I don’t think it should be hard at all – just be honest, tell the truth, and be true to your oath.  Be prepared to find another job if you need to.  It’s better to bag groceries or load trucks at Lowe’s than to answer to God for malfeasance.  But here is his story.

It was 2007 and I was assisting a call with an officer I’d never met before. He was from another team working overtime. Right in front of me he broke a kids nose with a punch. The septum was clearly deviated and blood was everywhere. The kid was handcuffed and the officer enquired of me “what should ‘we’ arrest him for?” “What did he do?” I enquired. “He called me a name.” he said. After 20 mins of him trying to persuade me we should fabricate a crime he had to let the kid go. “We need o do notes, get our story straight” he then told me. I don’t need assistance in writing what happened. I found a quiet place and wrote the facts. As I wrote I was joined by a female A/Sgt who knew this officer. She spent 20 mins trying to convince me this kid was a “shitbag” & my notes should ‘reflect the danger he posed’. I was disgusted. We don’t behave this way.

Read the rest of the thread here.

Oh, but you do indeed behave that way.  This is a Canadian cop and he has all the proof in court documents, but it’s the same in the U.S.

As for all of those “constitutional Sheriffs and Deputies,” it’s important to know where they really stand.  Here is a good analysis of what likely really happened at that gun store in Montana.

Guess what?  The Great Falls, Montana, PD provided perimeter security for the IRS and ATF [5:48 in the video].

There you have it.  Even in Montana, the cops have been corrupted.  The Great Falls PD should have arrested the IRS and ATF agents when they showed up in the city limits.

First: Saving Our School Children from Tennessee Politicians

Tennessee politicians left our students defenseless, and we have to save them. A celebrity-seeking mass murderer killed students in a Nashville private school. That should be a wakeup call that the Republican controlled legislature and Governor have failed us again. We need angry parents to change the status quo and save our kids. As grim as this sounds, there is plenty of good news. We also know how to reduce and to prevent mass murder in our schools. Tennessee parents have been ignored for too long.

[…]

More parents want their children protected at school than want them unprotected. You might think that volunteer defenders at school are rare, but you would be wonderfully wrong. It surprised me too, but we found a higher fraction of teachers who were willing to be armed first responders than the fraction of people who carry concealed in public. (18 percent of teachers vs. 8.0 percent of the general public).

Much more at the link.

Next: (A poll) Tennesseans Want Dangerous People Removed from Community Instead of More Gun Laws

According to a poll published by co/efficient, most Tennesseans would prefer that dangerous people are removed from society rather than removing guns from the hands of potentially dangerous people.

“In the poll, Tennessee voters dramatically retreat from their soft support of proposed Red Flag Laws and do not see this as the solution to their safety concerns when informed that Red Flag Laws merely take guns away from dangerous individuals but do nothing to prevent them from causing harm by some other means. Red Flag Law support erodes even further when informed that there are existing laws to take threatening individuals out of the community right now,” the poll said. “Tennesseans largely support recently passed legislation that puts police officers in schools and believe enforcing the current laws on the books is an effective solution to keeping their families, communities, and state safe.”

Polls can be made to mean anything, but more is at the link.

Cornered Cat:

Words mean things. For example, the word “training” does not mean the same thing as the word “education.” In the same way, the word “practice” does not mean the same thing as “training”, and neither one is the same as “testing.”

Education, training, practice, and testing are all needed for robust physical skills development. But none of these words means the same thing as any other.

The word “training”, in particular, has so often been abused by shooters that it has all but lost its actual meaning. This is too bad, as it expresses a really important concept.

What is “training”?

Let’s look at the word’s meaning in other domains:

Driver education happens in a classroom. It is followed by driver training. Driver training happens on the road, with a teacher watching carefully from the passenger seat as you perform the skills you discussed in class.

College education also happens in classrooms. It is often followed by on-the-job training, which is supposed to involve a qualified other showing you the practical realities of doing the job you studied in school. The observer should look at the work you do and give you feedback on how you are performing the skills the job requires you to perform.

Proper definitions are always important; in them are the details of learning. The article covers training, practice, and testing. Read it all.

Prior, on ticks and Lyme disease.

Summer is here, and with it, four-legged critters, but they aren’t the only things in the woods that can harm you. The thing about snakes is they can be just about anywhere when it’s warm.

Important factoid: Most snake bites are strikes to the hand; check the area before working or grabbing things.

