Who is Joe Biden?

The TV news commentators have been buzzing a lot about whether Joe Biden is a moderate, centrist liberal or a radical socialist.  His wife said he is a moderate, and that he always has been.  However, the company he is keeping lately gives us to believe that he now favors the hard left positions of people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.  In fact, some people suspect that he is an electable front man for the hard left, who will be manipulated by them if he becomes our president.

That whole discussion is sort of amusing because it misses the point.  Putting it plainly, Joe Biden is a career minded opportunist.  He is a survivor and a cunning political insider who has lasted for a long time in elected office because he knows which side his bread is buttered on.  He is a poster boy for the kind of corruption and rot that has been ruining our country since the end of World War II.  The “former Vice President” has used political power to continue himself in office and accumulate wealth for himself and his family.

A political chameleon, Mr. Biden has been able to sense the way the wind is blowing, and he goes with the flow.  That is why Barack Obama has taken so long to give his support.  An ideological purist, Mr. Obama has never fully trusted Biden’s fealty to the progressive agenda.

Rightly so.  Joe Biden has no ideology, per se.  He thinks a lot of people want a big government nanny-state that can solve all our problems for us, (so we will not have to worry about them).  He thinks that people want the government to provide them with money and services from the cradle to the grave, so they will not have to meet the challenge of providing for themselves.  Mr. Biden sees giving these folks what they want as a way of keeping himself in a job.  Free bread and circuses for Rome.

However, no one can say how we will be able to pay for it.  Over the long-term, the middle class will gradually fade away.  Everyone will be equal … equally poor. (Winston Churchill)  The opportunity for upward mobility will cease.  America will become a bankrupt failed state.

The power brokers behind the scenes selected Kamala Harris to be Joe Biden’s running mate as a matter of pragmatic political expedience.  They think likable old Joe can carry the centrist vote, while Sen. Harris can bring along the hard left wing of the party.  Kamala Harris savaged Mr. Biden in the Democratic primary debates, and the word on her is that she is “hard to work with.”  However, like Joe Biden, she is also a self-serving political opportunist who is thought to be a person who will not break ranks when the pressure is on.  A degree of skepticism is justified on that point, but the bottom line is that Kamala Harris can be depended upon to do what she thinks is best for Kamala Harris.

Compare Kamala Harris’ mean-spirited ruthlessness with the genuine decency of Vice President Spence.  Who do you want to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

It is up to you.  President Trump may not be your ideal president, but do you want the kind of people the Democrats are offering to run things?  I don’t.  Vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.  They may not always be right, but they are trying to serve the country and not themselves.

Ancient Wisdom for Today

King David’s son, Solomon, succeeded his father as ruler of Israel and Judea, (around 950 BC). (1)  My mother told me about his wisdom when I was a young boy.  She was fond of the Biblical account of how, when he could have asked God for anything, he asked for the wisdom to rule justly.  She loved the explanation of how he demonstrated God’s gift of wisdom when he determined who the real mother of a baby was by finding out which of the two women who claimed the baby really loved the child. (1Kings 3)

Solomon was the primary human author of the book of Proverbs.  He also wrote Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon.  Chapters 1-9 of Proverbs are written like a legacy of wisdom that a father is passing down to his son.  Since all scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, today we can understand it in terms of God speaking to us.

In these troubled times, we can take what follows as instruction from God about why things aren’t working out so well, and how, with God’s help, we can fix them.  Please hear what God is saying to us, and take it to heart:

How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?

How long will mockers delight in mockery

and fools hate knowledge?

Repent at my rebuke!

Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,

I will make known to you my teachings.

But since you refuse to listen when I call

and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,

since you disregard all my advice

and do not accept my rebuke,

I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you;

I will mock when calamity overtakes you—

when calamity overtakes you like a storm,

when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,

when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

“Then they will call to me, but I will not answer;

they will look for me but will not find me,

since they hated knowledge

and did not choose to fear the Lord.

Since they would not accept my advice

and spurned my rebuke,

they will eat the fruit of their ways

and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,

and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

but whoever listens to me will live in safety

and be at ease, without fear of harm.” (emphasis added)

(Proverbs 1:22-33 NIV) (2)

God is patient, loving, and kind.  He has withheld punishment for our self-indulgence and willful sins.  At present, He simply is allowing us to reap the evil that we sow; to experience the natural and logical consequences of the way we are living.  For the sake of those who belong to Him, He has arranged for believers to escape His coming wrath.  (Revelation 3:10)  When we who believe are taken up to be with Jesus in the air, the time of judgement will come to those who are left behind.  Please believe in Jesus.  Ask Him to live in you, and give control of your life to Him, today.  

