A Knight's Blog

  Thanksgiving has passed and many people probably found it to be contentious. There was even politics pervading over it. However, I would argue the original Thanksgiving was all about having people who probably did not get along come together to give thanks. The Native Americans had different gods than the Pilgrims and the One True God. Sqauinto who was crucial to being a bridge between the peoples and helping them survive was raised by Catholic Monks, and so he would have little in common with Pilgrim's Protestantism. The point of Thanksgiving was not a gathering of people who would get along, but rather people who had plenty to make feel petulance. Instead however, they saw Providence at work, that The Lord Trinity had used pagans to save Pilgrims with their corn, and sent a Native who knew English as well as local dialect to translate. All of this was a case of having to bury differences to benefit each other. It did not mean to hide the True God Jesus, no that is not the point...

  When Cobra Kai was started on YouTube and transitioned to Netflix, I found myself enraptured. It was a delight to see the old vanguard of LaRusso and Johnny become senseis, and to see the future of Miyagi-Do and Cobrai Kai Karate. I became invested in Sam, Tory, Miguel, Hawk, Dementri, and the rest of the cast who navigated their High School years through Hi-yahs in Karate. I found Kreese to be a more menacing villain and his backstory in Vietnam and origins of Cobra Kai really added to the mythos of the Karate Kid franchise. However, by Seasons 4 and 5 my interest began to wain a bit.. the perpetual switching sides between Cobra Kai, Miyagi-Do, and Eagle Fang made it feel soap operatic. Season 6 though has re-engaged my interest, as our heroes and heroines, our sensies and dojos head to the Olympics of martial arts, The Sekai Taikai, which in this case takes place in Barcelona, Spain.  I had my reservations, another great tournament to watch Dan San and his Miyagi Do studen...

   Tis the Season for Christmas Trees. Every year people adorn their homes with the fir tree and decorate it. The tradition is a hallmark of the holiday, and in recent times there have been many attacks on it claiming it is a carry over from the Druids, and must be boycotted. This is completely false. The trees Druids brought in were oaks and birches with holes to conjure the sprites through. The tradition of the evergreen tree comes from St. Columba, who when he chopped down an oak tree to Oiden, a miracle happened that from the stump grew a fir tree, which he said was symbol of eternal life in Jesus Christ. That is the earliest symbolism. In Germany, Martin Luther had the evergreen tree brought in and said as Columba had, that it was symbol of eternal life and pointed to heaven. For Americans, the Christmas Tree was on flags and banners of white that read "Appeal to Heaven," being a universal symbol of faith in the LORD to help them in the Revolution. Now the tree has folkl...

   Byzantine and Gregorian Chant are ancient church forms of worshiping, cantoring, and singing the Scriptures. For most people their encounter this kind of music is video games as in The Temple of Time in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the Halo Video Games Theme and The Maw opening. That was were I first heard Gregorian Chant, and I found it made my soul soar. Only later in Music Composition and Appreciation did I know it had a name, and did I begin my journey to discovering a music steeped in tradition of the Church. Byzantine Chant is older, in fact, some traditions go back close to the time of the Apostles! The Jerusalem Cantors in particular have an ancient style. Byzantine tends to differ in its monophonic sound, in that one of cantors is constant, like the Bass in a band, continuing to sing a key, while the other cantors join in singing the chorus. Gregorian tends to differ in that it has multiple cantors singing the chorus, and there is a instrument in backgr...

Joan of Arc has long been a fascinating of mine. If you check, my first blog post was about the Saint who saved France. What is it about the Holy Maid that captivates us? She captures the imagination of Catholics, Protestants, and even Atheists like George Bernard Shaw who wrote a play about her and Mark Twain who wrote a book about her. How does this Dame (female Knight) from Domrémy deeply connect with so many people of varying backgrounds and even faiths? I believe the answer is suffering. Joan of Arc shares a tragic fate that The Knights Templar did, that Martin Luther did, and that even Jesus Christ did. All of them have in common mock trials, where they were imprisoned, and those trying them had the intent to destroy them. What makes Joan stand out is she was a woman. And not just any woman, a woman that had lead forces of Dauphin to victory and even gotten him crowned, who had saved France from becoming New Burgundy and New England. And most of all, she did this dressed as a man...