Source:

Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a medical toxicologist and emergency physician at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. I have treated 600+ snakebites and direct one of the busiest snakebite services in the U.S.

I also love snakes and consider myself a member of the herpetology community. And I want to help prevent any bad outcomes (for both humans and snakes) if a snake-human interaction goes awry.

I hate snakes, especially Cotton Mouth Moccasins which can range widely in color and markings.

These are the recommendations for pre-hospital treatment. I will have a different post dealing with hospital management.

Found at the link: Snakebite Management (in hospital) – Pit Vipers.

If you get bitten by a snake you suspect is (or may be) venomous:

1. Get away from the snake. No need to hurt the snake just because you’re angry, and you don’t want to incur additional injury.

 

2. If you (or someone else) can safely and quickly get a picture of the snake, great, but don’t waste time or risk a second envenomation. Ultimately, pit viper (rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths/water moccasins) envenomations are diagnosed clinically. As are coral snake bites, but most people can identify those. Just pray you have a doctor who knows what he or she is doing (see below)

If you can take a picture, you can shoot it first. Just sayin’. Pro tip: birdshot in .410 for a handgun. Outdoor Life lists several options with pros and cons for each. It may be illegal to kill snakes in your area; 3S treatments may apply.

3. Remove constrictive clothing and jewelry

4. Position the affected extremity appropriately. This is a little controversial, but some things are clear. For pit viper bites (which account for > 95% of the venomous snakebites in the U.S.), DO NOT PLACE BELOW HEART LEVEL. Almost all pit viper bites cause local tissue injury, and placing the affected extremity below heart level will cause the venom to collect in the extremity and will increase the hydrostatic pressures in the extremity. This will increase the potential damage to lymphatic vessels and increase the likelihood of some degree of permanent injury, such as post-exertional swelling. For copperhead and cottonmouth bites, in which local tissue is highly likely but the likelihood of systemic toxicity is low, I recommend placing the affected extremity ABOVE HEART LEVEL. In rattlesnake bites, it is reasonable to keep the affected extremity AT HEART LEVEL.These variations are for pre-hospital management. Once in the hospital, the affected extremity should always be elevated. This is emphasized in the unified treatment algorithm.

5. Get to an appropriate hospital. If you are having life-threatening signs and symptoms (e.g. airway issues, low blood pressure) get to the closest hospital for stabilization. They can then transfer you if needed to an expert. Otherwise, proceed directly to a hospital with a snakebite expert. If you interact with snakes a lot or are outside in snake-endemic areas, you should investigate your regional hospitals to locate one or more specialists. I can help you with this. It’s a pretty small community.

6. Avoid dangerous and/or stupid interventions:

• DO NOT cut and suck. All this does is make a wound worse and potentially introduces bacteria into the wound

1. • DO NOT apply a tourniquet. There is no benefit in cutting off an extremity’s arterial blood supply unless the patient is bleeding to death.
   • DO NOT apply any sort of constriction band or pressure immobilization for pit vipers. For the same reason that we do not place the affected extremity below heart level. The American College of Medical Toxicology has a position statement on this.
   • Pressure immobilization IS reasonable for coral snake bites.
   • DO NOT use electrical shock treatment. It does not “neutralize the venom” or whatever nonsense advocates claim. But it is a good way to cause permanent injury.
   • DO NOT apply heat.
   • DO NOT apply PROLONGED icepacks. A few minutes at a time is okay (say, 5 minutes on, 10 minutes off) but prolonged cryotherapy is bad for the tissue.

7. DO NOT use one of those commercially-available suctions devices. They don’t remove venom. They just suck. See the best-titled editorial ever here.Do not bring the snake to the hospital. A dead snake can still envenomate you, and I hate when people kill snakes. And as much as I like snakes, I do acknowledge it becomes a logistical difficulty when someone brings a live snake to the ED. And, as I said before, we don’t need to see the snake to provide appropriate treatment.

I love when people kill snakes.

Here is his recently published paper.  If you don’t want to read it and want the dime summary, here is his discussion.  BLUF: Semiautomatic firearms, including Ar-15s, cannot be banned under the constitution.

While I have carried a .44 magnum before, I’ve advocated use of the .45 handgun all along for big predator defense.  But not just shooting any ammunition.  First, watch this video by Chuke’s Outdoor Adventures, where he advocates use of the HK USP 45 because it can handle 45 Super, then I’ll comment on the .45 Super versus the 450 SMC.

