to be ministered to. Having physically healthy younger families in the center also greatly helps the rehabilitation of disabled and elderly people and their socialization, because they want and need to be part of the larger, "normal" society.
Participants, both residents and non-residents, will be encouraged to help finish their own living unit and others', and to contribute for common areas. Donors will be able to designate their gifts to go for a specific family or center, and will be kept informed about that family or center. Separately-designated donations will also be raised to provide equipment and medicines for the disabled, as well as to train volunteer workers in a center. Feedback to these donors from each family and center increases their accountability.
Major financial supporters are encouraged to donate or loan money to the building fund so that construction may begin. Shareholders will be responsible for repaying any loans for their living unit, their proportional amount of the center's common facilities, and maintenance fees. Each ARC is locally-owned from the outset. The donors are just donating monthly support which is distributed among local ARS branches, and if a local or the national situation goes bad, they simply stop supporting. This approach reduces the "what if" concerns of donors: "What if some dishonorable person takes over a center?" or "What if a socialist government emerges and nationalizes all property?"
Description of buildings
In the plans shown below, you can see how the first and second floors of the center are connected by wheelchair-accessible ramps. The slope of the ramps is very important: the size and shape of the whole building is determined by the slope of the ramps. The slope must be 1:12 (A.D.A. requirement), gentle enough to allow disabled persons with the use of their arms to ascend or descend the ramps by themselves, and there will be special sidewalks outside as well. The community room/chapel on the second floor can be used for physical exercise, shared meals, and other activities. Our earlier ARC #1 drawings showed from 28 to 42 living units, but that would have been quite a large up-front cost, so we've developed plans for an ARC #3 building about 1/4 of that size with 12 living units.
The ARC is kept relatively small to maintain a feeling of "family," a sense of community. The huge apartment complexes in both East and West deprive people of rootedness and the sense of belonging to an "extended family" of like-minded people, and have a harmful effect on family cohesion and the raising of children. Each living unit will have a high-speed connection to the Internet. A larger living unit can be used for a family with many children, or a family that accepts and cares for other handicapped people, or a dormitory for volunteers and students. They can be built in various places in a city, to integrate disabled people into the larger society, rather than isolate them in one part of the city or outside of it. An ARC #3 can be built on 1/2 acre (30m x 50m) with 12 living units and a community room/chapel from 750 to 1,320 sq. ft. for community functions (shared meals, parties, exercise etc.) and worship. To have this center be a self-sustaining community, see https://permaculturism.com/how-much-land-does-it-take-to-feed-one-person/ - about 1/2 acre per person, or 15 acres for 30 people.
Just in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where we now live, or in Ioshkar-Ola, capital of the Mari Republic in Russia, the city in which we lived, could use ten or more of such centers in various places around town. There are thousands of physically disabled people in these cities, many living in housing not built for disabled people. In the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia, both with growing numbers of elderly people, there is a need for hundreds or even thousands of these centers. The disabled people from U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, or from Russia's wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Ukraine, number in the tens of thousands. This doesn't include people who are disabled from birth, illness or accident. In the U.S. and Russia there are also millions of orphans who need adoption or foster care. These people are among the neediest, because it is difficult for them to receive training adapted to their needs and find well-paying jobs.
Due to changing costs for construction in each locality, even a rough cost estimate of each center is not possible here. But keep in mind that if construction costs change, so does the value of the local homes that future residents will sell to take a living unit in an Agape Restoration Community. The majority of the cost for the entire building will be paid for by the living unit residents and participants in each local branch of ARS. We will need to have these sketches re-drawn by a local architect to meet local building codes. You can see and print out this article including these plans at our Web site https://agape-biblia.org/literatura/ARC-Article-Eng.pdf.
Conclusion
"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'"
The ARC #3: (To view these drawings full-screen or print on 8.5" x 11" paper, click on each drawing.)
Isometric (three-dimensional) view of ARC #3: Because the building must be wheelchair-accessible there are no steps leading into it, therefore the plot must be landscaped so that water flows away from the building. But most importantly, the design expresses the purpose of the ministry driven church where every member is a minister so they can focus on ministering to people, not on struggling to build and maintain a budget-breaking building. The ARC-3 is built on 1/2 acre with 12 living units, a community room/chapel, and ramps for the building to be wheelchair-accessible. This building is 84' on the east and west sides and 68' on the north and south sides + 16' for the enclosed porches.
Floorplan for first floor of ARC#3: This floorplan shows two large 3-bedroom units, four 1-bedroom units on the 1st floor, and visitor bathrooms. Ramps embody the goal of restoration: help people restore strength by staying active, also providing full access to the second floor in the event of power failure. The parking area slopes up to 3' 9" above grade level where it connects to the ramps. Two sets of two sliding doors with airlocks, one set for the lower and one for the upper entrance, provide airlocks to limit the loss of heating and cooling the inside.