(1) Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, General Editors. The Moody Bible Commentary.  Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. 2014. (p. 883)

(2)  https://biblehub.com/niv/proverbs/1.htm

Gun Control 2020

Persons of differing opinion are entrenched in their beliefs about gun control, and very few people seem to be willing to fully attend to the other side’s point of view.  So, what’s the use?  Why try to discuss it at all?  Persons for gun control work to rally likeminded people to vote for their political candidates.  Those of us who oppose gun control do the same.

Wins for either side are temporary, and they last only until the other side has the political leverage to overturn them.  Both sides fight it out in court.  Consequently, the struggle goes on and on.

I do not expect to sway anyone who wants gun control to my point of view.  I hope, however, to convince those who oppose gun control that it is vital for them to get out and vote for candidates who have shown through past behavior that they will protect our right to keep and bear arms.  It would be an added bonus if I could help undecided people to decide to support pro 2^nd Amendment candidates.

Let me say first that Democratic Party candidates cannot be believed when, like Barack Obama, they say that they do not want to take away our guns.  Their ultimate goal is to eliminate the private ownership of firearms in America, and to confiscate and destroy our guns.

The Democrats, and others, will try to accomplish their anti-gun agenda incrementally, by passing “reasonable” laws and rules that they say will make us all safer.  They tell us that our constitutional rights are not unlimited, and that the government has a right to regulate their exercise.  I believe that the courts have ruled that our constitutional rights may be regulated when their exercise violates the rights of others.  Just remember that when those rules and laws fail, as indeed they will, the failure will be used as a rationale for even more restrictive laws and rules.  It will continue until we are disarmed completely.

The following shows that what I am saying is true.  During the general election in 2012, Colorado Democrats won control of both houses of the state legislature.  The governor was also Democrat.  The very first thing they did after being sworn in was to pass four new laws that restricted the right of Coloradoans to keep and bear arms.  Apparently, nothing had a higher priority for them.

The 2^nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:  “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  The Supreme Court has ruled that the 2^nd Amendment applies to everybody, not just to members of the national guard.

We already have laws that regulate gun owners.  Examples include background checks, the minimum legal age for buying firearms, and how guns can be sold.  Only those who have a federal firearms license may own fully automatic firearms.  Most states and many municipalities restrict open and concealed carry.  The list is too lengthy to report here.  These laws and rules have done little to deter violent crime.  Even in the case of mass shootings, many of the perpetrators obtained the guns they used by legal means.

In a recent article, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA/ILA) reported:

            Biden continues to boast about his role as lead sponsor on the Senate crime
            bill that that contained the 1994 Clinton ban on commonly-owned
            semiautomatic firearms and magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds.
            The ban was allowed to expire in 2004 after a federally-funded study
            determined that ‘the ban’s effects on gun violence are likely to be small at best
            and perhaps too small for reliable measurement.’ Despite this record of failure,
            in 2007 Sen. Biden introduced S.2237. This legislation would have reinstated
            the so-called ‘assault weapons’ ban. (1)

Undeterred by the fact that the ban didn’t work, the “lefties” still want to try it again, and this in spite of the fact that they cannot describe what an assault weapon is well enough to craft a meaningful law.

If elected in November, our former vice president will try to do more than ban so-called assault weapons.  In fact he favors confiscating semiautomatic AR-15’s and AK-47’s, which are widely used by American civilians for target shooting, shooting competitions, home defense, and some types of hunting.  As proof of the forgoing, take note of Mr. Biden’s declaration that, if elected, he will put Robert F. “Beto” O’Rourke in charge of gun control.  As a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, O’Rourke vowed to confiscate AR-15’s and AK-47’s:

            Moments after former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke — 
            who promised in a September debate to take away legally purchased
            assault rifles if elected — endorsed Joe Biden’s White House run, the former
            vice president promised to name the Texan as his point man on gun control.

            ‘I want to make something clear; I’m going to guarantee you this is not the
             last you’ve seen of him,’ Biden said Monday evening during a campaign rally
             in Dallas. ‘You’re going to take care of the gun problem with me. You’re going to
             be the one who leads this effort.’