Just to make sure what I’m telling is correct, I’ll check one of several boxes of 450 SMC I’ve got.  Yep, checking the box of Double Tap ammo, it says 230 grains, 1130 FPS (5″ barrel).  I shoot it with a 1911, but with a 22# spring rather than the customary 16# or 18# spring.

Here is the magic.

In the late 1980s, gunwriter Dean Grennell took .451 Detonics Mag. brass and trimmed it to the same overall length as the .45 ACP cartridge case, thus creating the .45 Super. Grennell wrote an article for the February 1988 issue of Gun World Magazine, discussing his new version of the .45 ACP, which was capable of pushing a 185-grain bullet to 1,300 fps. In the August 1988 issue of Gun World Magazine, a second article about the .45 Super—written by Tom Ferguson—appeared. Ferguson was interested in Grennell’s concept cartridge, but he wanted to take things a step further. He took a handful of .451 Detonics Mag. brass and a 1911 pistol to Ace Hindman of Ace Custom 45s. Hindman came up with the idea of heavier springs in the 1911 to make it more suited to the higher-pressure cartridge.

In 1994, Fernando Coelho—owner of Triton Cartridge—reached out to Garey Hindman, Ace’s son, who was still converting 1911s and even some Smith & Wesson Model 4506 pistols to accommodate the.45 Super. The problem with the cartridge was a lack of suitable brass. Coelho had recently started Triton Cartridge and felt that with his background in load development, coupled with actual in-house pressure testing, he would be able to come up with reliable, factory-loaded, .45 Super ammunition. A deal was struck and Coelho reached out to Starline Brass to get the ball rolling. The folks at Starline worked with Coelho to establish correct internal case-wall dimensions, web-area thickness and overall hardness of the cartridge case.

But, just like the .300 BLK found fame because of its name, the.45 Super—as a commercial cartridge—was doomed because of what it was called. You see, when Ace Hindman passed away, his son trademarked “.45 Super.” When Triton made factory-loaded .45 Super ammo, Garey Hindman would get a royalty, which was something a bit unusual in the ammunition business. Because of this, no major firearm or ammunition manufacturer would offer .45 Super guns or ammunition. There was also the concern that a shooter might load and fire .45 Super ammo in a vintage .45 ACP revolver or an old 1911 and get an unpleasant surprise.

All this led to the birth of the .450 SMC. Coelho was fed up with the inherent issues of the .45 ACP/.45 Super cartridge case and the damage being done to the potential growth of the .45 Super. One of the case problems was primer flow; you could experiment with different brands of primers and powder, but most of the time primers would flow back around the tip of the firing pin. The solution: switch to a small-primer pocket and utilize a small-rifle primer. Coelho reached out to Starline again, asking the company to make .45 Super brass with a small-primer pocket. That solved the primer-flow problem and Triton Cartridge soon began offering factory-loaded .450 SMC ammunition. It was loaded to a maximum average pressure (MAP) of 32,000 psi, which is slightly higher than .45 Super pressures, but still less than the 37,500 psi pressure of the 10 mm. The new name—.450 SMC—solved the trade-mark problem, and Triton had two loads: a 165-grain bullet at 1,450 fps and a 230-grain bullet at 1,150 fps.

When Triton went out of business in 2003, it looked like the .450 SMC was doomed. But, another new ammunition company stepped up to offer one of the most potent and practical magnum-category, .45-caliber, defensive-handgun cartridges ever created. Mike McNett of DoubleTap Ammunition recognized the usefulness of the .450 SMC and his Cedar City, UT-based company now offers six .450 SMC loads.

Comparatively speaking, the hottest factory 185-grain .45 ACP load you can buy will generate only about 1,140 fps, and the fastest 230-grain offering only about 1,000 fps. Essentially, what you get with the .450 SMC are 10 mm velocities with a .45-caliber instead of a .40-caliber bullet.

Of course, since no one is manufacturing .450 SMC handguns, what you’re probably wondering is what you have to do to shoot .450 SMC in your .45 ACP. Well, a .450 SMC cartridge can be fired in any .45 ACP handgun. However—and this is a big however—it should only be fired in full-size .45 ACP handguns that have a +P rating. (A 20- to 22-pound recoil spring in your favorite 5-inch 1911, or a 21- to 23-pound spring in a Glock.)

