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WELL, HE SAID IT ALL!

You're right, Jesus was the first punk! His entire life was one big protest to the tyrannical, money and hate based society. It was a quiet riot of love.

HE WAS PUNK RAWK AS HELL

And it is difficult balancing faith with a punk lifestyle for so many reasons... First off, people's modern day, skewed views of what is and isn't punk are so exhausting. Not to mention the elitists and their bizarre and inaccurate"requirements"... like I need to meet requirements to be a rebel! HILARIOUS!

A lot of people in the scene will make you feel like you don't belong. But rest assured, no matter what religion you are, you belong here. We accept you. And if some "punks" don't, ignore em. They're not punk anyway.

It's difficult with faith, too. Religious people look at ya like ya have three heads when you walk into a Bible Study decked in two inch long spiked arm bands and a patch jacket. That's part of the reason I hate going to churches. There isn't one I have walked into and haven't been stared at...

I used to go to a Christian homeschool group in middle school that took place in a church. I wore all black every day, it was at the very beginning of my alt journey. My entire class cornered me one day and interviewed me on whether I was going goth or not. None of them had ever spoken to me before, they completely ignored me... except this one emo girl who would sit with me occasionally. Asked how I was. Talk to me about anime and whatnot. Treated me like I was normal. That is when I think I began to understand who my people were... who would accept and be there for me. I mean, at the time, I didn't even know what goth meant... but it clicked in me. I took the label. Then I went home and started researching whatever this "goth" thing was🤣🤣🤣

I went on that rant to say: if you're a Christian and you're goth, emo, punk, metal- whatever! You don't have to deny one half of your identity to accept the other. God put the desire in you to be who you are and not apologize for it. That is not a desire born of sin... that is your fingerprint. Your own unique self. Don't toss it away just because some people told you that being YOU isn't acceptable. Screw acceptable.

Be yourself. Don't apologize for it, either.

It's what you were made for.

im curious, how does being punk affect your feeling of religion? are you still a practicing catholic/go to church?

Hahahahahaha oh boy, buckle in cause this is gonna be a fun ride. I’ll put a cut cause this is gonna be long simply due to the amount of context that is needed to understand how I’ve managed to mash these two things together in my life. I hope this answers your question anon! (And thank you for asking nicely, that usually isn’t the reaction I get).

So, for reference, I am Catholic born and raised. My mom is Catholic, my dad is only recently exploring being religious. My brother has remained a Catholic good boy throughout his life, my sister has denounced religion. I’m somewhere between them. I don’t go to church often, but I still feel at home there when I do (most of the time). So technically, I’m not a ‘Practicing Catholic’ because of that, but I’m following my faith to the best of my ability (explained below).

I 100% believe there is a god, and because of that my faith has had some rough intersections with other parts of my life, such as being punk, the communities Im a part of, and being heavily involved in STEM. And those are things that took me years to figure out for myself. When just looking at being punk though, I think where it really clicked that punk wasn’t against my religion, but actually supports it, was in my freshman year of college. Like I’ve said before, I go to a Protestant school so every class has to somehow have at least one connection to religion (as a chemistry major this can get extremely annoying). But that year, I had a history class as a gen ed, Western Civ to 1450, and an absolutely kick ass professor to go with it. 

This class was the game changer for 18 year old me (oh my god that was 5 years ago). We spent a lot of time in this class talking about religions of ancient civilizations, and of course we talked about Christianity. And this man went absolutely feral. He was the man that introduced me to the concept of ‘Jesus was a punk’. And when you ignore all the random bull shit that comes out of people’s mouths at church and just look at the bible... yeah, he was right. Jesus flipped tables, he ate with societal outcasts like prostitutes and the homeless, and god did he hate the Roman government that controlled so much of the world at that time. 

And I think that’s when I really felt free to embrace the punk culture. The one thing that was holding me back was gone. I also later learned that professor had a metal band (I’m now going to have to try to find his youtube again lol - its been years). 

But yeah, being punk and religious in 2022 is hard. Its hard because the people who claim to be Christians are ignorant, refuse to learn, don’t know the context of the book they call holy, refuse to understand where Christianity stems from and our roots in Judaism, and keep trying to interpret the bible in a modern world (the bible can’t tell you shit about the evils of the internet man). I don’t particularly like going to church because I often find that its a snake pit disguised as a hospital. Though, that’s nothing new, if you ever take the time to read Romans (my favorite part of the bible), its full of Paul just absolutely loosing his ever loving shit because of how corrupt the churches are. 