             ‘I’m counting on you. I’m counting on you,’ Biden continued. ‘We need you
             badly, the state needs you, the country needs you. You’re the best.’

             He (O’Rourke) notably railed against (semi) automatic weapons during
             a presidential debate in September and reiterated his backing of a mandatory
             gun buyback program, saying such weapons were ‘designed to kill on
             the battlefield.’
            
             ‘Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,’ O’Rourke said.
             ‘We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans
             anymore.’ (2)

The antigun activists will never stop.  They lack the popular support needed to repeal the 2^nd Amendment, so they try other ways to limit our ability to own guns and use them.  They use lawsuits against gun manufacturers to raise their cost of doing business, which drives the price of firearms up.  They regulate gun retailers out of business through aggressive auditing and unreasonable recordkeeping requirements.  The federal government’s purchasing practices create artificial shortages of ammunition and reloading components, discouraging recreational shooting and driving prices up.  There have been efforts to ban certain types of commonly used hunting ammunition because they contain lead (toxic) or are solid copper alloy that can be construed to be “armor piercing.”  (This temporarily threatened to leave California hunters without ammunition that they could legally hunt with.)  There are plans to sell off federally administered public land, or to give it to the various states.  The result would be that many hunters would not have a place to hunt or to target practice.  There is much more to tell, but I need to respect your time.

Drug dealers make fortunes selling illegal drugs in nearly every community in the country, and violent crime goes hand-in-hand with the illicit drug trade.  Street gangs engage in open warfare in some of our cities, and the numbers of dead and wounded exceed those in Afghanistan.  We have new words in our vocabulary that were not there before, words like carjacking and home invasion.  One of the most dangerous places our children can be is in a public school.  Yet, the Democrats who control city and state governments have recently allowed violent riots to go unchecked, and they have prevented the police from protecting life and property.  Is it any wonder that many Americans believe they cannot rely on their government for protection?  But … what happens when we defend ourselves?

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has charged Attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey with Felony Unlawful Use of a Weapon for threatening the use of firearms  when a crowd of protesters were encroaching on their property. (3)  The McCloskeys say that the protesters were menacing them and their property.  In an interview by Sean Hannity on Fox News (streamed 08/03/2020), Mr. McCloskey said that some of the protesters were armed.  It seems like this leftist Circuit Attorney is making an example out of the McCloskeys, to show us all that if we use firearms to defend ourselves … we will go to jail.  So, is it folly to arm ourselves because we will be prosecuted if we use firearms to defend our lives and property?

What the Democrats have blurted out on their own makes my case for me.  It looks like they have nothing but contempt for the U.S. Constitution and see it as an inconvenience that just gets in their way.  You cannot vote for them if you want to keep your constitutional rights.  Remember, if they can take away one constitutional right, they can take all of them … and eventually that is what big government will do.

(1)  https://www.nraila.org/articles/20200316/on-guns-joe-biden-is-full-of-it

(2)  https://nypost.com/2020/03/03/joe-biden-promises-to-put-beto-orourke-in-charge-of-gun-control/

(3) https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/20/st-louis-couple-who-aimed-guns-protesters-charged-with-felony-weapons-count/

Be Ready

Just before He was crucified, Jesus ate the Passover meal with His disciples.  We call it the Last Supper, at which He taught us how to take Communion.  His disciples were upset because He told them He was going away, and He spoke many words of comfort to them, including:

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father’s house are many mansions;

if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am, there you may be also.

(John 14:1-3 NKJV) *

Bible prophesy tells us what things will be like when Jesus comes to gather His believers out of the earth to be with him in the air (2Thessalonians 2:3-12), and what the Rapture will be like (1Thessalonians 4:13-17).  The Last Days will be troubled times, which Jesus described in Matthew, Chapter 24.  However, the saved, born again Christian does not need to be afraid when Jesus appears.  Paul tells us that we should find comfort in the promise of His return. (1Thessalonians 4:18) *

Jesus cautioned us to be ready ... repeatedly.  He warned us that those who were not ready when He comes will be left behind:

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins

who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,

but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

“And at midnight a cry was heard:

‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’

Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said to the wise,

‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’

But the wise answered, saying,

‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you;

but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came,

and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding;

and the door was shut.