Given the primer problems with the 45 Super, the 450 SMC is the clear winner in this contest.

As I’ve told the 10mm guys before, you can shoot your smaller bullets at over 1100 FPS, or you can shoot 230 grain bullets at over 1100 FPS.  Take your pick.

As for the HK pistol, the advantage would be that its magazine is double-stack and holds 12 rounds.  The 1911 I shoot holds 8 rounds.  Here is the upshot of the 1911 design – with a Wilson Combat or Chip Mccormick Speed Mag, you can increase the magazine capacity to 10 rounds.  The downside is that you have to get used to the bit of additional interference with the extended magazine.

The downside of the large bore revolver cartridges such as the .44 magnum is that the punch from a short barrel handgun (I consider 5″ to be short) is rather painful, especially when using something like Buffalo Bore loads.  Pain when defending your life is irrelevant, but it’s not irrelevant on the practice range.

In any case, I consider 450 SMC to be a legitimate big predator defense round.  If you want to use the HK or a Glock pistol for that purpose, that’s user preference.

Source.

A 22-year old man from Becker, Minn., is facing two felonies for possessing privately made firearms lacking serial numbers in a case his mother called a gross abuse of Minnesota law.

Sara Forgues, the mother of Matthew “Walker” Anderson, spoke with Alpha News regarding her son’s distressing legal battle. The case has concerning implications for gun owners across Minnesota, she said.

According to Forgues, in May 2022, Anderson and a friend were target shooting on private property in Sherburne County. The incident prompted a complaint from a neighbor, leading to the intervention of local sheriff’s deputies.

The neighbor alleged that a bullet had struck his house, but Forgues said no evidence was found to support this claim.

The charging documents provide few details about the incident, saying that the neighbor “heard glass shatter” on the lower level of his home. Discovering a broken sliding glass door, “he believed [to be] from a gunshot,” the neighbor called the police.

Anderson fully cooperated with the deputy who arrived to inspect the shooting range. He and his friend agreed to show the deputy their firearms, which included Anderson’s privately made firearms that did not have serial numbers.

He was then detained for several hours and the firearms were confiscated. Anderson was told by the deputies that he would be charged with two felonies for possessing firearms without serial numbers.

Forgues explained that after they looked into the statute the deputies cited, they believed the charges would be dropped. The statute outlines felony charges for removing a serial number from a firearm or possessing a “firearm that is not identified by a serial number.”

However, Anderson’s attorney notes in legal filings that the federal law referenced in the state statute does not consider his privately made firearms to be firearms that require a serial number.

“Under the plain meaning of the statute, the rifles made and possessed by Anderson were not ‘firearms’ as contemplated in [the federal law] and thus no serial number was required,” his attorney said in court documents. “Federal law does not require serial numbers to be placed on personally manufactured firearms created for private use.”

Additionally, if state law actually does ban Anderson’s privately made firearms with no serial numbers, then it should be ruled unconstitutional, his attorney argued.

“Commercially manufactured or imported firearms were not required to have serial numbers until 1968 and personally manufactured firearms still do not require a serial number under federal law. There is no historical tradition or authority to ban possession of rifles and shotguns that are in common use and circulation that are suitable for civilian purposes and target shooting simply for not having a number engraved on the metal,” he said.

Rob Doar, senior vice president of government affairs with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said the legal issues are nuanced, but “essentially the prosecutor is taking a bad reading of poorly drafted legislation.”

“In a nutshell, 609.667 prohibits the possession of firearms that do not have a serial number. It defines a serial number by referencing federal law, the National Firearms Act,” Doar told Alpha News. “The clear intent of the statute is to prohibit possession of unserialized firearms that fall within the National Firearms Act regulations, for example, automatic weapons and short barrel rifles. Because these weapons are required to be registered at the federal level, they must possess a serial number. The federal government does not prohibit the manufacture of firearms for personal use, and creates zero requirements for serializing personally manufactured firearms.

“It cannot possibly be construed to extend beyond those types of firearms, because before 1968 firearms were not required to even have serial numbers, but there’s been no question that those are still legal to own today. In fact, the Minnesota DNR auctions off serial-less firearms every year,” he added.

Well, Minnesota.  Is anyone surprised?

The prosecutor is taking a bad reading of poorly drafted legislation.  You think?