So instead of going to church once every seven days and conforming to the rest of the vipers there, I try to live my life by Jesus’ standards for interacting with others. Be kind and forgiving, try to understand other points of view, don’t discriminate based on job, color, socioeconomic status, gender, how many kids, ect. Moral of the story, in my opinion, to be a good Christian, you need to treat people as people, and welcome them with open arms. You need to give back to your community. You need to fight for a better world. You need to push back against oppressive and authoritarian governments. And those are all punk values as well.

This is the PDF of my article——published in the Journal of Higher Criticism, volume 13, number 3 (Fall 2018)——entitled, “The Birth, Death, and Resurrection of Christ According to the Greek New Testament Epistles.”

linkedin.com

Eli Kittim posted on LinkedIn

This is the PDF of my article--published in the Journal of Higher Criticism, vol. 13, no. 3 (Fall 2018)--entitled, "The Birth, Death, a

The Quran Mirrors the Bible: Surah 3.55 Echoes Revelation 12.5

By Author & Bible Researcher Eli Kittim 🎓

——-

Surah 3.55 (Quran)

Lo! Allah said: “O Isa (Jesus)! Verily, I shall

cause thee to die, and shall raise thee up

unto Me … unto the Day of Resurrection.

——-

Revelation 12.4-5 (Bible)

Then the dragon stood before the woman

who was about to bear a child, so that he

might devour her child as soon as it was

born. And she gave birth to a son [Jesus], a

male child, who is to rule all the nations

with a rod of iron. But her child was

snatched away and taken to God and to his

throne.

——-

Commentary

The reference to the “great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns” (Rev. 12.3) indicates that this event is taking place in the end-times. That’s because the 10 horns are said to “make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them” (Rev. 17.12-14) at the end of the age! So, the temporal juxtaposition of the “great red dragon” with the pregnant woman (Rev. 12.2) signifies that the dragon and the pregnant woman are contemporaries. In other words, they exist at the same point in time. The idea that “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child [Jesus], so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born” (Rev. 12.4) means that the dragon wanted to put the newborn to death. The sequence of events continues as follows (Rev. 12.5):

she gave birth to a son [Jesus], a male

child, who is to rule all the nations with a

rod of iron. But her child was snatched

away and taken to God and to his throne.

Curiously enough, the verse doesn’t deny that the newborn was killed. It only affirms that he was subsequently “snatched away” or raptured unto God. The Greek word ἡρπάσθη comes from ἁρπάζω (harpazó), which is the same word used in 1 Thess. 4.17 for the rapture! But this is also a reference to the resurrection of the dead, which occurs simultaneously with the rapture (see 1 Thess. 4.16-17). Incidentally, in this context, the term τέκνον or child seemingly refers to both a spiritual and a physical birth. Given the development of the passage, coupled with the said activities of the “son” (υἱόν)——i.e. dying, ascending to heaven, and so on——it’s quite obvious that, technically speaking, the child (Jesus) is not an infant. Thus, the biblical jargon suggests the initial physical appearance of Jesus on the world stage, who is spiritually born (or reborn) in God.

Revelation 12 clearly indicates that these are all end-time events. For example, cosmic “war broke out in heaven” (12.7). It’s also the time when Satan will be incarnated as the Antichrist & the kingdom of God “and the authority of his Messiah” will come into full view (Rev. 12.10). Further proof is given by the allusion to the Great Tribulation (Rev. 12.14), which lasts for 42 months or 3 and one half years (cf. Dan. 7.25; 12.7; Rev. 11.2; 13.5). Revelation 12.13-14 informs us that the dragon then persecuted the people of God——represented by the woman, the mother church, as it were——but they were protected for 3 and one half years:

[the dragon] pursued the woman who had

given birth to the male child [Jesus]. But the

woman was given the two wings of the

great eagle, so that she could fly from the

serpent into the wilderness, to her place

where she is nourished for a time, and

times, and half a time.

Conclusion

So what does it mean? Revelation 12 is basically telling us that the child Jesus is born in the end-times and dies soon thereafter. Then, the implication is that he is raised from the dead and “snatched away” into heaven. Since the rapture and the resurrection of the dead occur simultaneously, and since this event takes place in the end-times, it must happen during the so-called “Great day of Resurrection,” when all the dead who ever lived will come back to life (cf. Dan. 12.1-2; 1 Thess. 4.16-17; 1 Cor. 15.22-24)!

Surprisingly, that’s precisely what the Quran implies as well. Surah 3.55 seems to say that Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension will take place in the end-times, during the Day of Resurrection:

Lo! Allah said: “O Isa (Jesus)! Verily, I shall cause thee to die, and shall raise thee up unto Me … unto the Day of Resurrection.

Therefore, Surah 3.55 (Quran) seems to echo Revelation 12.5 (Bible).

——-