Alternate floorplan for ARC #3 first floor: This floorplan shows six living units, including two 3-bedroom living units on the 1st floor, to allow for larger families. If choosing this floorplan for the first floor, you can either move the community room/chapel and 2-betroom living units to the second floor, or combine the 25' x 25' space for community room/chapel plus the altar area with the 33' x 41' balcony shown as 2nd floor.
Floorplan for ARC #3 second floor: This floorplan shows six living units on the 2nd floor and a 33' x 40' community room/chapel. The maximum slope is 1:12 for wheelchair-accessible ramps. Both floors have 8-ft. ceilings, and the 16" trusses between floors add 16 inches; so this equals 112”, meaning that the full length of the ramps must be at least 112’. From these dimensions we can calculate the necessary length of ramp and stairways. An elevator to the 2nd floor and choir loft is optional. The 16" trusses between floors are stronger than 2" x 12" beams and provide space for electrical, ventilation, and plumbing runs.
Top and side views for ARC #3. The shaded areas indicate gold-colored paint, tracing the outline of a gold dome. The side views show the ramp slope and how the ramp as it reaches the building allows for a 7'' high entry, then continues up to the 2nd floor that is 9'4" higher than the 1st floor.
A SIX-LANE HIGHWAY, OR A NARROW ROAD WITH TIGHT GATE?
(Click the pic!) We in the West love to think that we have freedom of religion – the right to choose what to believe, as if life is like a six-lane highway where you can get on and off whenever and wherever you want. But is it really like that? Even a six-lane highway has limited access and exit points; just so, freedom isn't unlimited.
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, said: "Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it." Freedom of choice implies the responsibility to make the right choice and live (or die) with the consequences of our choices. Missing an entrance to or exit from a limited-access highway means turning around and going back to that point of wrong decision... if you can! Some can't find their way back, and others can, for example the Old Testament kings Saul and David.
King Saul seemed to have a good start in life: he was tall, handsome, and humble. But after he became king, he grew proud and power-hungry, and finally fell into disobedience to God and His prophet Samuel, then fell into witchcraft. He regretted his sin, but didn't repent and turn his life around. True repentance isn't just regret or feeling sorry. The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, means to turn around 180 degrees and go in a different direction.
On the other hand, after King David committed the terrible sins of adultery and ordering a murder, he deeply repented – read all of Psalm 51 – and turned his life around. Nevertheless, he paid a price for his sins. Forgiveness does not mean there are no consequences. Sexual sin, even if God forgives it, can result in infertility, divorce, or sexually transmitted disease. A victim's spouse or God may forgive a murderer who repents, but the sentence can still be carried out.
Judas felt regret for betraying Christ, but committed suicide. On the other hand, Peter denied Christ three times but repented of his sin, and the Lord restored him. In 1 Corinthians ch. 6, we read about a man who had committed incest by having sex with his father's wife. St. Paul wrote to the church that he should be excommunicated "for the destruction of his flesh" ...but in 2 Corinthians, Paul instructed the church to restore him to fellowship after he had repented.
Back to our starting thoughts: Jesus said – "But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land. Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian" (Luke 4: 25-27). There are some who make the Narrow Road too narrow or the Gate too tight, such as the Jewish leaders who got really angry with Jesus when he said this, and wanted to get rid of Him. There will be olive-skinned Gentiles, black Africans, Chinese, Australian Aborigines... believers from all the Nations in the Kingdom of God.
On the other hand, we shouldn't make the Road too wide or the Gate to loose. To believe that all religions lead to God, or that Allah is the same deity as Yahweh, or that all or most of the "Christian" confessions are more or less the same, they all get you into heaven, and that whatever you believe about Jesus is just fine – all such talk is nonsense, a big mistake. It's called "Universalism" which the Church has defined as a heresy. "How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it." How narrow is it? We aren't authorized to make up our own 'private interpretation' of Scripture. Holy men of God moved by the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Body of Christ throughout history, gives us the correct interpretaion of this Scripture (1 Peter 1:20-21).
At the end of each Orthodox Liturgy we sing – "We have seen the true Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit! We have found the True Faith, worshiping the Holy Trinity, Who has saved us!" This doesn't mean, of course, that each one of us Orthodox Christians have 100% of the fullness of the Faith. The fullness does exist in the Orthodox Church, however, and it's available for all who take the time and effort to strive toward it.
You might be thinking – "But there are sinners in the Church!" Yes, there are, that's who the Church is for, it's a hospital for sinners to be made whole. Many are satisfied to have only 60% or 70% of the fullness, but a few are striving for 95% or even 100%. Which are you? "PBPGOINFWMY" doesn't stand for "Peanut Butter Pie, Grapes In Nougat Fudge, With Marshmallow Yoghurt" or any such garbled nonsense – no, it stands for "Please Be Patient, God Is Not Finished With Me Yet!" Come and See!
Modern society and many televangelists promote the "Health and Wealth" false Gospel. Being healthy and having sufficient material things are not intrinsic evils, but when they are promoted as supreme goods, they become false gods – idols.