Basically, the prosecutor is a bad and unscrupulous lawyer (but I repeat myself) and is using a clearly unconstitutional law to score political points at the expense of an innocent man.  We’ve seen this before (case in point, Kyle Rittenhouse).  There are many other thousands of such cases.

But via reddit/Firearms, consider this wise decision by Judge Joseph Goodwin, U.S. District Judge in WV.

Assume, for example, that a law-abiding citizen purchases a firearm from a sporting goods store. At the time of the sale, that firearm complies with the commercial regulation that it bear a serial number. The law-abiding citizen takes the firearm home and removes the serial number. He has no ill intent and never takes any otherwise unlawful action with the firearm. Contrary to the Government’s argument that Section 922(k) does not amount to an “infringement” on the law-abiding citizen’s Second Amendment right, the practical application is that while the law-abiding citizen’s possession of the firearm was originally legal, it became illegal only because the serial number was removed. He could be prosecuted federally for his possession of it. That is the definition of an infringement on one’s right to possess a firearm.

The case against the innocent man from Minnesota will be dropped, or it will be appealed through the channels and eventually overturned, with the inferior courts spanked at some point in the process.

The prosecutor is advised to forget all about this and apologize for the trouble he caused.

On the larger issue of serial numbers, you’re aware why they case so much, yes?  You can’t have universal background checks without serial numbers.  The controllers are nothing is not and relentless good tacticians.

We have to be just as good and relentless.

Prior: The American Tradition of Self-Made Arms

Source.

A hunter in Montana killed a grizzly bear in self-defense last week, officials with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks report. The hunter was targeting black bears on a remote parcel of private land in the Madison Range backcountry when he was charged by the grizzly. He shot and killed the oncoming grizzly bear with a pistol on June 5 and notified MFWP that same day.

[ … ]

Looking beyond the northern Rockies, Alaska Wildlife Troopers reported another self-defense killing, this one involving a brown bear, over the weekend. Saturday’s incident involved 34-year-old Nicholas Abraham, who was hunting hares in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge when he was attacked by a brown bear sow with two cubs. Abraham shot and killed the bear with a .44 handgun and then drove himself to a hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

I had seen these two reports over other news outlets, and in none of them was the specific handgun and/or caliber mentioned for the first incident.

At least we know the round used in the second incident – .44 magnum.

This one is good.

But it doesn’t hold a candle to the excessive display of drama with this dog, apparently all for the purpose of getting attention.

We were going to do some horse riding one morning years ago (work riding), and when trying to catch and saddle one gelding, he played lame.  Or at least we thought he “played” lame.  More and more time went into trying to figure out what was going on, including hoof inspections, talking about getting a Ferrier out to look at him, and so on.

Finally, we consulted the more experienced, most seasoned horseman I knew, and he felt the horse was really lame, or at least had some bruising, and we shouldn’t ride him that day.  There were other horses to choose from.

We let him go, at which point to galloped off at full speed without so much as a limp.  We’d been had by a better actor than the two dogs above.

Part One

“7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. 9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?” – Genesis 4:7-9

We know the story of Cain and his brother Able, the first sons of Adam. God had respect for Able and his sacrificial offering and not for Cain. Cain became jealous and killed his brother, for which Cain was cursed, yet received mercy; God spared his life. Cain missed the covenant offer of God, as has, seemingly, every modern Christian who speaks of this passage.

There’s more to the simple story than those things the New Religion has taught us. And modernity, at the hand of its leaders, has done a very effective work of evil to purposefully destroy the family tribal unit. Look carefully at verse seven; there are three phrases. The first is straightforward: “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” When not distracted by the second, within the third, we find an incredible covenant offer from the Almighty to Cain, that of the elder brother toward his younger, pointing to the Fifth Commandment (Exodus 20:12) to come and ultimately to Christ. “And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”

The older brother’s responsibility is set forth; an immutable truth of our nature made in God’s own image is evident. The younger brother’s desire is toward his older brother, and so rule by authority is indicated, informal in the family structure but quite evident in nature, that older brothers have a serious responsibility. (So, too, do men and women more mature in their faith have duties toward the babe in Christ.) Their preferred inheritance position, the right of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15-17), is not only grace from God but appears contingent upon doing rightly toward God that not only the father and mother may well train the younger brother and all children.