  Leonard Ravenhill once said, "the tragedy of today is that the Church is pursing happiness not holiness." We are seeing a pandemic of unholiness in the Church, as more sexual scandals break out and leadership covering it up. We keep asking why? Why are innocents being preyed upon. All the usual tropes are brought up, "wolves in sheeps clothing," (Matthew 7:15) and that Jesus said, "everything that is hidden will be exposed." (Luke 8:17). Those are true, but we are reaching a point in the Church were all credibility is getting lost and it maybe beyond saving. The Gospel and Jesus Christ our Lord will not pass away, but the church may and one of the cornerstone problems with the church in the West is an obsession with Happiness. In the Age of Reason, an ungodly fusion was made between Christianity and Humanism, an idea that one could satisfy both the Kingdom of Heaven and yourself, even though Jesus said, "deny yourself and pick up your cross." (...

   I mentioned in my review of Season 1 of the Fraiser Revival, that I loved it and have been a long time fan. I have been keeping up with Dr. Crane since Cheers, and I must say this new series where Fraiser and Freddy bond has made me laugh more than the classic Fraiser series! Season Two has caught me by suprise with the antics and the moments. In the Murder Mystery episode, when Fraiser says in character of the party, "I am an expert in diseases, all of which I have contracted," the look on Kelsey Grammer's face, so deadpan and the tone he uses made me laugh so hard, I almost broke some ribs. The Season Finale did not disappoint and for us Christians had some epic stuff! In the Christmas Finale, Fraiser is going to host one of his infamous Xmas parties, perhaps you remember the one when Cam Winston outshines him by having his Christmas be 2000, that being his apartment number and millennium they were about to enter. Well I say this Xmas episode bests it and some of my ...

   I am thrilled how Science Fiction films are touching on why we should not mess with things God made. In 57 Seconds, Fraklin Fox, played by Josh Hutcherson who you will recognize for his role as Peeta in The Hunger Games, is at a Health Tech Expo, where he finds this tech ring, he soon finds out that the ring allows him to a la Prince of Persia, turn back time 57 Seconds, and undo a mistake. The concept has been done before, I mentioned Prince of Persia, and in Galaxy Quest is the Omega Thirteen, but what 57 Seconds does different is that this time travel ability not only is used by a somewhat altruistic person, at the end of the story he decides to destroy it, that we should not have the power to manipulate time, that even 57 seconds can cause problems, as Franklin Fox learns when his Fiancee freaks out thinking he used the ring to keep rewinding time to find out all the things to please her and groom her for romance. Rarely does a science fiction brooch a topic with such q...

   Dr. David Jeremiah has begun plugging his new book called "The Coming Golden Age." In the advertisement he claims that when Jesus Returns we will get to reign with him in Millennium, that is not true, only the beheaded in Christ get to reign then, " I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years " (Revelation 20:4). He then paraphrases the verse, "there will be no more pain, and death will happen only seldomly," that is not what the Scripture says, it does not say death happens only seldomly, it says, "He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past a...

      I have been talking about the exstinction of mankind, that we are rushing towards it with abortion, pornography, love bots, and declining birth rates around the world. There are some more pieces of the puzzle, growing from a movement in Korea is the 4B Movement where women and girls are urged to not marry and have children. In the United States influencers have joined it as protest of the Election, but I want to focus solely on ramifications of this movement in the extinction of our species. A great deal of science fiction is dedicated to that some exterior force will come and destroy us, that humans will be wiped out by aliens. In reality we are doing a grand job without the need to have such a force come against us.  The front line for the extinction process is no doubt the internet. People are allowing themselves to be swayed by strangers without credible sources. It is known that in Communist China, one book and how it was interpreted lead to so many millio...

  Jonathan Roumie has achieved notoriety for playing Jesus Christ in The Chosen Series. He also played Lonnie Frisbee in The Jesus Revolution with Kelsey Grammar. This man has risen to prominence portraying our real Lord Jesus, and I am alarmed at what I have heard fans say. One woman said, "when I pray I picture Roumie as Jesus." Woah.. wait.. that is idolatry! Roumie is not the Real Jesus Christ. I at first was rather positive towards The Chosen because it was reaching souls, "what matters is Christ is preached." (Philippians 1:20). However, Roumie has done something other Jesus actors have not. Former actors who portrayed our Lord God in film like Ted Neeley, Jim Caviezel, and even Diego Morgado all were able to let Christ like a light shine through them; they simply became a media way of reading Scriptural Jesus, they did not take the place of Jesus, they helped people see Jesus through their portrayal and for this I am grateful. However, Roumie is different.. p...