In his book Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton wrote: The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.
Pseudo-pity and overblown compassion today are being pushed as reasons for allowing and promoting illegal and/or immoral behavior. Recently I saw a meme on eX-twitter: "Don't kill me just because I came here illegally so my children could have a better life!" This is how the full facts can be distorted or ignored in order to stir the virtue-signalling pseudo-pity that justifies a disregard for laws meant to protect society. The same tactic is used to promote unmarried and same-sex couples "living together" (fornicating). Genuine compassion keeps in mind what not only satisfies or gratifies individuals, but also and more importantly what is best for society in the long run.
When "the virtues are let loose" they become unbalanced. We know what happens when a washing machine is unbalanced: it begins making terrible noise as it bounces around the floor, banging into other objects. It's even worse when a car engine or wheels are unbalanced, and often fatal when a jet engine is unbalanced. Thus, when we push one of the virtues to an extreme, it's no longer a virtue, it distorts into a vice.
One of my favorite verses in the Psalms is – "Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps.85:10). This passage aptly illustrates the harmonious balance of various virtues: mercy counterbalanced by truth, righteousness (justice) coupled with peace. Seeking peace at all costs can easily endanger the continued existence of society. In the same way, tolerance of sexual immorality in the long run leads to the extinction of a nation, as the upcoming demographic implosion indicates.
"The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple" (Ps.19:7).
The motto in our newsletter's heading, "The right to believe and the right to life are inseparable: Right belief in a loving God enables us to love our neighbor!" doesn't mean that whatever we want to believe is right. That's confusing the two different meanings of the word "right." Rather, it shifts the responsibility for choosing the right beliefs from the state to the church, the family, and the individual. Freedom of religion implies responsibility!
We need to understand where the right to believe – freedom of religion – sprang from. For thousands of years, it was determined by the tribe or the king or emperor. But with the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, it shifted from being just an external commandment to worship Yahweh, the Jewish nation's God, or the gods of the Gentile nations and peoples. Christianity insisted (and still insists) on the right and duty of each family and each person to search and strive for sincere faith in the true God.
In the article "Reclaiming the Real Definition of Religious Freedom" we learn that modern political discourse often weaponizes religious freedom as a cover for partisan agendas and culture wars rather than upholding genuine constitutional rights. The article criticizes the current administration and some Christian leaders for supporting policies that prioritize religious exemptions while simultaneously undermining the rights of minorities, immigrants, and people of color.
The article notes that these political efforts often violate the constitutional separation of church and state by allowing federally funded agencies to discriminate based on religion and identity. The author calls upon Christians to reject "false framing" and instead advocate for a version of religious liberty that aligns with Christian teachings on universal human dignity. Readers are encouraged to take actionable steps, such as lobbying representatives, challenging discriminatory government policies, and working toward a return to historical Christian sexual ethics.
Freedom of conscience and the free exercise of religion means that the state must not coerce its citizens to love our neighbors – the poor, the disabled, and the elderly. But when the state takes over this role of providing financial support for those most in need of loving attention by taxing us, we no longer have the freedom to do so or not to do so: we have lost the free exercise of religion.
And in fact, when the state takes over this role, it most often insists that it must be kept separate from any particular religion or beliefs: thus, it coerces the disbelief in any religion. This is the dilemma of a secular society in which religious belief has been robbed of the right to express that belief in action! And the "loving attention" part of it turns into bureaucratic rules of entitlement: do you check all the right boxes on the form?
As the heading on our "DAILY PRAYERS" web page shows, there must be a "Why?" to our prayer life. If it's merely to perform a religious duty, it becomes an empty charade, window dressing to convince ourselves that we're on right terms with God. But we must demonstrate our love for God by loving our neighbors, and especially those most in need of loving attention – the poor, the disabled, and the elderly (often the same). That's why "Build the ARC!" comes right after the "Why?" in our "Daily Prayers" heading. Go to our "Morning Prayers" web page to see how to join our "live" Daily Prayers at 7 a.m. every day – and do the "Why!"
The Apostle Jude is a puzzling character: in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 he's called the "brother" of the Lord along with James, who later became the leader of the church in Jerusalem after the other James, the Apostle, was killed by Herod. But we find no more details about Jude other than the above verses in Matthew and Mark and in the lists of the twelve Apostles where sometimes he is called Thaddeus. In his epistle, he begins by saying he wanted to write encouraging words about the faith once for all transmitted to the saints. But then he changes course, deciding rather to write about those who were distorting our common faith:
What about Jezebel? We read in Revelation 2:20-23 – "But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works."
What is the driving principle of the Church... and your church? Is it just getting people saved, out of hell and into heaven when they die? Is it some kind of “eternal fire insurance?” As you read in our article "
From the outset it is important to stress the need for local self-sufficiency in our Agape Restoration Communities. Although it is not necessarily harmful to help support poor and disabled people (