It’s a blessing to see a family well raised, whose children are toward the first male, accepting his station over them in prayer and support that as the parents age, he may be the head, well pleasing in God’s sight. There are several examples in Scripture where the older son is unrighteous, and the younger gets the blessings. These are set forth, in part, as instruction by exception, a warning against disobedience to God’s design purposes for the family. The Left has so demolished the family design of God that these assertions may sound odd to the American ear.

The first two phrases in verse seven are the covenant blessings and curses. “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”

Within each covenant of God are blessings offered for well-doing and curses forwarned for sin against Him, a little instructed fact in the modern American churches that you would be well to heed and obey; study and teach your church and young.

Even as parents age, the eldest brother, if he is right with God and in good standing among men, shall hold the leadership role and dominant position, which extends to all the families that each sibling will birth. If taught, understood, and accepted, this simple fact of God’s created order will permanently bind the more extensive family into a tribe. Don’t allow children to marry somebody that doesn’t love God, obey Him, and like their siblings! The more we study the Scriptures, the more we learn that modernity has many subtly crafted deceptions pointing men to “go their own way” and “do their own thing.”

In many sections and demonstrations, the Bible shows the truth of God’s desire for tribal blood unity. There is no replacement for the family.

The common application is not to let the sun go down when in conflict with your brother. Be the bigger man, even if you are justified, and seek reconciliation, knowing that the object is for Christ to be glorified whether your brother receives you again unto himself or not. Christ said; forgive seven times seventy. The New Religion would say forgive them in your heart and be done with it, but that’s not what the Bible says; go to your brother and by much prayer seek in earnest, true communion in Christ one with another again. (Matthew 5:23-24, 18:22, etc.) The context of this post is family, sin in the church among the brethren (Matthew 18:15-17) is a somewhat different aspect. Still, it may well apply, the end of which may be deep regret, for sin can surely destroy a family, church, tribe, or nation, and has by many examples in the holy Bible, history, and today as witnessed by our own eyes.

To extrapolate the covenant offer, we’re on firm Scriptural authority as evident in nature. The older brother has duties from birth. This God calls blessings. But the poorly trained, woefully, and even negligently prepared Christian older brother today may consider the benefit of ruling over his younger brother a burden. The younger’s heart desires to be loved, taught, and led by his older brother; he seeks his older brother’s approval. When young and old alike are inadequately trained, the family-tribe structure is broken for generations to come setting the younger siblings, men and women, adrift.

Remember that the trouble started over faithful service to God and obedience to His law-word. So what of Cain? His younger brother did well, so Cain became wroth with anger, killing his own brother and committing the first murder. Cain should have been filled with joy at the faith of Able. The Fifth Commandment, as with all the commandments of God, do not present in a vacuum. Many instances highlight it in the law and prophets and even by Christ, which we’ll see.

In verse nine, Cain uttered the famous and oft-debated question to God: Am I my brother’s keeper? The debate went on in the Old Testament days and is ongoing today as to how this applies, but the context of the discussion needs to be understood. Christ, having fulfilled the law of the Fifth Commandment, we now salute each other as brothers and sisters in Christ for this reason.

——-

Part Two

“33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren? 34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! 35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” – Mark 3:33-35

If you study this section but leave out verse 35, you err. Jesus’ family came seeking to speak with Him. Far from rejecting his mother and siblings, Christ welcomes the brethren by obedience to the faith which is belief in the Father of all.

First, Jesus did not reject his family! If you’ve been taught this, as plainly as possible, we say flatly, that’s wrong. James (not the brother of John), also the son of Mary, became what would be the head of the church in Jerusalem by obedience to God through faith in Christ, his eldest brother. This would not have happened except with Christ’s blessing. Connect the dots to Cain and Able, for that was a point of Christ’s statement to the crowd who had been taught for dozens of generations about Cain’s transgression.

Secondly, God’s covenant purposes shown in Genesis four and Exodus 20 are not ended in the New Covenant but are being fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Of course, blood kin remains essential; Jesus in no way whatsoever ended the family but demands, by divine right, as the firstborn Son of God who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5) that He be obeyed not only by bloodline but by faith in our one heavenly Father. Jesus is the first raised from the dead, and so too, those birthed anew by the Spirit (Romans 6) are born again to follow Christ now and also resurrected from the dead at His return.