 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’

But he answered and said,

‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

“Watch therefore,

for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

(Matthew 25:1-13 NKJV) *

Look around you.  Does what you see resemble the descriptions of the Last Days in the Holy Bible?  Jesus will come again, just as He promised.  If you are a saved, born again Christian, you do not need to be afraid that you will be left behind when Jesus takes us to be with Him where He is.  He has prepared a home for us in heaven.  He has filled our lamps with the oil of His righteousness.  All we must do to receive salvation it is to believe and accept it.  If you are not saved, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and make Him the ruler of your life today.  Then you will be ready.

* https://biblehub.com/

Two Wrongs and the Answer

On the face of it, evidence shows that a police officer in Minneapolis applied excessive physical force during a police contact with an African American citizen of the United States of America, resulting in his death.  The officer has been fired and charged with murder.

Following this incident, protest demonstrations have erupted across the country, which have turned violent.  Property has been destroyed, looting has occurred, and there have been shootings.  Some of those shot have been killed, including children.  Rocks, Molotov cocktails, liquids, and other missiles have been thrown at the police.  Some police officers have been beaten, and others have been shot at.  A few have died as a result of the injuries they have received.

Everyone is blaming everyone else.  People are looking to their political leaders for solutions.  One side wants to “defund” the police.  The other side wants government action to suppress the violence.  Depending on your point of view, in November you will have the opportunity to vote for candidates that you think will take the correct course of action, and you should.

However, I would like to suggest that we also take a long look at ourselves and the direction our society has been taking for the last 55 years.  Have we turned away from God and His ways?  Have we rushed headlong into satisfying the wants and desires of our own sinful natures?  The Holy Bible sheds light on that:

What causes fights and quarrels among you?

Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

You desire but do not have, so you kill.

You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.

You do not have because you do not ask God.

When you ask, you do not receive,

because you ask with wrong motives,

that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3 NIV) *

What must we then do?  Senator Ted Cruz often quoted this Bible verse, during his 2016 run for the presidency:

if my people, who are called by my name,

will humble themselves and pray and seek my face

and turn from their wicked ways,

then I will hear from heaven,

and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2Chronicles 7:14 NIV) *

When we pray, Jesus Christ intercedes with God the Father and pleads our case with Him:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,

Jesus the Son of God,

let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses,

but we have one who has been tempted in every way,

just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence,

so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

(Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV) *

It is high time that we repent, as individuals and as a people, and turn back to God:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins

and purify us from all unrighteousness.

If we claim we have not sinned,

we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1John 1:9 NIV)

Then we will be able to rejoice with the Psalmist:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.  (Psalm 121:1-8 NIV) *

Please remember what we learned as children.  Two wrongs do not make a right.

* https://biblehub.com/

Climate Change 2020

How can you tell when it is really cold out?  The politicians have their hands in their own pockets.

Measurements of the earth’s atmospheric temperature show that it is warming.  Physical and historical evidence like core samples of polar ice, a general warming during the Viking era, and ice ages show that atmospheric warming and cooling are cyclical.  Some scientists believe, however, that the current temperature increase is worse than previous warming cycles, and that it is worse now because of the amount of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants in the atmosphere.

Earth’s atmosphere is also warmed and cooled by natural phenomenon like solar activity, ocean currents, volcanos, and dust storms.  Still, some scientists have developed computer models which show that warming would continue if all these natural variables were removed from the calculation.  Their computer models also show that global warming will continue to worsen unless the discharge of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere is severely reduced or eliminated.  It is said that there will be disastrous ecological consequences if current levels of atmospheric pollution continue.

Some people, including a few scientists who dare to buck the system, question whether computer models are accurately able to predict future climate change.  The problem is that the programming used in creating computer models is so complicated that the results cannot be replicated.  That is, these tests cannot be replicated and repeated with the same result.  Therefore, it is difficult to show that the models are reliable with scientific certainty.  Unlike traditional research, computer models do not show that when “A” occurs, “B” will also occur in 999 out of 1,000 cases, and that these outcomes are not due to chance.

Nevertheless, computer modeling is being used increasingly because it faster than traditional research, and it has been shown to be predictive some of the time.  Think about the television reporting you see on hurricanes.  Computer models are used to anticipate the storm’s path and strength.  The information reported can differ to a certain extent depending on which model is used, and that may also be reported.  The behavior of the hurricane usually follows one of the computer models, but at times it does not.  Computer models are used by designers, businesspeople, and astronomers.  They have been applied to such widely diverse fields as predicting fish populations and election results.

It is a mistake to dismiss computer modeling as “junk science.”  It is also a mistake to give it the same weight as traditional scientific research, which can be replicated.  Put plainly, you cannot be completely confident in the scientific rigor of computer modeling.

Does that mean that computer modeling cannot be used in decision making?  No, it does not.  It is used in decision making all the time.  All I am saying is that it may not be wise to use computer modeling alone, without extensive corroborating evidence, when making decisions that will significantly impact the prosperity, security, and wellbeing of 325 million people.

What Progressives and Democratic Socialists like Alexandria Osasio-Cortez (and others) are telling us, fellow citizens, is that if the United States of America does not unilaterally and immediately take drastic action to stop polluting the atmosphere by burning carbon based fuels, the world as we know it will be destroyed in a decade.  I do not believe that.  There isn’t enough reliable evidence to convince me that is true, or that America could stop it from happening by herself.

The immediate prohibition of the use of fossil fuels would end to our ability to produce food and bring it to market.  It would be a risk to public health by curtailing our ability to heat our homes in the winter or cool them in the summer.  If efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses are not undertaken by all nations together in an “evenhanded” way, if America does it alone, we will become even less competitive with trading partners like China and India, who get major economic advantages from being huge polluters.

The American way of life would change dramatically … for the worse.  Americans’ ability to travel freely, commute to work, and recreate in our wonderful outdoor places would be severely diminished.  If you live in New York, how would you like it if you had to get the permission of a government bureaucrat to visit your family in Kansas, travel to California on business, or vacation in Florida?  What would the impact be on our standard of living if America unilaterally and drastically reduced its “carbon footprint?”  Once again, the policies of the Progressives and Democratic Socialists appear to be a high road to less freedom and prosperity.

One way to get more political power is to create a false public perception of a crisis that threatens our very existence, and then to obtain special, extra-constitutional powers for the government to deal with it.  From past experience, we know this to be a favorite tactic of the Progressives and Democratic Socialists who want to control every aspect of our citizens’ lives.

Climate change is real.  As an outdoorsman, I have observed evidence of it personally.  So, what are we going to do about it?  I will vote for candidates who say they will work for fair, evenhanded agreements with other countries to reduce everyone’s current, excessive dumping of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants into the atmosphere.  I will not vote for radical liberals who want to seize extra-constitutional power to force the American people into poverty and subservience to the government.

Where do you stand?  How will you vote in November?  It is important for you to inform yourself from impartial sources, and to make decisions from facts that can be proven.  Please be careful. Sources that should be impartial, like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), often are not.

Unintended Consequences

Physics teaches us that actions are followed by reactions.  Sometimes the reactions are not what was intended.

Stephen the Martyr was taken by force and brought before the Jewish ruling council (Sanhedrin) for faithfully testifying to salvation by belief in Jesus Christ:

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.

And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

Then they secretly induced men to say,

“We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes;

and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.

They also set up false witnesses who said,

“This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”

And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him,

saw his face as the face of an angel. (ACTS 6:8-15 NKJV) *

Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?” (Acts7:1 NKJV) *

After a lengthy account of the History of Israel, Stephen fearlessly summarized his defense with a scathing indictment.  Then he was stoned to death:

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears!

You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One,

of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,

who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”

When they heard these things they were cut to the heart,

and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God,

and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said,

“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man

standing at the right hand of God!”

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears,

and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying,

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Now Saul (later the Apostle Paul) was consenting to his death.

(Acts 7:51-60, 8:1 NKJV) *

Following the death of Stephen, Christians were aggressively persecuted in Jerusalem:

At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem;

and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria,

except the apostles.  And devout men carried Stephen to his burial,

and made great lamentation over him.  As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. (Acts 8:1-3 NKJV) *

The rulers intended to destroy Christianity.  Instead, their persecution was the means by which it spread:

Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.  And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.  For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

And there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:4-6 NKJV) *

You can persecute Christians, but you cannot silence the Holy Spirit.  You can kill the bodies of men and women, but the faith they died for will live on.

* biblehub.com/nkjv/acts (parenthetical notes added)