Christ’s role as the eldest heir, with us brethren, requires our acceptance, according to His preeminent power. The mind of the older brother is that we are taught well in all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). The good news is that Jesus isn’t Cain; the better you do in the faith, the more well-pleased He becomes; Cain’s error unto death becomes our benefit unto eternal life in Jesus Christ. Let the heart of the older siblings be likewise. By position, Christ is the firstborn Son, rightful heir to the throne, we being joint kingdom heirs with Him. Jesus Christ is the ultimate example that we should follow Him in faith.

Christianity is dependent on the person of Jesus Christ, and we should here insert, lest we fall into the New Religion ourselves or backtrack into the last century’s liberalism, that in no way is Jesus like unto sinful man. Quite the opposite; anything good in us is solely due to Christ’s sinlessness. He washed us from our sins so that one day, in eternity, we will be perfected, but unlike Jesus, we will always retain a moment of cleansing by faith in His power to save us from our sins. Though He is our eldest brother and Jesus calls us friends (if you keep His commandments), it’s not because He is like us, but because we are being remade into a son of God, yet only Jesus is holy and perfect without sin. We mustn’t regard Jesus as merely an example of a good man who pointed the way to have faith in God, but Jesus is the very object of the Christian faith, our Saviour and Redeemer.

We could note that Joseph, the husband of Mary and likely much older than her, though it’s not mentioned in Scripture, is likely dead by the time Jesus attains thirty years. But in any case, Jesus has no father but that which is above! Read what He said in Mark again; who is our father, the man who is from God by obedience to Christ! We know Jesus is God, but from the standpoint of His statement is speaking in the authority of the eldest Son.

The New Religion would state mealy-mouthed platitudes about how the Church can replace the family, but this is a lie straight from the pits of hell. (Neither can the State replace family.) Yes, faith in Christ may divide the unfit from the faithful; train your children with all seriousness, straight from the text of the Holy Bible, show the covenant foundation of the family and how sin, the greatest of which is a rejection of Christ, separates men from Father God and separates us from otherwise lost, yet beloved blood kin as well.

Fathers must take their role seriously as subordinate to the living God yet head of the family as its priest; without hyperbole, we contend that all civilization hangs in the balance. Open your holy Bible, get down on your knees, and implore the God of glory upon His throne, by the mercies of Christ Jesus, that He teaches you to do these things, to be steadfast day after day in training the generations to bring Him the glory.

Am I my brother’s keeper?

Third, the sons of perdition are not, emphatically and without backtracking, our brother. The workers of wickedness living in sin, though you might do good unto them from time to time as you ought, are not in the family of God, are not the sons of God, and are not the brothers of Christ; have ye no part whatsoever with them! “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother.” Your duty to them is to show them the Scripture, how that Christ died for their sins and was buried, and how He rose again on the third day from the grave according to Scripture; that if they have faith in His payment to God for their sin, and would be converted by Christ, God will save them from the wrath of hell. If your church is full of unrepentant sinners, throw them out, or go find a real church. Again, do good to lost man as you will, especially if called by God for the purpose of assisting the broken so that they may hear of Christ.

You are, without doubt, the keeper of your brother in the faith and those by the blood that they too may be of one faith with all the saints of God.

Therefore, examine the perils of a flippant attitude toward God’s law word or misunderstanding God’s covenant nature, and know that only through faith can your family, local church, and nation be saved. God’s indelible covenant impressions shown in Scripture by offering blessings and curses abound in all we do, and none can fare well in violating the New Covenant in Christ’s blood.

The life of the Christian is not about what you can get from God but what you can give. You can have the cross of the blood covenant in Christ, as seen from heaven’s holy hill, affixed to your family crest, the power of the resurrected Christ through the sword of God, which is His word emanating from all that your tribe says and does that when the sons of men look upon your family line they would know there is a righteous, just, Holy Spirit filled people, seeing that God is real, His power emanating from the men and women who walk according to the potency of the mandate of heaven. A mighty generational work will be done in those that pray rightly – calling down the power of heaven that Holy God would fill them with all that honors His exalted name – that they might walk in the truth and not depart from it.

This is one of those posts that could go much longer, and the topic is by no means exhausted but thus ends our writing here. Though God appears to judge America now, do a multi-generational work of righteousness in faith that the Kingdom of God, which now is, may stand the test through your family.

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Prior Notes to the Rebuilders: Warnings From The Wall, Every Christian is a Christian Nationalist, Restitution is the Law of God, Reaping the Whirlwind, The Effect of Righteousness.